Our barf bowls runneth over....

My reason for having a blog is to document the good, the bad, and sometimes the very ugly....

That's just some of the laundry from Thursday night's round of illness.  It got worse....

Matthew was so bad he ended up on the floor by the bathroom, although he rarely made it all the way to the toilet, opting for the blue bowl instead.  Jacob stayed in his bed, but after burning through 2 sets of sheets, he ended up on towels....

This has been quite an event for our family!  Generally, when there is a virus that hits our home, it only attacks about 50% of us, but not this time.

Nope.

This time it hit 9 out of 10 of us....that's assuming that I don't get it ;D

That's a pretty incredible statistic as far as I'm concerned!

Really....what are the odds of us ALL getting sick?!  That would have to be a pretty powerful virus!

But after what I've witnessed over the last 3 days, I'm convinced it was some sort of terrorist attack on our family ;D  Either that or we were being filmed for an episode of Punk'd!

The details have already begun to blur in my mind, but I do remember that it was the baby that showed the first symptoms last Wednesday when he threw up his breakfast all over my car.

The next to fall was Jacob....I believe....followed by Matthew and Noah, then Zack and Allie joined the ranks.  The last to suffer were Sophie, Josh and (just today) Emily!

One thing I clearly remember was being in the bathroom on Thursday night as the boys lined up to bring me their vomit bowls to have emptied and rinsed.  First Jacob, then Matthew and finally Noah.  I washed their bowls, cleaned their faces and sent them back to bed...the routine nature seemed almost comical at the time!  I gave myself a proverbial pat on the back for a job well-done, and got ready to head back to my own bed.

On my way, I remember going to tuck Jacob in and noticing something all over his sock.  At first I assumed it was vomit, so I took his sock off and went to the bathroom to get a washcloth.  As I walked into the sink area, I noticed something all over the floor.  Closer examination led me to realize it was diarrhea.  I was trying to figure out how I had missed it, but then I remembered after I had cleaned the vomit off of Jacob he had headed over to the sink for a drink.

Now, I don't have a stool in the boys' bathroom, so when they want to get a drink, they jump up on the sink and hang from the counter.  Apparently, as Jacob was doing that this time, the diarrhea came pouring out of his pants and all over the floor!

I stared at the mess in amazement as I realized how lucky I had been that the mess was only on the tile floor and not on the carpet...also thankful that I had somehow managed NOT to step in it!  And, believe me, I stepped in PLENTY of bodily fluids that night ;D

Needless to say, Friday was spent doing loads and loads of laundry.

In the beginning, we were hopeful this would be one of those 24-hour illnesses.  After 24 hours had passed and kids were still vomiting, we found ourselves hoping it would be a 48-hour thing.  After 48 hours, we began to realize this nasty virus was going to give us a run for our money!  It starts off with the vomiting and then moves to the diarrhea stage.....Caleb is STILL suffering from the diarrhea!

It seems to have hit the little ones the hardest :(

Honestly, Thursday night was so bad that my husband had to help me out even though he was just as sick as the kids.  He would be cleaning up something from the floor and have to pause to go throw up in the toilet himself and then back to the cleaning!

On top of all the sickness, we got a call on Friday night that our house was scheduled for a showing on Saturday morning at 8:30.

Who DOES that?!?!

Josh had a choir concert Friday night, so we cleaned the house the best that we could before we had to leave, with the plan to mop the floors first thing Saturday morning.  Having been up all night Thursday night, we fell into bed Friday night and slept soundly, thankful that no one was vomiting....or so we thought.  


It turned out that Josh had thrown up all over his carpet in the middle of the night.  I vaguely remember him coming in to our room to tell us, but Zack & I were SO exhausted that we just sent him back to bed, not realizing what we were doing!

The next morning, we had to get up at 5:30 to get the (sick) kids ready to get out of the house by 8:15 for the showing.  We knew we needed to mop, but we weren't expecting to have to get the carpet cleaner out to clean up all the vomit by Josh's bed!!!  And with diarrhea running rampant down the little kids' legs, it was not easy to keep the house clean as we raced to get ready to leave!

I had candles burning EVERYWHERE to try to rid the house of the horrific smell!  Truly, it smelled like death.

Poor Josh, barf bowl in hand, was green as we headed out to Panera for breakfast.  None of the kids had much of an appetite, but we had to have somewhere to go while our house was showing.

I only wish the people that looked at our house had some idea of the sacrifice that was made to accommodate their schedule.

Today, we seem to be turning a corner (with the littles at least).  I am giving the smallest of the gang probiotics to try to ease the diarrhea and spare their poor little bottoms from more soreness!  Emily is sick this morning, but the rest of the older kids are back to eating.

All through this horrible experience, I continually reminded myself that this too, shall pass.


I know that God uses all of these things to strengthen us spiritually, and I refuse to let our circumstances get the best of me.  I continue to look for the joy and humor in the situation, thankful that God loves us and is taking care of us through this storm.

I know that so many people are praying for us during this time of joblessness, illness and turmoil, and we  are so thankful for all your prayers!  God has such a great plan for us, and I truly believe that the struggles we experience in this life are preparing us for an eternity in heaven!