Round and Round

My brother was stationed in Germany a few years before Kayden was born.

Wanting to see him, and Europe, we planned a little Christmas-New Years visit.

Part of MY plan was to go to France.

My dad....not so much.

First, we did not have the correct currency.

Second, it was 7 hours to get there.

Third, he likes to play it safe and stick close, especially when in a foreign destination.

The fourth should have been that none of us spoke the language, but I will get to that later.

I reasoned with him that this would be the one and only time I got to Europe, and I needed to see the Eiffel Tower (and test out my second-year French from high school, of course).

After much cajoling, he agreed.

We set off for Paris and it became evident pretty early on, the trip was going to be a dismal failure.

The first stop to fill up with gas required cash, of which we had none (doesn't everyone take Mastercard?)

It rained and rained and rained, so our 7 hour trip turned into 12.

We were all starving, and again could not find anyone to take an American credit card.

We did finally get to Paris, but I am pretty sure everyone was crabby until we found a place to eat.

Although we were only there a few hours, we wandered around and it was just as magical as I thought it would be.

We saw Le louvre, The Eiffel Tower, Champs Élysées, Notre Dame, all sorts of French artists in the local park.

We loaded up the car for our return trip.

Apparently, all roads lead to the heart of the city.

We literally tried to leave Paris for two hours. Every road we would take, we ended up right back at the Arc de Triomphe.

We would stop and ask for directions, they would point this way or that way, and we could not figure out how to get out of that city.

After countless hours and frustration, we found an American that sent us up four back streets and a crowded alley to get us headed in the right direction.

Thankfully, my dad was a good sport and I admitted to a failing grade for that trip.

Tessa was really sick on Tuesday with vomiting and a fever.

They told us to take her in on Wednesday around 10 PM because she still was throwing up and started to spike a fever, but I suppose a huge part of me felt like the Paris trip.

Once I got back into DeVos, they were never going to let me leave.

We prayed she would turn around, and in the time it took to talk to the nurse after hours, her fever was starting to go away and she seemed to perk up a bit.

Thursday, I thought I would see a huge improvement, and she just kept going further and further downhill.

Right when Josh got home from school, I had my dad take the boys and my mom and I headed to the ER.

No doubt about it, T girl was dehydrated.

They had to run a few painful tests, and the poor baby could not even shed a tear.

We waited a few hours in the ER before they determined she was not going to turn a corner anytime soon.

She tested positive for a kidney infection, and then her hemoglobin was measuring low. Laying there (above), not knowing what was wrong with her, brought back a lot of flashbacks to that very first horrible day at Metro Health when I was pregnant with her. Thank God my mom was there to talk some sense into me:-)

Got transferred to our room around midnight.

Friday was spent, hanging out and trying to see what Tessa would do. She did not show very much improvement- still had a fever all day and refused any sort of liquid.

This morning, the attending doctor came in and said he was going to try and turn off her IV so that she would start to feel hungry.

Tessa and Papa ate a big lunch, but she still would not drink anything.

The finally decided to let her come home around 5 this evening, with the instructions to return if she wouldn't take any liquids. 

Something I learned about Kayden through this short stint is how skewed his vision is of hospitals.

My mom said on Thursday night, he asked if Tessa was going to die.

Friday, his teacher said you could tell this was on his mind. He bugged my mom Friday night again, wondering if he was going to get to see her again.

This morning, as he entered the room, I started laughing (probably due to shock) because Kayden had cut huge chunks of his hair clear to the scalp.

This is not really Kayden's nature-- I would expect this more from Bryce.

When asked, he said "I wanted to be just like Tessa" because I didn't know if she would be ok.

This kid was so worried about her. It warms my heart and makes me sad (had I realized he was thinking all these things, I would have eased his fears much sooner)

 My two baldies

Home together (or should I say Maison Ensemble)- it is a beautiful thing!

1 Chronicles 16:34

34 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.