Earlier this week we had our most difficult night yet. Mason has been struggling with bad stomach cramps, diarrhea and loss of appetite for days. On this particular night, he had one bite of dinner, then rushed off to the bathroom. Minutes later I heard him wailing. His legs were cramping, both of them, with charlie horses that wouldn't let up. His stomach was a mess. He was back and forth to the bathroom and when he wasn't there he was rolled up in a ball screaming on his bed. This went on for more than an hour and we finally called one of the more experienced missionaries here for help. She said he was severely dehydrated and the lack of salt was causing the cramps. He either needed to get a lot of rehydration fluid down quickly or we needed to take him into town to get put on IV fluids. Not wanting an IV, he agreed to try to drink the liquids, but the first few sips came right back up, along with everything else he'd had earlier in the day. He became listless and at one point wouldn't even open his eyes for Dan. I was near panic, but in the back of my mind I remembered that God and I had talked about this long before we left the U.S. These were His babies before they were ours. He loves them MORE than we do, which is hard for me to fathom. I know He told us to come and I trust that He will take care of them. I just have to do the best I can and let Him do the rest.

Mason did eventually sit up and drink several glasses of various liquids...7-Up, water with a Propel packet in it, a little bit of a banana smoothy (for the potassium), and in the end we avoided the IV. He went to bed around midnight. But the whole time we were tending to Mason, Griffin was running around either making things or gathering his own things and wrapping them as gifts for his brother. He kept coming into the room and laying them at Mason's feet. "Here you go Mason." I stopped him at one point and said, "Mason is going to be OK. How are you doing?" He told me that he just wanted to help Mason and thought he could give him some presents to make him happy. He gave him nearly everything he brought to Africa that he treasures...a pen light, a necklace, all of his money, some small toys, 2 homemade necklaces, and one thing that brought me to tears.

Somewhere Griffin had found a small mesh pouch and inside it he put 1 large crystal, 5 marbles, 6 smaller crystals, and a piece of folded-over masking tape. Then he attached a note to it that said, "Big crystal = God. Little crystals = people who love you. Marbles = your family. Tape = Mommy." He told Mason that he probably wouldn't want to take the things out of it, but if he'd just look at it and think about it he would feel better.

Wow. I am the tape. How fortunate I am to be wrapped around these precious boys.