Jackson has the Croup and a Left Ear Infection!

These pictures were taken over the last week. We have been busy! Who knows where Jackson got the croup from. Carol came and visited Friday, then we went ice skating with FBC children's ministry and there was another 16 month old little girl who Jackson could not stop hugging/messing with. Unfortunately, he has learned how to pick his nose. Then we went to Spartanburg on Monday for 1 night to see my family since Kelly was going to be there!

Jackson’s symptoms happened fast. Monday morning he had a cough and then by that night it turned into a cough that sounded like a dog barking. He was not sleeping, and just getting worse by the second so we went to the doctor yesterday afternoon. We had not been since Jan 3^rd - an entire 3 weeks! (the doctor was surprised Jackson is not in daycare sense he has been sick every 3 weeks this winter). It almost seems like the solution to Jackson always getting sick is him staying at home until March when he turns 18 months and it gets warm outside---studies have proven that once they turn 18 months old their immune system gets really strong. The doctor said that he had the croup and a left infection.

How I am treating it:

1. The doctor gave me an oral steroid to give him for 3 days which seems to be making him a little hyper. He has never been on a steroid so this is new (this helps with breathing….he coughs so much sometimes that he almost throws up).
2. He had a fever of 102 last night so we gave him Motrin
3. He is on Augmentin for the ear infection (which unfortunately gives him an upset stomach but was one of our only choices for antibiotic this month)
4. Saline nose spray and blowing out his nose every couple of hours/sitting in the bathroom while the shower is running hot water
   

Pray for us. Jackson is not taking naps, and at night he coughs all night so we go in there a good bit to make sure he is ok. Any more suggestions to make him better, I am all ears! It is really hard when they are sick and he does not understand what is going on. He literally tries to climb upon me to make it go away. I just really struggle when he is sick. I know when I am sick, it helps me become more like Christ and draw closer to Him. But when Jackson suffers, what is the point? Is Jackson suffering to make me grow in Christ? He will not remember this suffering latter on in life, so I need to repent and ask God for forgiveness for me being angry at the fact that he is going to the doctor every 3 weeks. If God wanted to protect him from all these illnesses He could.

My goal as a parent is not to protect Jackson from life, but to prepare him. Since Jackson has suffered a ton this week, it is only fitting that God has me reading Job right now in my daily reading. Today I read chapters 8-11, when God gave us mercy and let Jackson finally take a nap. Job was looking so desperately for a mediator he says, “If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God’s rod from me,” (9:33-34). He knew the guilt between him and God. Praise God that Jesus is “the one mediator between God and men” (1 Timothy 2:5). One thing I have realized, is that a person must realize their guilt before God before they can accept God’s Son as their Savior.

Latter on his so called friend Zophar states, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens --- what can you do? They are deeper the depths of the grave --- what can you know?” I know I will not fully know or understand why God allows babies to suffer helplessly, and it is not a question I am going to spend time worrying over. Wow, God really spoke to me in so many ways today through His Perfect Word.

While I am on the rant, let me just comment on something I heard James Dobson say yesterday on the radio. I think James Dobson is great and has done so much for so many people. But, he said yesterday that young girls just have “to forgive themselves.” Where does it say in the Bible that we are supposed to forgive ourselves? Nowhere! We are not God who can grant forgiveness for our own sins. I think that what he means is that girls need to accept God’s forgiveness when they ask for forgiveness. But, we need to say what we mean, be precise, and mean what we say. Instead of wasting our time trying to “forgive ourselves,” which I just do not even know how you do, we should take time (maybe even list our sins to God), and ask God to forgive them. Then, we should take the time, to forgive other people by either saying how someone has sinned against you, or writing it out. We can ask God to give us strength to forgive that person in probably a long prayer. After we have forgiven them we need to make commitments to never bring the sin that someone did to you up again in conversation or in your own mind. Once you have forgiven them, it is over; Jesus’ blood has washed that sin away. I think many people’s anger and bitterness, including my own, is a result of us not forgiving people in our lives who have hurt us, and a result of us not confessing our sins to God and repenting from them. Forgiveness is an action that we either choose to do or not do.