"Blessing"

On Tuesday night we were driving home from Montana and Sarah came down with a fever about an hour before we got home. I got in the back seat with her and gave her some Motrin. After she took it she looked at me and said "blessing, blessing". I asked her if she wanted Daddy to give her a blessing and she said "yeah". Kevin and I looked at each other in amazement. He has given her plenty of blessings and she has seen him give me blessings but we didn't think she understood what they were for. Of course when we got home Kevin gave her one.

The next morning she had a temp. of 103.1 so I took her to the doctor. It turns out she has an ear infection which we had no idea was there. I got her prescription filled and gave her the medicine right away along with more Motrin for the fever. We went home and Sarah took a nap. After she had been asleep for an hour I felt prompted to take her temperature (we have one of those ear thermometers which makes it easy). Her temp. was 104.6! I double checked to make sure it read correctly and it came back with the same temp. Of course her little body was just on fire so I called the doctor to see if I needed to take her to the ER. The nurse told me to put her in a cool bath for 15 minutes. She also said that Sarah would get the shakes from it because it would be such a shock to her system. So I filled the tub with luke-warm water and got her out of bed. Sarah moaned a little but was as limp as a rag doll. Once I got her into the tub she became more alert and started wimpering and crying telling me she was cold and begging me to take her out. I had to leave her in for 15 minutes to cool her off so it was a very difficult bath to give her. I wanted to cry the whole time.

After I took her out and got her dressed she was still shivering so I hugged her close and put a blanket around her. As I was holding her she cried "blessing, blessing, blessing". That sent me into tears because Kevin was at work and I was amazed again at her understanding of what blessings are for. I explained to her that Daddy was at work so he couldn't giver her one but I asked her if she wanted Mommy to say a prayer and she said yes. So I sat down with her and prayed. She sat perfectly still the whole time and I could tell she felt better after we said the prayer.

The bath brought her temp. down to 100.7. I called the nurse again to update her on Sarah's status and she had me alternate giving her Tylenol and Motrin for 24 hrs. to keep the fever under control. She then told me if her fever spiked again to give her another bath. She said the ER would not be able to do much more than that. So I was grateful that she saved us time and money in avoiding a trip to the ER and today Sarah is much better. The antibiotics are finally kicking in and her fever is almost gone.

This has been an amazing experience for me. Of course it was scary when her temp was so high but Heavenly Father protected her and helped me through the situation. And Kevin and I were given the opportunity to see that Sarah is learning by our example even though she is not even two years old yet. That realization is both exciting and scary to me (what kind of bad habits is she learning from me?) But more importantly I am seeing that our efforts in teaching her the gospel are paying off just by living it. Actions speak louder than words.