Scare with our Youngest

(Many of you got the email asking for urgent prayer for our youngest, if you would like to be on our email list (quarterly newsletter & urgent requests) then email us and let us know.)

Our youngest feeling better!

Little kids are always changing-- but there are a few important things to know about our youngest at the moment: he is fast, he has learned to climb, he has grown taller, he now likes to reach up high for things, and he is always trying to get into stuff that he shouldn’t. Classic 14-month old.

Coming back from vacation we have been very busy. I was running through the house between two tasks when I see David with something in his mouth. I take it away from him and he gives me a complaining whine. It’s an almost empty baby tylenol bottle. “Where did he get THAT? How did he get the baby proof lid off?! How much did he drink?”

I knew it was an older bottle and I couldn’t imagine that he had had it very long. So I convinced myself that it was already basically empty. I’d watch him that day to see if he acted strangely, but he seemed fine that day and so I put it out of my mind.

The next day was a big holiday! The neighbors came and took all three kids to walk around the neighborhood to greet everyone. They came back with our youngest around 10:30am, already fast asleep. It was unusual for him to fall asleep when out and about with people but he often took a morning nap, so it wasn’t that bizarre. Later, he didn’t eat well and had some diarrhea, but we suspected that he had been fed things by the neighbors.

Our oldest and youngest out with neighbors on holiday

But the next morning he didn’t wake up. He slept through breakfast.  When I went in later to wake him up, he opened his eyes and looked at me but didn’t get up. Usually he jumps up at the sight of anyone and loudly whines until someone takes him out of his bed. He just turned his head back toward his pillow and looked like he was going back to sleep.  I decided I should try to feed him something. He ate a little but didn’t talk or whine at all. By the time I was going to clean him up he was already falling asleep in his chair. I put him back down and even when he didn’t sleep he just lay there watching, not moving or talking at all. This was not normal!

Suddenly I remembered the tylenol-- what if he had more than I thought? I racked my brain for a memory of how full the bottle had been before vacation, while learning online that tylenol overdoses can cause liver failure and be asymptomatic for the first day or more.   Tom was gone, we don’t have poison control on the islands. It was a holiday which means doctor’s offices are closed. I called my dad to get his advice about how to proceed. Within the first 24 hours there is an antidote for tylenol overdose, but we were past that window (we later learned the government pharmacies don’t carry it and they were the only ones open on the holiday anyway). We needed to see how his liver was doing, so armed with the name of different tests I took our baby, got in a taxi and headed for the main hospital on the island. I found a lab tech, she looked at my paper and shook her head. “We don’t have the supplies to do those tests here, but go to the private clinic in the other town- I know they will be able to do it… but today is a holiday. So you will have to go tomorrow.” I went home and we tried to call another lab we knew of-- it was closed too. We had to wait for the morning. If the test results were bad we would need to evacuate our youngest off the island, but it was already the afternoon. All the flights and boats off the island had already left for the day. No, whatever we were going to do, it would have to wait until the next day.

But there was one thing we could do-- we could get people praying. If only he would perk up and show some signs of energy, letting us know that he wasn’t  just getting worse and worse while we waited. We sent a text message to our colleagues on the other islands. We wrote an email and sent it out to lots of people all over the world. In a little while we started to get the responses- people had gotten our message and they were praying. That’s when we heard our baby boy.  He had woken up on his own for the first time that day. He stood up on his own and seemed to want to eat a little. Over the late afternoon and evening, the change was dramatic-- he was still sick but he wasn’t scarily lethargic like the morning. A much needed answer to prayer.

Back to School- our son's 1st day ever!

The next day, even though our youngest seemed to be steadily improving, we had to wait an agonizing 8 hours to get test results, and then spend another half hour figuring out what they meant. Finally we got a doctor’s take: The results were encouraging, only mildly abnormal. The results coupled with his increasing energy was a sign that he should be okay.  We were much relieved.  The notes of encouragement continued to flow in to our email inbox that day and the next.  Our hearts are so full of thanks and we have been greatly encouraged by all of you.  Thank you for your prayers.  It means so much to us.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our youngest is doing much better and he has stopped vomiting too. Our daughter was very excited and happy to start back at school on the islands! Our 3 year old son (while less excited) said that he likes school too and that he now has three new friends! The organization's logistics man has arrived to help with the final details for all the houses.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for our youngest's continued recovery and for our other son who has been feeling sick too. It has been a strange week with the holiday and our youngest's illness and we didn’t make much progress in our big to-do list. Pray that we would be productive and not stressed the next two weeks while we work to get everything done. Our son cried when he gets to school in the morning (though he is fine when we pick him up), pray that he would continue to like school and go into the class more willingly. Pray for our teammates as they prepare, they arrive in just two weeks!