Ski Trip?

Well, we just got back from what was supposed to be a wonderful ski trip with my family, the Janszen's.  This was going to be a special treat for all of us, kids, spouses, and grand kids.  Mom and Dad had invited all of us to come meet them up in Colorado for a week of skiing in the beautiful mountains.
The mountains are MY thing, by the way!!! Love the mountains, topped with snow. Just love them!!
We all also love to ski, well, sort of, Anna, our 6 year old still isn't really sure yet, but all the rest of us LOVE it!!
Well, as you know, if you have kids, a job, a house, a life, it is HARD to get away, out of town.  After Ray,  flipping the call schedule around, making arrangements for all the animals, chickens, goats, dogs, cats, house, mail, etc, we headed out 2 weeks ago on a Monday morning.
As we headed out, Jesse, our 14 year old son, complained of a sore throat, cough, and ended up having some fever.  We treated him for the fever, and felt this would probably pass, so we kept going, definitely not going to turn around for that.  This would pass, he rarely gets sick.
That night, in a tiny town in New Mexico, as we all slept in a hotel room, Jesse was delirious with fever, so much so, that he tried to leave the hotel room mistakenly, then started breathing soooo labored that we had to throw him in the shower, then out in the -12 degree temp outside, to shock the chest into opening back up again.  After we got him calmed down, we treated the fever again, and prayed for the morning to come.
Good thing, the next morning, we were able to drive into Co. Springs to pick up some medicine that would help.  Still thinking that this would pass, we headed on to Beaver Creek.
We arrived that afternoon, so happy to see my family, parents, brother, sister, spouses, fiance', and niece and nephew!!
We told them to all just stay away from Jes, but the rest of us were fine.
Poor Jesse was not doing well at this point, feeling awful, just wanting to rest. No skiing for him.
The next day, we got Jesse situated, then headed out for our first day of skiing.

Ruth and Joshua on our first run!!

I made ONE run with Ruth (my 12 year old daughter) and Joshua (my five year old son). As we came down the mountain, Ruth said she thought she might throw up, then said she was so weak, she might faint.  I told her, "Don't you dare faint, I cannot carry you down this mountain, and get your little brother down also, this is his first run this year! Whatever you don't, don't faint!"
Praise the Lord, she did make it back down to the lodge.  We quickly popped our skis off, and one of the guys from the place we were staying saw I needed some help.  He ran and got Ruth some water, then he helped Joshua while I took Ruth on in.  I really thought she must have altitude sickness, and felt if I got some water in her, she would be fine.
As soon as we got indoors, and sat on the bench, she fainted!! Scary!!! I have never seen anyone faint before, especially my own child. I scooped her back up onto the bench, and she came back to me.  The guy who was helping me with Joshua, came in about that time, and I quickly got Ruth back to our room for her to get re hydrated, and rest. (I did go back and get Joshua right after that!!!)
So, first day of skiing was over.
Next morning, as all the family began to wake up, my kids started filing into mine and Ray's room. Anna first, with fever, then Joshua, then Ruth.  Oh no!!! Now we had four with fever.
We talked with my whole extended family, about us just packing up, and taking our sick crew home, but they all wanted us to stay, knowing we had just driven 2 days to get there to be with them.  We decided we would stay, and hoped this would be a quick sickness, and give it another day or two, and we would all be skiing together soon.
Esther, who was the only one without fever, wanted to go ski with the cousins.  I bundled up, and we headed out.  After about two runs....., you know what is about to happen!!! She starts talking about how weak she feels.  Yep! She had fever too!!! So now we were 5 for 5.

Hanging out in the pediatric ward, doing crafts and watching movies.

Ray ran to Walmart and got crafts, Lego's, and anything you can think of to do together in our room.  For the next few days, we didn't sleep much at night, doing med call for fever and cough, for 5 kids.  Ray and I had a few turns skiing some runs, while my Mom and Dad took turns hanging with the kids, but for the most part, it was pediatric ward for us.
We thought a few of them were doing better the last day of our stay up there, but the morning we left, all 5 had fever of 103+ Yikes!! One was even 104.9!! Scary!

The trip home.

We knew we had a miserable trip ahead of us, but we had to do it, so off we went.
The next two days, we had kids throw up 5 times in the car, 2 times had diarrhea in the car (YES that is right!!), one fainting in a Taco Bell parking lot, had to change clothes in a Casino in Oklahoma, and a gas station in Kansas, one go to the bathroom on the side of the road, with 30 mile an hour freezing winds howling, as we held them up between two car doors, constant coughing day and night.  Let's just say, it was a rough trip home!!!

Pure misery!!

As we approached Ft. Worth, Hallelujah!! We realized that something we had been planning to buy for Ray's business was going off of sale at midnight that night, the same day we were driving in.  We thought, "Why not?" We have made it this far, the traffic is bad in Ft. Worth, let's stop, let the traffic clear out, and run in an buy this item at Lowe's.
Boy, did we look like a motley crew.  Had not showered in two days, kids had on half clothes, half pjs,(because of the diarrhea incidents) hair a mess, all of us still wearing snow boots.  We looked rough!! I think the salesman felt sorry for us, he certainly didn't think Ray was a doctor, which was good, we didn't want him to know that anyway.  He gave us a great deal, and he even gave us a better price than what was on sale.  I'm tellin' ya, we looked so bad!!
So, finally home.  Yeah!!! Praise the Lord everyone slept good that night.  That was what we needed, because the sickness was not over, and to make a long story short, the kids stayed sick that whole next week, as well.  Another whole week off from school.
While we were trying to survive the second week of sickness, the challenges continued.  We had pool equipment freeze!!, audit letters come, and a pipe freeze, burst, and flood our storage and part of the apartment in our barn. After that pipe burst, Jesse thought I was losing my mind.  I just started walking around thanking the Lord for sickness, busted pipes, frozen pool equipment, audits.  Just thanking God for what He was doing.
Jesse said, "Mom, what are you doing??!!"
"I am thanking the Lord for these things, scripture tells me too." "I don't have to like them, but I will thank Him, somehow good will come out of this!"
I have to say, not sure what that is yet, but I do know this.
Because we were sick in Colorado, it really made us slow down.  My family is a go getter kind of family, lots of activity, fun, adventure. Because we were forced to be inside more, together, we had some sweet times of prayer with my Mom, Dad, Sister, and her husband.  My kids had some sweet times of dominoes with their "Buddy and Babe." We watched some fun movies together, and played scrabble.
So I can say, though, it was not the ski trip I would have chosen, some sweet times came from the sickness. As far as the frozen pipes, and things once we got home, not sure how the Lord will redeem those yet!! :) But like my father in law always says, "If money can fix it, it is not a real problem."
So I will continue to praise God, in the midst of the stuff.
God is faithful,
JJ