So as I mentioned in my previous blog, I spent the first week here in Romania with the flu. I started to feel sick during our second flight with fever chills, but I figured it was a side effect of the medication I was taking to clear up my second round of parasites. As soon as we got here in Romania I started getting way worse with aches, and nausea and my fever went on for 3 days. So after my 14 hour nap, a nurse on our squad thought it best to go get a blood test at the hospital just to make sure it wasn’t malaria or anything. So Lidia, our ministry contact, took us but warned me that it would probably be a 2-3 hr wait before we even got in. Ashley chuckled and said, “maybe God will grant us favor.” We arrived to the hospital walked in the door and in less than 2 minutes (no joke) I was being attended to by a kind, English doctor. He wanted to do a thorough exam since I had been to many foreign countries, so he did a blood test, urinalysis, x-rays and an ultrasound. He got me a bed to lay down in, instead of sitting up, hooked me up to an IV to replenish my electrolytes and give me pain killers and let me rest. About 20 minutes after having a nice nap, he came in with the results and said I was a very, very healthy young lady and all I had was the flu. He gave me a prescription, handed me a record of all my test results and wished me the best in life.
I was nervous the whole time how much this would cost because some people had to pay $350 in Guatemala for hospital care that only included blood tests and an IV. I asked him how much and he said, “no worries”. The whole trip to the hospital took about 3 hrs. God definitely granted us favor!
So, I spent the first week in Romania sick with the flu, but I realized something amazing when it was over. I have been sick every month so far with the flu, parasites or allergies, and the last 3 months every time I got sick I was frustrated and wanted to quit the Race and go home. But this time all I wanted to do was get better so I could start doing ministry here. What a change the Lord has done in my heart! I still have a lot longer to be here on the Race, but I have settled in. I am not thrashing about anymore, trying to get away from what is uncomfortable. It’s like that moment a child has after they have had this crying fit, when they are worn out from crying, and they take these short little gasps for air. Their face is red and wet, and their head is pounding, but they have stop fighting and have curled up in their mother’s chest, allowing her to stroke their hair while she whispers, “shhhhh it’s okay. You’re okay.”
The Father has me in a place where I have surrendered to what the Race is and how this process goes and I am settling in to His chest while He whispers, “Shhhh it’s okay. You’re okay.”
