surviving and becoming stronger

(This is yet another draft I found and decided I would post today.)

There are many beginnings to this story. I could begin here or perhaps start there. Maybe a slow and easy prelude should be the manner in which I tell this story or maybe just a direct jump in with a big splash and have done with it. 

Every summer when the pool season opens I know the water in the newly filled pool is going to be cold.  That water is pretty, clear and crystal looking with the sunbeams sparkling on its surface. But it does not fool me. I know. I know when I even as much as put my feet into that pool it will be cold and an agonizing kind of feeling rises to my brain "rememberer". I have decided the best way every summer is to just take the plunge. Jump right in, squealing as I do, never wanting to miss an opportunity to squeal as a full-fledged adult.

     So with that I will jump into my story.  I came down with covid, four days after returning home from taking Charlotte to college back in August. I had a very regular, classic case. And one week later I was up and continuing my daily routine even though I quarantined a full ten days. My daughter also came down with covid, being younger, her classic symptoms much like mine ended within five days. On the last day of my personal quarantine, my husband who was thinking he had perhaps escaped this malady much like a Houdini in a glaring side show, come down with it. We had to make sure he understood that he would not be able to go anywhere for ten days. His symptoms were like a cold, her worked at home for three days, cold-like symptoms nothing alarming or unnatural. Then by that weekend, day four, he had developed a fever and he felt horrible. On Monday and Tuesday he worked from home, not feeling the best. Tuesday we recognized his breathing was more shallow than was normal for him. From there we watched him daily get sicker and sicker. Yes, we gave him all the protocol of natural supplements. After a week of struggling with breathing I would ask him, " Do you want to go to the hospital and he would say no. But there comes a point when one must go to the only place they do not want to go but are forced to...the hospital...for nine days. 

What have we learned? More than I could adequately report on this space and some of the knowledge we gained would only make some totally disagree with us and feel they have a case for thinking we were in the wrong for all our convictions  and thoughts on what is going on with the protocols and such of this virus. I am rather numb to those disagreements.  One of the most important things we learned was where to get ivermectin and  blessings of all blessings we discovered a most excellent doctor who "thinks like we do"... a like-minded one. Why did the LORD not provide the doctor and the medicine that would have more than likely prevented a horrendous hospital stay?  My solid answer to that is I do not know, but I trust Him. He knows best and what we was learned has proven to be priceless.

But I am telling you there are things going on that are beyond  our wildest imaginations. My husband is alive not because of the wonderful care he received in the hospital, but by the grace of God and great prayers. 

We have not changed a single thing in how we think about this virus, if any thing we are more strengthened in our beliefs and are resolved to stand for what we know is right.

And the LORD has turned it for good. You would not believe the people that we have referred to this godly doctor that have been able to get the needed medications and prescriptions to get over this virus without serious trouble.