the bucket and washrag are out

It appears to be that time of year again. We've got a stomach virus. First Dana got it, who handled it well, only throwing up twice and obediently resting for the rest of the day. Then, last night, two days later, Clara Joy got it pretty bad. She threw up every five minutes from 10:15pm to about 2:30am, then about every ten minutes for half an hour, and finally she fell asleep around 3am, only throwing up twice after that. It was horrible to watch. Nothing feels more helpless than pleading with God to heal your child, when you know full well that he could say "no", or "not yet". Last night she really suffered, but God's grace was pretty evident in the fact that she handled it so well, and (strangely) so did Matt and I. Usually, when something like this happens, there's a lot of crying and our tempers run short, especially in the wee hours. What was very evident last night was that Matt and I worked well together and Clara was very calm. There wasn't even much mess, which is mostly due to her expert handling of the bucket. God was very tangibly with us and we're thankful for that.