Wiped out.

I'm tired.

It's been a long week physically.

On Sunday of this week I woke up feeling horrible. But, I had to teach Sunday school at church so there was no relief in the form of staying in bed all day. I went, and taught, and pushed through the nausea and came home hoping to rest my achy body only to realize that Isaak was gone for the day overseeing the elections that were being held here. So I pushed through the day with the girls as best I could and collapsed into a heap come bed time.

And unfortunately Monday was no better. Mondays here have no mercy on the weary. The dawn of the new day breaks whether you are ready for it or not...and 5:30am seems to feel extra cruel when I've been sick.

Waves of nausea and stomach pain rolled over me all day.
Pounding headache.

But....life moves on.

There is Marvelly to care for, her schooling to do, chores to be done, homework when Sydaleigh gets home, people to answer to, places to go, dinner to cook....

...life keeps moving. You really have no choice but to move with it.

By Wednesday I was feeling greatly improved so Marvelly and I spent a few hours at the orphanage in the morning.

I love going there. But it is tiring on the body no doubt. There are so many little children to hold, always jumping and climbing on you. Whenever I leave it feels like my body was run over by a train...my muscles tight and sore from being constantly used. Or maybe I'm just really out of shape? That could also definitely be a possibility.

Late Wednesday night though I woke up feeling like my stomach was trying to eat me alive.
I kept wishing I could see through my skin, sure that a viscous creature with large fangs and sharp claws was having a field day tearing me apart.

I was up all night, no comfort or relief to be found....5:30am taunting me, drawing ever closer, wishing it away, knowing that once that alarm sounds there is no hope for rest until the following night. But somewhere in the early morning after getting Sydaleigh off to school, I did manage to squeeze in an hour of sleep, and woke feeling some relief.

So, back to the orphanage me and Marvelly went. They were having a special Christmas party for the kids and I told them I would bring some cookies to help celebrate.

When I am there, everything else happening seems to fall to the wayside somehow. You are so busy with the children, there is no time to think of anything else.

But as soon as we got in the car to leave....my stomach started torturing me again. Or maybe it was the whole time and I just didn't notice. It's hard to notice anything else besides the kids because they are so consuming.

The remainder of the day passed in waves of pain and then relief. Pain. Relief. Pain. Relief.

But again...life keeps moving.

Sydaleigh had a Christmas concert at school in the evening which I was sure I was going to die on the way too. :~) I didn't.

By the time we got home that night I was wiped. But me and Isaak had a date to watch a movie in bed so I could rest but still try to hang out and I couldn't wait to crawl into my cozy covers and do nothing.....

but as life would have it....

Marvelly got sick.

As soon as she crawled into bed, she crawled right back out to throw up in the sink. (The sink which I had my scarf soaking in because Anna had thrown up on it earlier in the day. Now it was doubly covered in throw up. I was ready to toss it, but Isaak lovingly hand washed all the vomit off of it for me. )

Anyways....she laid down in bed with me to go to sleep, and after we moved her back to her room...two hours later she threw up in her bed and had a fever too.

I moved to the couch and put Marvelly on a sleeping bag on the floor next to me with a throw up pail beside her. Every thirty minutes or so she would wake up sick.

It was a long night for us both.

That pretty much canceled our plans for today. Early this morning I was suppose to chaperon Sydaleigh's classes field trip to the forest for a few hours, then go to her school's book fair, then head to the Embssy for a Christmas ceremony.

But instead me and Marvelly are gonna hang out at home while she recovers in my bed watching movies.

Life may not stop moving when I get sick....but it does when the kids get sick. And I hate that she is not well, but I'm looking forward to just getting to spend time with her doing nothing today.

I think it will do us both some good.

*Turns out we didn't end up staying home all day after all. After talking to a friend I ended up bringing us to the clinic to rule out malaria and amoebas....because we now live in a place where you have to rule stuff like that out. 

**No malaria or disgusting parasites this time. Just...somethin' else they guess.