Rough Transition

No sick pics, here the kids are healthy again!

Transitions are always a dangerous time. There are so many things going on. You are going from one reality to another and the the in-between is naturally unstable and uncertain.

Transitions get easier the more you do them however. You learn some of the pitfalls and prepare. Whenever we are transitioning from the islands to mainland Africa I’ve learned that we need to bring jackets for the plane ride and lots of lotion and lip balm. This is after more than one flight with our kids freezing in the air-conditioned plane and multiple cases of severely dry skin as our bodies adjust to new drier climates.  This preparedness can become a source of pride. “We’re seasoned travelers, transitioning with ease and hitting the ground running in each new location!”

That’s when we get those nice reminders that even though we prepare, there are always unexpected challenges and things we cannot anticipate. So we found ourselves on Thursday night over a week ago…

We had made the initial transitions from where we vacationed with family, back to mainland Africa for a day in transit and then finally to the big island. We were staying the night with old friends before a morning flight back to Clove Island.

The previous three nights’ sleep had been cut short by either leaving in the wee hours or arriving past bedtimes. Our ten year old daughter had gone to bed early with a headache and fever. Our eight and six year old sons were placed beside her on the same bed. Our gracious friends had given up an entire bedroom to our family. The three kids shared a double bed, while Tom and I each had singles. We were more than tired and went to bed early. Sleep is an important part of a good transition!

We were awoken around midnight by the sound of vomiting. (This is one of the worst ways to wake up.) I was out of bed in a second with Tom right behind me. I went under the mosquito net and used the light on my phone to reveal our youngest sitting up in the middle of the bed retching onto the sheet. For a second I thought perhaps it was only on the sheet and somehow we could clean this all up without disturbing the other two kids. Another sweep of the light quickly dispelled that hope. The bed was covered, including stuffed animals and our eight year old. We got our vomiting son out of the bed and sitting in the dark hallway in front of a bucket. We sent our eight year old to the living room and moved our feverish daughter to my bed and started to tackle the bed. It was around this point that we remembered that the house hadn’t had any running water for the past week!

Generally we hope to be easy guests, even if we have three kids. Not this night.

I’ve never had to tackle this type of mess as a houseguest, but in one sense it was nice. There were four adults handling the clean-up instead of just two! But considering there were three kids involved and no running water in the house, we were very thankful for the extra help. We hunted down a new outfit for our eight year old who was covered in vomit. “How do you feel?” I asked, worried he might start feeling sick too. He looked at me tiredly and said… “Disgusted!” While I was dealing with our middle son, Tom flipped the mattress and got new sheets on. Meanwhile our hosts collected buckets of water from the cistern in the backyard and started rinsing the gross array of sheets, pjs and stuffed animals.

It was probably less than an hour later that we were all back in bed, hoping through the rest of the night that each cough and sniffle wasn’t the beginning of another round to clean up. We woke up feeling like we had never really gotten back to sleep but needing to get everyone out the door so we could catch our last flight.

So much for hitting the ground running. Our daughter vomited on the ground outside the taxi to the airport. We got people praying then. Everyone was semi-lethargic the whole car ride and the kids all lied down on the tiled floor during the check-in process, but we stayed healthy until we entered our home on Clove Island. That’s when three out of five of us were stuck sick in bed.  It would be a week before we were all healthy again.

Transitions are tricky things. Remind us to pray more before our next one!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are all feeling a lot better this week.  Thank you! The kids’ transition back to school has gone pretty smoothly and Tom’s work schedule has not really started in earnest, so we’re thankful for these small mercies which help with transition back. Tom got a couple of chances to share the 2 Kingdoms this week.  Our teammate has a friend who wants to study the book.  An island sister has a friend she is studying with now.  Tom’s friends continue to study and learn. We are so happy to see these opportunities happening! Thank you for praying—may we have lots more opportunities!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Megan’s been having some back pain again.  Pray for healing. The country is in the middle of campaigning for presidential elections that will take place on the 24th. Pray for honest elections, for peace and for the right people to be in the government. Pray for more opportunities to share and that we would have wisdom about where to spend our time and what relationships to nurture. This Friday we are hoping to share with our local brothers and sisters about things we learned while we were off-island, pray for a good time of fellowship and sharing. One of our colleagues has decided to go home for a time to help process some difficult events. Pray for a safe transition for him and for healing and restoration. Our kids made a friend (8 yrs) while we were off-island who has become critically ill and had to return with his family to his home country. Pray for wisdom for his family and doctors and for healing.