Only seconds after publishing last night’s blog, I heard Avery cry from the room her and Titus were asleep in. They had been a sleep for a few hours by that point and I really didn’t think much of it. I closed the lid of my laptop and heard her crying again and then I heard Bethany’s voice calling for me. “Avery just threw up all over the bed,” she told me as I entered the room. That was around 11:30pm.
Before Zach and Kara left the flat we were staying in last night, we made plans to join them for church. Zach was going to meet us around 9am today and help us manage the trams over to their church. But as soon as we began to get Avery out of bed and into the tub where we could clean her up, I realized it was going to be a long night. I texted Zach that church was probably not going to happen, and I’m honestly glad I did. It took us about 30 minutes to get Avery cleaned up, her hair washed, and all the bed coverings taken care of. Avery was in a better mood and said she was hungry. We had some bananas and pretzel so she ate some of that was happy. She laid back down and went to bed but we still had all these dirty clothes that we were hoping to wash. It was now just past midnight.
Since we were in downtown Prague I figured I would go down to the little shop at the bottom of the building and buy some laundry soap. Amazingly, it was open and so I purchased the soap and ran back upstairs. Upon inspecting the German packaging some more (and translating it on my phone) I realized I had actually purchased fabric softener. So went spent some time researching shops near us where I could find a brand that I knew was actually soap. I went back outside and walked down a few different streets and blocks and nothing else was open so back to the little shop I went. I spent a good amount of time staring at the bottles and trying to figure out which one was not fabric softener, made my selection, and bought a second bottle of soap. I went back up to the 5th floor where I did more research only to find out second time that I just bought another bottle of fabric softener! A little defeated and sad we decided it was just time for bed and we would deal with it in the morning. That was 1am.
Avery threw up again at 2am and then at around 4am. We repeated the same process at 2am that we did the first time with a clean up but at 4am she didn’t have much on her stomach. Titus and Avery were both awake for the day just after 6 and I honestly think the most sleep we got was from 6-8am when let the kids watch something on the iPad because we were exhausted. When I did wake up I went back down to another store that I recognized, bought the soap that I knew was correct, and we started washing everything this morning. The lack of sleep hurt my cold sickness recovery and I just didn’t feel well at all and went back to bed for another hour.
We made plans to have lunch with Zach and Kara as well before we got our train back to home today (I’m actually writing this post while on the train). I wasn’t feeling great, and we missed our first tram, but we did end up joining them. The food was delicious and I was really glad we got to spend a little more time with them. This afternoon they helped us get packed up, played with our kids, and then get checked out of our flat on eventually on to the train that we’re now enjoying.
The day is ending much better than it started and for that I’m grateful. It was a hard night but for now it’s over. I’m sure I had nights like Avery’s when I was little. By God’s grace we make it through and you spend a train ride thinking about how hard it was, but also how gracious the Lord was. We had a great weekend and really sweet time with our friends and for that we’re very thankful. You never know how the days will go, but I guess that’s part of the “fun” of life! We’ll be home in a few hours and maybe another long night is ahead of us, only the Lord knows? What I do know is that God is using it all to sanctify us and make us more like His Son. And when I think about it like that, it makes it all worth it.