Picture of the children

I so wanted a picture of all of the children at Christmas.  I had thought it would be a neat thing to share with others as well as to have for my scrapbook.  Well, with all of the illness that hit our house after Eliana came home, we found it was mid-January before we could get our Christmas picture!  This one is the best of the bunch.

Better and worse

Well, it's a new day.  I'm feeling much better emotionally than I was yesterday.  It's hard to feel so low, so sad and scared and frustrated.  I'm sure I'll have those times again and am thankful for the friends that are walking beside me during these struggles. 



I've been reminded of many verses in the Bible in which God is here with me - through it all - no matter how I'm feeling.  One of my favorites is from the book of Isaiah when God says that He will be with me when I walk through the fire and when I am in a storm.  It isn't if, but when.  I've been blessed not to have many huge trials yet in my life.  I'm in the middle of a big one right now though.  I'm hoping and praying to emerge better on the other side of it - and eagerly looking forward to reaching the other side.  It isn't in sight yet though.



On the physical side - I'm sick too.     My 2yo got sick in the middle of the night and didn't even wake up!  Poor little fellow.  I got sick a few hours later.  *sigh*  I was really hoping to be spared this sickness.  I was very thankful that I missed the sickness that wiped out my entire family (except for Eliana) just after she was born.  I'm not surprised though as my body is so wiped out I'm not sure how it could fight off much.



Please continue to pray for Eliana.  I'm worried about her getting it as it would be so hard on her body.  I think it would be difficult for a healthy newborn - much less one with a heart like hers.  Our 5yo is also still well and I'm hoping he'll miss it too.  About all we can do at this point is "wash our hands" like crazy and limit Eliana's exposure.  My ped also encouraged me to give her as much breastmilk as possible to help protect her.  I'm pumping now and hoping to be able to help my sweet little girl in this way.



We are thinking that we probably have a virus that seems to be sweeping through our city.  It's a relatively mild virus, but the downsides are that it is very contagious and that you remain contagious for up to 72 hours afterwards instead of the normal 24 hours.  That just makes keeping everything clean, kids away from their baby sister and trying to get well all the harder.  We've taken so many precautions to stay well.  The children and I typically go nowhere during the week!  We've cut out much of our activities and the dr appts we've added in are usually only Eliana and I.  Guess we can only do our best and it still is out of our control.



That's all for now.  We appreciate your prayers as always.