Well again

Once again we have weathered another storm of sickness. We all experienced the stomach virus this past week...what a mess of body fluids. on tuesday morning marit was playing as normal and whimpered and reached up to be held. we love to snuggle, so i gladly picked her up and spun around to dance...she looked surprised and scared and then proceeded to vomit what looked like feta cheese soup everywhere...all over herself, the floor, my new sweater. i thought it was just a fluke since she had just finished a cup of milk, but alas she threw up 7 more times over the course of the day. it was so sad since it was her first stomach bug and she was frightened each time. thankfully adam was able to come home from school to help, but that resulted in him getting the virus that night and the next day. early thursday morning graham started to throw up...a scary thing in a newborn. however, just like the meningitis, he weathered this well too and after 30 hrs was able to hold his feedings and pedialyte down again. i got a touch of the virus on thursday as well, but definitely was blessed to have the mildest version. all told, adam and i were thrown up on 15-20 times over the course of the week...lovely laundry was the result of that as you might imagine. we have done the laundry, cleaned the bathrooms, and started eating again. once again, it is God's grace to us that my sister lives here and was able to help out during this week. we are once again healthy and thankful.

also this past week, we discovered (with marit's help) that our apartment, in the downtown area of our city where we have lived for nearly five years, has peeling paint in places and is revealing old paint that tested positive for lead. oh dear. if you know anything about old houses, you know this is par for the course. our apartment/townhouse is about 100 years old. we live in our urban neighborhood intentionally and feel called here, but have really struggled with being here this week. lead poisoning in a child can cause severe developmental delays and even mental retardation. marit's initial lead test a couple months ago was normal and she would have to actually ingest paint to become poisoned, but there is still risk. who knows what a toddler might get into? do we have to choose between the neighborhood where we feel God has called us and the risk of our children being poisoned? there are other problems with our apartment...we park on the street and i worry with two munchkins that marit will run into the street when we are loading up. there are only upstairs bathrooms...fun for potty-training in our future. there is no place to go outside and play unless we walk a mile to the playground which we do most days. we know that living a life for God's kingdom does not guarantee safety and comfort, but aren't we called to care for and protect our children as well? we have explored other living options in our neighborhood and there are few for a family of our size. we almost bought another 100yr old house until we noticed that it had paint beginning to peel as well. pray for us as we struggle with these thoughts that we would be obedient and patient and that God would protect our children from the hazards of our living situation.

we had a lovely thanksgiving with adam's family (that's the kids and i on thanksgiving day and marit is practicing her "more" sign) and are looking forward to spending christmas at the beach with my family. we are hoping to make it to christmas virus free!