When it rains, it pours, part 2!

That salt just keeps flowing out of the upside down salt shaker for the Bergs.  Deste came down with a SERIOUS sore throat yesterday - complete with a high fever.   I didn't have a thermometer again (returned the last borrowed one - need to put this on my Nairobi grab list), but my Mommy-meter guesses somewhere in the 102-3 range last night.  This morning, at the clinic, one hour after being given ibuprofen, it registered 100.  Anyway, our tough little boy literally had tears squirting out of his eyes because of how raw and painful his throat felt.

I looked in his mouth with my trusty flashlight app on my phone and was pretty sure I saw blister looking things on his humongous tonsils.  Seriously?  At this point, the pic below was ME.

Notice the boots sticking out of the sand.  

Thank goodness for our student health clinic on campus.  Nurse Chip checked him out and felt fairly sure our little man had strep, which - around here, means one thing.  A shot of penicillin.  (What?  Oh, I'm glad you asked.  No, we don't have rapid strep tests here.)  Deste wasn't too thrilled with the idea of a needle entering his body.  But, I've never seen a kid "buck up" so quickly and so well.  When he first heard the news, he screamed, cried and wanted to run away, but then we talked a short while.  "Yes, this will hurt.  It will hurt a lot.  But we will count to twenty while you are getting the shot and you can squeeze my hand and try to break the bones, which will give you something funny to do while the shot goes in.  And, you get to pick where he gives the shot - the bottom or your leg."  Somehow, the control from getting to pick his place (the leg) calmed him down immensely, and he decided he could be brave.  HE WAS THE PERFECT PATIENT!  And this is a boy who is deathly afraid of hospitals and doctors (besides his daddy) in general.  Pretty darned impressive.  After the shot (we didn't even have time to count, NOR for him to squeeze my hand!), Deste proudly said, "That didn't even hurt at all!"  And Chip told him that he was braver and better behaved than 95% of the patients that ever got shots here, from Kindergarten all the way up to Twelfth Grade, in ALL his years of working as a nurse at RVA.  "You have braggin' rights, now, my friend.  You were awesome!", said Chip.  To which Deste replied, "Bragging is exactly what I'm going to go do at home right now!  I can't wait to tell Ruthie and Sam how brave I am!"

Turns out, this day isn't so salty, after all.  We are just having a nice quiet Saturday at the house, playing phonics games and watching Disney movies.  Guess we don't have it so hard around here, after all.

***

BUT, some new friends of ours kind of do.  Would you please pray for another new teacher family here at RVA?  They are MUCH better sports than I've been.....but still, they could use prayer!  

The Berry family came to RVA for Ben to teach Spanish.  Ben is a great teacher, and such an answer to prayer for RVA, as they've been needing a Spanish teacher for quite a while.  We have one great one, Mrs. Wells, but she can't teach all the classes.  They offer Spanish 1-4!  Ben is teaching our Sam Spanish 2, and Sam says his is awesome.  Ben and his wife, Esther, have 3 of the cutest little boys!  Super, super cute little guys!  And, Esther is due to have cute boy #4 in about 3 weeks.  Meanwhile, the entire family has been down with sore throats, the stomach bug I just had, and other things off and on for the last couple weeks or more.  Now, when everyone is finally well again, Daddy Ben has pulled out his back, badly.  He can't even get off the couch.  No fun.

Would you please pray for health, healing, and rest for Ben and the whole Berry family, and while you're at it, a safe and smooth delivery for Esther in the next few weeks to a month?

Thank you so much!