It was last Friday, February 11. Keana and Maia were asleep in their rooms. Sarah and I were watching something from our Netflix queue while Aliya slept soundly on Sarah’s lap. Then I heard it. A cough coming from Keana’s room. At first it sounded normal, then, in an instant, it took on a whole new life. I sprang to my feet and ran to her room, hoping it wasn’t true but being far too familiar with Keana’s every sound that I knew it was. What I saw when I entered the room confirmed it: puke. Though surprisingly contained, it still covered too much to be an easy clean-up. With Aliya asleep in Sarah’s lap I was flying solo on this one.

Turns out this was/is a nasty, nasty virus or bacteria. Keana was up literally all that night with the scourge, and being the designated catcher, so was I. It was really tough going. I laid on the floor next to her bed and every 20 minutes for almost six hours, we both awoke to handle the situation. Before we knew it, the sun was rising.

The following Saturday was Great Grandma Bev’s 80th celebration, but Keana and I had to miss it due to the nastiness. As the day progressed, she did feel better and slept threw the night with no event, and even Sunday was quiet on the sickness front. Then came Sunday night.

The devil’s scourge hit me later that night, and at midnight, it took hold of its third victim: Maia. I moved onto the floor in her room and we traded off being sick. It was one of those moments where your strength is truly tested. It lasted again, until the sun rose. It was now Monday.

Our week continued this way, Sarah being the next victim, where the sickness struck fast and hard and eventually tapered off after several days. But even though the initial symptoms ended mostly after a couple days, it seems to take several more days to fully be over all the discomforts. We thought we were in the clear on Wednesday, but then Maia got sick again, and continues to throw up once every night between 10 p.m. and midnight. Kind of strange but at least she feels and eats normally throughout the day. We’re trying Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) now and will be moving on to the coconut water after that. Sarah’s used both these methods when she got the scourge in Chile and Mexico, so hopefully Maia will see some results soon. Maia’s one tough girl, but something about her diminutive size makes her seem especially vulnerable and every time she throws up, it just breaks your heart.

So now it’s been over a week dealing with this. I’ve slept (barely) on the floor pretty much all week and we’ve had to clean up more disgustingness this week than we have in the last five years. The kids are itching to get back to normality and Sarah and I reached our limits days ago, but pressed on, as all parents have to, and we’re just now starting to get on top of life again. Chalk this one up to one of those experiences in life (and as a parent) that you can never understand until you go through it. You know your kids will get sick, but you just have no idea all that that entails and what kind of love, strength, patience, perseverance, and understanding it takes to get through it.