Collettos: Quarantined (should be, anyway)

Thank you for your prayers. Mike was able to attend the Roma meeting yesterday. ("I look like a corpse," he mumbled upon entering the room, shivering.) If you know Michael, you know that sleeping for 24 hours straight and not eating for 48 is very unlike him. He has been in quite a sorry state, and we were expecting today to finally visit a Slovak doctor or hospital, which, of course, we were trying to avoid. But, praise God, it looks like he is on the mend today. We did not go to work today, however, because it turns out Mike didn't have food poisoning. It was the flu!

I'm sure they don't spend too much time on this in medical school, but sharing a twin bed for two nights with someone suffering from influenza and proceeding to lie next to them during the day because they are very warm and cozy (read: feverish and chilled), and then drinking after them because you got your glasses mixed up.... all or any of these things WILL spread the influenza virus. So, yeah, guess who got the flu, too? :-)

I know an entire post about a very unpretty thing is a little strange, but allow me to share how God used this time to remind us of His goodness.

I had to get to work early for the meeting and he was still sick. He promised he would follow in a few, so I grabbed his iPod and walked to work. (The electricity had been going on and off all morning--ugh.) I have just never seen him so fragile and sick, and leaving him was physically painful. I cried on the way to work in the pouring rain. Mike has Casting Crowns on his iPod, so I turned on "Who Am I?" which I've probably heard twice before. When it got to the verse where Casting Crowns sings, "Who am I that the voice that calmed the seas would call out through the rain and calm the storm in me?" God gave me His peace. By the next block, the rain had turned to snow, and I cried the rest of the way to work not for Mike's sickness, but for God's goodness. I pray I remember these truths when stronger storms come.

It is only by God's graciousness that I got sick two complete days after Mike, so that we were able to take care of each other. I was exposed to everything Mike was, and only God's timing explains that I didn't get sick until Mike was just well enough to return my care. That boy pours cup of Sprite with all the lovingkindness in the world.

Also, thank God for technology so that Dr. Dad can Skype us what to do and our moms can e-mail "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry your sick!" which everyone knows will bring down your fever by at least few degrees.

During Mike's onset and my own, I literally had personal contact with everyone we know--colleagues from two offices, our next door neighbor, both downstairs neighbors... I am such a loser. Please pray the entire PR team from yesterday's meeting remains healthy for our retreat early next week.