THE CAMPING TRIP WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

Hi, It's been a long time since I last posted and there is a reason for that. We decided to go to Brandon and camp this last weekend. Kind of a quick camping trip before harvest. Well it went a little different than planned. When we left Caleb had a stomach ache and we thought 'The flue, it will pass' By Friday afternoon he was throwing up and by then we were thinking I hope no one else gets this. Well Friday night was rough as Caleb was sick the whole night throwing up every 1/2 hour or so and by then we are thinking 'This is a really bad flu. I really hope nobody gets this!" He slept a little in the early morning and we were hoping that the worst was over. But not so, when I looked at him he looked up at me with his big brown eyes and said, "Mommy, it really hurts." By then we were thinking appendicitis and knew it was time to take him to emergency. So off we went, they admitted him and we waited. They put him on IV and we waited, they checked him and we waited, he had xrays and we waited.....Getting the picture. Blood tests, urine samples, ultra sound ect. The doctors were a little stumped because his white blood count was quite normal, and he was throwing a little too often for appendicitis, and he wasn't screaming in pain. We told them he was a tough kid, and when they would check his tummy he would curl his toes but not say anything. (We finally told him it was alright, he could tell them that he was hurting and after that when they would ask him how he was doing he would say in a little weak voice, 'Not good') But the ultra sound showed some fluid so they decided to do surgery, still not sure if it was appendicitis. We went to emergency around 8:30 am and the surgery was around 3:00 pm. So we kissed him good bye and off he went into surgery. Not easy for a very tired mom and dad to do! I think about an hour later the surgery was finished and the doctor came in and told us he was a very tough boy because his appendix had actually ruptured and there was a lot of infection. We were glad this part was over but wondered how his recovery would be. Well he is doing pretty well today. But he has had a tough go of it. He was in a lot of pain and was really out of it for the first couple of days. Today he has actually been smiling without being majorly prompted. His stomach is still quite upset and we are thinking it is the meds, so we are working on figuring that out. He really hasn't eaten anything since Friday, he's been on IV all this time. So when he can eat again I think things will improve rapidly.The doc said if all goes well he should be out by Friday. My thoughts: I came to a point (and Mark too) where I knew I had to surrender Caleb to God and say 'Your will be done'. This was very hard to do but I knew to keep my sanity I had to. We always say we have surrendered our kids to God, but when it came down to it I had to wonder if my heart matched my mouth. The kids and I talked about how worrying wouldn't do any good, and we needed to trust God and be there for each other. This was a trying time for our family. We are used to being all together. It was very hard to send the rest of our kids home to fend for themselves. I wanted to be with everybody. The kids are taking it different ways. Some are being very strong, some are very weepy, Zachary really misses his big brother and Brooke misses his cuddles. They will all be very glad when he is home. But God has been faithful and we really have felt everyone's prayers. Thank you so much. Thank you also for the phone calls, and suppers. We hope to post from home soon! Oh and by the way, on a different note: For those of you who are wondering when we are getting a bigger van.......We hope to (Lord Willing) have one by March 25th! Ta, Ta for now