Sunday

Today is Sunday, September 16th...and it's been quite a day!

Last night, as we were putting the kids to bed, I noticed that Teddy felt a bit warm.  But he hopped into bed and was asleep in no time.

Before midnight, I heard the dreaded cough.  Croup.  He started hacking and coughing and sounding like a seal and I knew we were in for a long night.

I know croup.  All of our five kids have had it multiple times, so when that first cough rings out in the night, we know exactly what we're dealing with.

Except that this time we're in Africa.

Typically, croup happens in the winter for our family.   The cure is simple.  You wrap the sick child in a nice warm blanket, sit on the front porch and let the cold night air do it's thing.  There have been a couple of times when we've had to take one of the kids to the ER for it, but that's been pretty rare.  The other thing that can work to clear it up is to run a nice hot shower, and the steam will help just like the cold air does.

Herein lies the problem.  Last night, there wasn't cold air to be found in our neck of the woods, nor was there hot water.  We have a hot water tank at our house, but it's not running.

And that's the thing about living here.  Something that's simple at home becomes serious here very quickly.  As Teddy was lying in our bed, hacking and barking with this nasty cough, I was thinking about how IF we needed a hospital, and I mean a DECENT hospital, we had a nine hour drive ahead of us.  That's not a fun thought in the middle of the night when your three-year-old is sick.

So, we did what any good parents would do.  We attempted to create a cool Canadian night and we put Teddy in the freezer.  (We didn't close the lid!)  Seriously, we wrapped Teddy up, opened the big chest freezer, and tried to get him to breathe some nice cold air.  (He didn't grasp what we were trying to do.)  Thankfully, a friend of ours had made some home-made popsicles, so we gave him one of those in hopes that the cold would go down his throat and calm the nasty, inflamed airways.

Anyhow, we made it through the night repeating the popsicle routine, with a little Advil to top it off.  I was lying awake in my bed, Teddy beside me, praying that God would grant him each breath he needed.  And wishing there was some way to build-your-own-nebulizer on a internet site somewhere. (Had I checked the internet last night, there are sites that tell you how to do this!!)

Morning came.  And as usual, the croup subsides...til the next night.  In the morning, I tried to get a hold of a couple of doctors in the south of Togo but to avail.  So, I called my sweet friend, Dr. Laura, right in London, because she's an ER doc. She was home.  That's a miracle right there.

She told me what drugs she would administer if Teddy was her patient and told me to call her back if there was any chance I got my hands on them.

I texted Emily, another missionary here, and she went right over to the pharmacy and they had it.  Miracle again.  Mango isn't famous for it's stock of pharmaceutical products.  Problem was, it had to be administered by injection.

We called Dr. Laura back and she went through step by step, how to administer the injection.  Nate spoke with her (cause there was no way I was going to be able to do it to Teddy!).  Just as he is gearing himself up to do it, Emily calls back and says that she knows how to give injections and will come right over to help us out!  Miracle again!  But as she's leaving the guest house, in her heart she knows she is NOT comfortable with giving injections to small, adorable, three year old, red-headed boys.  So she prays.  As she pulls out of the hospital site (where she lives), she hollers to another missionary why she's leaving and that missionary says,  "Why don't you get the nurse to do it?"

Yes, there was a nurse here.  A team from Detroit had just arrived less than 24 hours before and there happened to be a nurse on the construction team.  So Emily grabbed Jennifer the Nurse, ran over here and  Jennifer gave Teddy two nasty injections that will, if all goes well, prevent him from having another nasty night.

It was awful and amazing at the same time.  Turns out Jennifer had hoped to be able to use her medical skills somehow while she was here for a two week trip, but knew that this was a construction trip so she'd probably not be able to.  

That's a lot of miracles for one day.  And we are so grateful to God.  In His love and mercy, He saw us, needing Him here in Togo, and He answered.  And it's not because we're good or because we're here in Africa. It's because He lavishes His love and His grace on us and we don't deserve a bit of it.  Not an ounce.  

This is why we cling to Him.  Because He is good.