Getting Back to Normal

Well, we are still a bit sluggish and having to be careul what foods we choose to eat, but all and all we are well again.

Ellie returned home late Wednesday morning and has loved being home and watching her crazy family again. We missed her so much while she was away, but now that she is home and healthy we know it was the right thing. If she had gotten this awful virus, then we would have had to take our sweet littlest girl to the hospital, and unlike Lizzie, they would have kept her there.

As it was, Allen and myself contemplated calling an ambulance several times throughout the first 24 hours of our being ill. We were too weak to walk, stand, or even sit-up. There were other more troubling aspects to this illness, but I will spare you the details, and spare my stomach from being reminded of them. Thank you to those that prayed for us. My fever did reach 103, but broke that same night and by the next evening was gone.

You know, I have thought the past year that I was a fairly careful mother when it came to germs. I didn't want to be crazy germ-killer-must-sanitize-everything-lady, but after this experience I know why some people are. To think that perhaps a few extra squirts of some good ol' hand sanitizer might have prevented all of this (or not since somehow kids seem to find germs so easily and not always when you are looking). However, I have learned my lesson that trips to the mall (since that is where I am convinced Lizzie aquired this lovely little bug) will always call for a lathering of hand sanitizer throughout the trip and possibly even a bath when we get home, at least until the memory of this weeks journey are somewhat more distant.

It is my prayer that as you read this that you too are well and that you remain so for many moons to come.

Now a cute picture of little Ellie sporting her winter hat and greeting you with a classic Ellie smile, as only she can do.