Go Away Sick Bug!

Monday, February 25

I am sad to share that this past weekend was one of many sicknesses.  Ben, Ana, Ocean, Noah, Ryan and Zeidy have all spent a part or all of their weekend sick in bed.  We are praying this wave stays away from Eddie, Jaden and I but we realize that it is not likely. 

We started class this morning with Eddie.  Ana is our teacher and Bruce and I are still trying to catch up with Eddie.  We reviewed our homework, talked about games we played as a child, read two children’s books and played a game similar to Scategories. 

After lunch, Eddie headed to the “sick house” (a.k.a. Ryan and Kirsten’s house) to use their high-speed Internet to speak with a pastor in Miami.  Then he went grocery shopping for us because we spent our weekend doing other things.

He had a bit of a discouraging conversation with the pastor, but we have full confidence that our future is in God’s hands.  Wherever He leads us, we will go.  We had our hopes up about this church, which is a new church plant in Miami, but right now the doors seem to be closed on that.  We are praying for God to either change their hearts or for Him to open another door.

Jaden took a nap after class without eating lunch.  He slept from 12:30-5:30.  When he woke up, I just knew he wasn’t feeling well.  He spent the remainder of the night lying around, not playing or eating much.  As I put him to bed, I hoped and prayed he would feel better in the morning.

Tuesday, February 26

We woke up to a sick kid this morning.  The “bug” is hitting a lot of people in Tuis, and we are not an exception.  The ironic thing is that back in November when we took Jaden to the doctor because he vomited everyday for a whole week, the doctor told us it was roto-virus and that it was very common in Costa Rica in November and February.  He was right… Whether it is roto-virus or not, something is going around this town and most people’s symptoms are the same:  weakness, chilles, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting.  Jaden had vomited in his bed during the night and as Eddie went to change his diaper, it made a BIG mess on our bed.  I have never seen him this sick.  Eddie stayed home with him because he wasn’t feeling 100% himself.  I went to class, but we also sent Gatica home early because she was sick too.

After Zumba, I was chatting with Deidre about her week with the ladies from Texas.  They are working at a school in Turrialba for kids with special needs.  Deidre is their translator, and she said that this is the best way to practice Spanish.  She said it was hard, but that she was loving it.

The ladies come every year and work at this school.  They have been sharing devotionals and crafts with the mothers of the kids from the school.  Many of the moms or grandmothers are there all day because they have to take a bus for over an hour to bring their kids to this school.  They don’t have time or money to take the bus home and come back to get them again at the end of the day.  The church in Texas built the moms a little gazebo near the school for them to hang out in all day.  They also donated some sewing machines so that they can try to make or mend things for an extra income. 

She was telling me all about the sweet children and moms she was meeting when all of a sudden I heard Eddie yell out the window “Deanna, can you come here!”  I walked in the house to a mess to clean up.  Jaden was sick again… all in a day’s work in the life of a mom.  Eddie had though he was feeling better because he hadn’t vomited all day and he had eaten some lunch.  He was cutting up pineapple and Jaden seemed to want some… That was a mistake.  Poor little thing… it is so sad to see kids sick because they just don’t understand what is happening to their tiny little bodies.  We got everything cleaned up and I just cuddled with my sick boy until it was time for bed.  Although sickness is yucky, the cuddling is precious.  I can’t neglect to be thankful for that.

Wednesday, February 27

We spent class time today studying medical words just to make sure Bruce had a good grasp on Doctor-Patient-conversational-Spanish.  Eddie and I of course were the patients.  It was interesting to learn some medical terms along the way.

Gatica was sick so we sent her home early.  After we ate lunch, we spent time making a video for Lifepointe, our church back in North Carolina.  They wanted Eddie to make a pre-view video with the weekly announcements for church this Sunday.  They will be adding sub-titles because they asked Eddie to do it in Spanish (and of course he added a bit of his own unique humor into it).  This is a photo of the gheto-set-up we used to film Eddie's video.

