No one knew

(We are all well now. Sickness can take over your life no matter what it's called)

It has been 6 weeks now since we got sick. Zurielle was the first person who started coughing. We rushed her to the emergency room in the middle of the night when she couldn't breathe. She was breathing fine by the time we arrived at the hospital. They did some tests and sent her home. The other 5 children in the home came down with it one by one and lastly our oldest son, who lives down the street, became sick. Zurielle is the only one who has recovered completely so far and is helping me with the others.
I sit in the family room with the 4 or 5 of the sickest children. I dive for vomit basins and wake them to sit them up when they start coughing and gasping for breath. Sometimes we use the Nebulizer when the breath won't come. The children need aid so regularly during the night that I hardly ever drift off to sleep in between.
Zurielle relieves me at 3:30 am. I go to one of the currently unused bunks and sleep until about 8:30 am. I haven't slept in my own bed at night for weeks. We have been living in our new house for over 5 weeks now and the three girls have never slept in their beds.
 We have gone through something like 20 rolls of paper towels just cleaning up vomit. There is not always a throw up basin within reach, which by the way is a very good argument against carpeting on stairs.
For a couple weeks, Nelinha, our darling 4 year old was getting a couple nose bleeds per day. Sometimes they occurred simultaneously with coughing, choking and throwing up. At first I was holding her and pinching her nose over the basin while I called out, "hey, someone, come help, turn on the light!" I needed to see her face to see if pinching it was stopping the bleeding. We keep the lights on all night now and we never stop holding her nose for at least 10 minutes after a nose bleed starts.
If you are one of those people (like my husband) who can't even say the words, "bloody mucous" , without gagging, you should be very proud of my husband who has cleaned it up a couple times already and handled it manfully. (the blood was only present because of the nose bleeds which have virtually stopped). I'm usually the one who handles bodily fluid clean up in this family although Zurielle is pretty hard core also.
 I tell you what;  She is going to be a good catch for someone who loves to laugh and is open to having 26 children. She is already practicing to be an amazing, tireless mother and her cooking is fantastic.

While writing this, I heard the now familiar throw up sounds and Nehemiah calling out urgently, "the bucket, the bucket.. oh, man... Mama, she threw up down the stairs again!".
For heavens sake, sit down and stop eating! Right?!) They keep eating because in between coughing, they feel great and want to eat, so the cycle continues......
Despite all this hardship, we thank God every day for our new house and all it's comforts.

p.s. For those of you helicopter moms out there: Yes, we are working with a doctor and a nurse. We are following all their instructions and advice. We have been told what to watch out for and when to go to the hospital. We are prepared to head straight there if they advise it.
p.s. We wish to thank those from our local church who are looking out for us