Welp – like every month, I’m late posting what’s new here with Henry. Honestly, the 10th month was hard. At first I thought it wasn’t worth celebrating, but I was so wrong.
It’s all kind of a blur. Only a couple of weeks after Henry and I got over the flu in January, Jesse and I caught a stomach bug. I always go back and forth on which is worse – the flu or a bug, but they’re both horrible. They both wipe you out and make you feel miserable. Jesse and I were confident that we got sick because we ate something bad. Hopeful that Henry was in the clear, we went about our day as usual. And then I got a message from a friend saying her son was throwing up after a play date at our house. And not long after Henry threw up. Henry had not been acting like himself that week – fussy and needy. I knew something wasn’t right, so I had already made an appointment for him that evening. We found out what we kind of already knew – stomach bug. We received instructions to keep him hydrated. He woke up with a 103 fever that night. The next day he wasn’t any better so we went back to the doctor, only to hear that everything was still checking out okay and we should keep doing what we had been. That night he woke up a little after midnight with a 104.4 fever and threw up. Green. Green throw up. That’s not normal – especially when he hadn’t eaten anything! The doctor told us we could go to the ER or we could wait till the morning, but he needed x-rays. His fever broke and he was resting, so we waited till the morning. I was secretly hoping he’d be better and we wouldn’t need to go. But the fever was back, so after a sleepless night we went to the hospital and got x-rays and then went to our pediatrician. The x-rays were clear. She ran some tests and he had the flu. Again. And the start of an ear infection. And he was cutting teeth on the top. And he had the stomach bug. All in a matter of days. That’s like hitting a cycle or something, but not as exciting.
It was just a hard week. And it always takes us a while to get back into our rhythm. Y’all – I want to avoid anything difficult and find the easy way out, but when you’re caring for a little human you just can’t. All I could do was pray and ask for help. I look back at that week and where I usually would have felt overwhelmed and cried, I made it through with strength and endurance. When I knew I was sick and Henry was getting sick I asked the Lord for those things. I needed strength, physically, because after throwing up I felt weak. And I needed endurance, because it was going to take a while for Henry to feel better and he needed my care. And joy – because let’s be honest, when I haven’t slept I get cranky and selfish. The Lord provided all those things. Our little family made it through. I didn’t get all “woe is me”, Jesse and I didn’t get cranky and mad at each other, and by the end of that weekend Henry was back to normal! When Henry woke up with a 104.4 fever, I sent a text out to my home group girls and another friend. One friend was up with her little babe and able to pray. One friend had just randomly woken up a few minutes before I sent the text. And another friend was up and praying just as his fever was breaking. I’m confident that the Lord had them up to pray over Henry at those times.
So as hard as month 10 was, I can look back and rejoice at how the Lord worked and taught us more about himself. He really does sustain us. He is enough. And He is good.
Henry is so great. And every day I’m just so blown away by how cute and sweet and precious he is. He’s strong willed and stubborn and funny and determined. He stands on his own – each day he gets a little better. He loves to feed himself. He loves to flirt with ladies at the store. And he loves to stand in the Target shopping cart. I don’t love that.
We’re almost done with month 11. I can’t even believe it. I’ve been trying to process all the things I’ve learned the past year, and it’s a lot! Hopefully I’ll be able to process it all and write it down, so that I can go back and remember how kind God has been to us.
The McKee House 
being a parent is tough stuff. it’s cool that you’re learning so much in the process. thanks for sharing… for the reminders about the importance of crying out to Him when we’re in need of more, and the importance of reaching out to others. all about humility, knowing that we can’t do it alone. good good good!