We also tried to get Jaden to do a short clip with this bug that he found, but he ended up freaking out instead.

At 1:00, there was a health clinic at CISA. Bruce is a pediatrician and Kirsten is a general doctor.  They planned to end the clinic at 3:30, but people kept coming.  They had their last clients at 5:00.  I went to visit around 4:00 and got to see my fellow students helping the sick people of Tuis.  It was awesome to see but also sad to know that they could not help everyone.  Eventually, we had to start turning people away.

Eddie and I worked on our presentation, and then he had to go to band practice.  He is encouraging them to lead themselves, so he only went to get them started and then came home for a few minutes.  Then he was out the door again to attend a meeting at Hector’s house with some of the core members of the church.  God is really using Eddie to support Hector in leading the church to change into a true body of believers similar to the Acts 2 church. 

Thursday, February 28

Presentation: El Museo de los Niños.  Finally, a topic we were interested in!  Kirsten and Ryan went first, and you would have though we went on two totally different trips to the museum.  Their pictures and stories were almost completely different than ours.  That is how awesome that museum is!  If you ever go to San José, try not to miss out on that little gem!  The other groups talked about a Gold Museum and a Coffee Farm.  It was interesting to learn a bit about the learning tools available around here.

After only two short weeks, it was time for Bruce, Vicki, Anna, and Ben to graduate.  They are such a sweet family and I know they hope to return to CISA one day for a longer time frame.  They are headed back to Chicago, but maybe one day we will see them again.

After lunch, the Karen invited Kirsten and I to come over to bake cookies at her house.  Kirsten had made snicker-doodles a few weeks ago, and Karen wanted to learn how to make them.  We had such a fun afternoon because we talked in Spanish the whole time and taught Karen how to bake.  For some reason, baking is not very common here.  I love to bake, so it was fun to teach Karen a bit about my passion for sweets.  We had a hard time figuring out her oven and the first batch of cookies took about 30 minutes instead of 10, but in the end they were delicious.

April and her kids joined us for a bit and Eddie and Ryan and the kids took the 5:00 bus to join us also. We were all amazed as the kids played peacefully together for a few minutes.  They were taking turns passing trucks back and forth to each other.  Organized play all on their own!  

Eddie and Ryan had hopes of playing basketball with Silmer, but he had a late meeting.  We all headed home again on the 6:30 bus, and it was a good thing because I started to feel sick on our way home.  The “bug” caught up with me and I ended up spending the night in the bathroom not getting much sleep.  No fun!!!

Friday, March 1

Eddie and I woke up to Jaden crying at 6:00 am.  Thankfully, Eddie went and got him.  He had diarrhea again, so Eddie changed his diaper.  He said that Jaden wasn’t acting himself, but that he was doing his sign language for “thirsty.”  Eddie ended up feeding him breakfast and he ate and drank a lot of water before going back to sleep until 9:30.  Poor boy, I think he was starved.  He didn’t eat much yesterday because he just wasn’t interested.  Thankfully, he kept it down and seems to be doing a bit better today!  Praise the Lord!

I pretty much did not get out of bed until noon when I ate some saltines and sipped on some 7-up.  Jaden and Eddie were ready for a nap, so I rested some more, too.  Praise the Lord, I have not felt sick since about 4:00 am.  It hit me hard, but it didn’t last too long.  I caught up on my sleep and now feel pretty much back to normal on this cool, rainy, quiet Friday afternoon.

Please pray that Eddie does not get sick again and that Jaden fully recovers.  We are looking forward to seeing my sister, Alison, and two of her friends next week.  They are currently in Costa Rica traveling around seeing what they can see before they end up in Tuis to hang out with us for a few days.  I pray we are all healthy and well before they arrive.

Also please pray for direction for Eddie and I.  We return to Florida in 3 weeks and we are praying for God to lead us to the right church and job for Eddie.  He got a message today from another church in Miami.  They want to have a Skype interview with him next Tuesday.  Praying for a clear path to be able to continue to practice our Spanish and serve the Lord!