Why oh why can’t my boys get sick during the waking hours of the day?????

Jeff and I had dropped the boys off at my in-laws for the night, and we just played our first few hands of poker at a fun, grown-up only, casino night party when the cell phone rang.  It was MomMom.  Our middle child threw up.  Ugh!  Jeff graciously went and got him and the other boys, and I accepted a friend’s offer to drive me home later.  Even though they almost left without me, they brought me home a little after midnight.

Jeff said that our little guy had been throwing up every 15 minutes or so.  The poor thing!  I told Jeff to go to sleep and I’d take the night watch.  So I laid down with my baby who continued to wake up every 30 minutes all night long.  He’s such a trooper.  But the scenario went something like this:  I’d be sleeping and all of a sudden I’d hear a moan and I’d jump up and help my son make it to the bowl.  Then he’d lie back down and fall asleep, followed shortly after by me.  Only to repeat 30 minutes later.  Twice we didn’t get the bowl fast enough, so there was also some clean up involved too.  The next morning, he had finished getting sick, but we were both so exhausted that we slept a lot.

Sunday night and Monday were uneventful.  But then came Monday night.  My youngest was tucked into bed, excited for his zoo trip the next day.  Then, we heard him… “I need the bowl!”  My poor baby, as soon as he got sick, he pathetically said, “I’m still good enough to go on my field trip tomorrow.”  He repeated the sentiment throughout the night every hour after he’d wake up to get sick again.  So basically 2 days later, I had another night of laying down next to a different son and waking up throughout the night as he’d get sick.  He was more like every hour instead of every half hour.  So I guess I got to sleep a little longer in between each episode.  But my body definitely felt tortured with the sleep, wake up pattern!

Why oh why can’t my boys get sick during the waking hours of the day?????

This week as I was doing my Bible reading, I read Psalm 121.  Chronologically in the Bible, I’ve gotten up to reading about David.  What I love about reading the Bible this way is that I’ll read about David in 1 Samuel and then I go to Psalms and read what David wrote during that specific time in his life.  Anyway, Psalm 121 is one of my favorite ones because of the line, “I lift my eyes up to the mountains, where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord – the maker of heaven and earth.”  (vs. 1 & 2)  I love that line, and I love the song that sings that.  But a new part in the Psalm really stuck out to me on that day:

He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
 indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep. (vs. 3 & 4)

I thought of how hard it was and how tortured I felt watching over my babies all night long as they were alternating getting sick and getting sleep, because I needed sleep too.  And I was comforted by the fact that God does not need sleep.  He can watch over my babies (and me too!) all night long, day after day, year after year!  Thank you God!

♥Becki