The Year of the Rat

According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2008 was the year of the Rat. The year officially ended January 25, 2009. It is said that the year of the Rat is a time for hard work, activity and renewal.

For our family the year of the rat was 2008 and continues until.... well... we're hoping it will be finished by the first of July. What a year it has been! There is a dialog that happens between Bart and Enoch daily that reflects our intimacy with this little rodent.

Upon coming home for lunch from school, Bart catches Enoch in his arms as Enoch runs to him through the kitchen,

Enoch: "Rats Daddy?"

Bart: "The rats say hello and to give you a big kiss!"

Enoch: "Rats die!"

Bart: "You want the rats to die?"

With that Enoch usually giggles and gets lots of kisses from Bart. What's encrypted in that exchange is Enoch knows if Bart's lab rat dies early in the day, Bart will come home sooner. The hope is that "Templeton", as the kids call the rat, will have a quick demise.

Another image the rat conjures up is one of illness and disease. The last few months we have definitely had our share of both.

A few weeks before Elias was born, I came down with a terrible cough. I just couldn't seem to kick it. There were nights that Bart had to sleep in the other room because the coughing fits were so persistent that neither of us were able to sleep. Nothing seemed to alleviate the coughing spasms. The dramatic part of me was convinced that I was dying of consumption.

Concerned about going into labor with that kind of cough, I asked Bart and our home teacher Greg Stiner to give me a blessing. The blessing, that was given by Greg, stated that I would have a "reprieve" from this illness. I took that to mean that the cough would cease and I would no longer have to deal with it. Needless to say, a week later, the morning my water broke, I was still coughing. But as the labor progressed the "reprieve" came as promised. Midway through the day I stopped coughing and was able to have Elias without the concerns of trying to push while coughing.

A couple of weeks past and slowly my cough got better. Then the kids started to come down with it. We tried everything we knew to help them and again nothing seemed to work. The concern was not only for the kids that were sick but also for the new baby. We decided to take the kids in and have them cultured. When the results came back it was confirmed that they had pertussis, or what is commonly known as whooping cough.

The whooping cough is a difficult illness for older children but can have major complications or be fatal in infants. The Dr. put all of the kids including the Elias on antibiotics which take care of the bacteria but once the symptoms begin there is nothing to prevent the coughing spasms. They have to run their course until the body rids itself of all the toxins the bacteria leaves.

Caleb, Cayanna and Enoch have had quite a time getting over the cough, which can linger up to 6 months. Isaac, on the other hand, had a milder case and is almost completely over the spasms. Then there is Elias. Elias never has had any sign or symptom of the illness at all. This is a disease that 70%-90% of people living in the same household will contract. The explanation for Elias's immunity is that the antibody for pertussis must have been passed to him in utero and/or through breastmilk. Breastmilk does not naturally contain the antibodies needed to fight off whooping cough. It can only be found in a mother that contracted the illness in the third trimester of pregnancy. I am so grateful that I had whooping cough.

Through out this experience we have been blessed by friends and family that have listened to us, cried with us, and prayed for us. It has been a path that we were not required to traverse alone. I'm grateful for those that have " lifted our hands when they hung low". Mostly I'm grateful to a loving God who is ever mindful of us and whose timing is always perfect.

I can't say our year of the rat has been an easy one. But I can say it has been a year of blessings and miracles!