What does the flu, a smoke alarm, and the Lord have in common?

So unless you're living under a rock, you know that we are experiencing a major outbreak of the flu, specifically H1N1 (aka, swine flu). So the flu made itself known in our household a couple of weeks ago. On our way home from church, Brayden started complaining of a tummy ache. If you know Brayden at all, you will know this is nothing out of the ordinary. He is very prone to motion sickness, not unlike his momma, and generally just seems to have a weak stomach. So when we got home and started making lunch and he wasn't interested, I started to suspect something else was going on. I checked his forehead and noticed he was warm. A quick thermometer check showed a temp of 100.2. Other than a lack of appetite, upset tummy, and low-grade fever for the rest of the day, there was really no cause for concern and we didn't know what we were dealing with yet. So we all went to bed and honestly I kinda thought he'd be better in the morning.

Here's where it gets interesting...and if you are one of those people that doubts God's existence, I really hope you'll pay attention to this. At about 2:30 that morning our smoke alarm started going off. It only beeped about two times, but it was definitely startling and scary. Buzzy got up and checked the entire house and the garage--no fire. Hmm...that's never happened before. Why would our smoke detector be going off if there's no smoke? So we check on the kids. Brayden is obviously in major discomfort, highly uncomfortable, and just generally miserable. Temp check: 103. While 103 is high, in and of itself it wouldn't necessarily be cause of "alarm" (as in smoke alarm!) but because of the way he was behaving, I knew immediately this is why we're awake right now. This is why our smoke alarm went off...God was waking us up so we could get Brayden's fever down! Then of course we realized that our Tylenol was expired, because it's not something we use very often. Especially since it upsets Brayden's tummy. So Buzzy had to make a Walmart run while I put Brayden in the bath. The Tylenol did make the tummy worse, but did manage to bring his fever down and make him more comfortable. And meanwhile I was on my face, praising Jesus for waking us up, and for protecting Brayden!

And that was just the beginning of a very long week! Malia was the next one to get sick...one of the few times Brayden decided to share something freely with his sister, and I wish he'd been selfish on this one! Buzzy never had any symptoms, but I felt like I was fighting it off all week and may have had a very mild case. Again, praising the Lord for keeping us healthy. There were lots of sleepless nights that week and several times I began to worry about one or both of my sweet children. When I would start to worry, especially in the middle of the night, I'd start praying for wisdom and discernment about whether God was giving me an intuition that something was seriously wrong with one of the kids again, or if I was just being fearful. The Lord always reminded me during these times that he loves those two little kids more than I ever could, and that he was protecting them for His glory!

"Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:17-18