The Doctor and Pharmacy

We decided after LEGO Land that we would have to give in and take Maeryn to the doctor.  Again.

So Michael drove an hour each way to the closest Urgent Care where they let us know that really - she only had a cold, but they gave her some super strong cough syrup and sent it over to the local CVS.

It took awhile for them to fill the prescription, and Michael and Maeryn really had no where else to go, so they made the best of the situation with the objects presented to them and the space in the aisles of the store.

Michael texted these photos to me along with updates about their ETA back at the bus.

Penny Park

Sunday we went to the park.  It was a nice day.  Maeryn got sick again that night.

We had all our friend praying and we were adding iron drops to her oatmeal in the morning.

This time she only hit the bathroom three times.

I hope that this was the beginning of the end.  Something better.

Jonah and Michael went to Walmart and picked up a few things.

The nights were still cold.

I figured the test results would have to come on Monday.

And when they came, if they were negative, we would get to move on to Arizona.

Silver City; Still No Test Results

This mirror!  It was the reason I brought everyone back to this store.

On Saturday we got up and decided to check out Silver City as a family.  I was excited to show everyone all the things I'd seen, and of course it was day time, so Maeryn was feeling okay.

Also - she hadn't been sick Friday night, so we were all hoping maybe she had finally kicked whatever bug was in her belly.

I took them all around the city.  We got drinks at the local co-op grocery.  And I took them to the cool Mexican art store.  They all liked it just as much as me.  We decided that once we settle down we'd come back here and get stuff to decorate our new house.

I also loved these pillows.

And this St. Francis divider I saw just today.

That night Maeryn got sick again.

The doctor called and said one of the results were back and she was negative for one thing.  Still waiting on the others.

Friday

Friday is our pizza and a movie night.

We sort of wanted to go and see Frozen.  But it was an hour to the closest movie theater, and we weren't sure how Maeryn would do.

Again, during the day, it was impossible to know how she was truly doing.

We went hiking at another state park.

Jonah felt car sick (sickness all around again) so I didn't go on the hike.  I stayed back at the car with him while Michael took Maeryn, who, miracle of miracles, felt fine at the time.

They had a nice time, I think.

 

About five minutes before Michael and Maeryn returned from their hike, Jonah started feeling better.  We blasted P!nk and sang along.  Then we went to Pizza Hut.

So far, so good.

And the movie theater.  We were running late (the service at Pizza Hut wasn't the best), so we ran through the parking lot (Maeryn in heels) and grabbed our tickets, hitting our seats just as the opening credits began.  We'd only missed the previews.

That night, after the movie, all was quiet, and I realized it was the first time in about three weeks Maeryn hadn't been sick at night.  

I breathed a little easier.

De-toxifying Billy

We thought these warnings on the washers were a little dramatic

After visiting the doctor and getting testing for Maeryn and realizing that we really weren't kicking this thing, we settled down in Silver City to wait for test results and get the bus clean.

We did laundry and cleaned the thing from top to bottom.  We opened all of the windows and aired things out.  We cleaned the bathroom.  It was quite a day.

I kept hoping test results would come back quickly.  They said they'd rush them since Maeryn was so young.  We waited 48, then 72 hours.

There was praying and buying of tons of healthy foods and putting iron drops in Maeryn's oatmeal.

Lots of just... waiting.

One day I went into the city by myself.  It was lovely.  I met a lot of people - the barista at the coffeeshop who just moved here from Alaska, the microbiologist who owned a ranch and sold her meats at the local butcher shop with all grass feds and organics, the artists'' guild that met at the same shop, the book seller who admired my selections (I got a second printing of Walden and an early edition of Sherlock Holmes (all the short stories) with original drawings)) and talked to me about Utah and hiking and the Australian Open.  I bought some good meats for the kids and some good coffee for me and I found this amazing store that sold Mexican artwork.  I decided I'd take the fam there as soon as Maeryn was feeling better.

Soon, right?

At least the bus is clean.

City of Rocks

During Maeryn's prolonged illness, we were fooled many times into thinking that she was well.

In the morning, she always seemed fine.  All day she would play and chat and behave normally... only to fall back into dreaded sickness every night. 

Today was one of those days where we thought, "She must be well!"

And we went off to City of Rocks State Park.

Such a neat place.

I'd like to camp there in a tent someday.  The sites are scattered among the City like tiny oasis in a vast desert - using rocks as roof-lines, overhangs as added shelters. 

This is Maeryn howling like a wolf on the rocks.  Totally sick, right???

After an hour or so of scrambling up and down rock faces and ducking into caves, Maeryn declared she needed to go potty.  I took her to the visitor's center and waited.  And waited.  And texted Michael to tell him, "Maeryn's sick again, we need to go home." 

So we did.  Piled into the car. Maeryn snuggled Lovey.  Her face was pale.  She was quiet.  Another night.  Me trying not to worry.

In Which We Don't Go to the Gila Cliff Dwellings

The Cliff Dwellings.  You know the ones.  The ones you read about in your social studies textbook in seventh grade and you don't ever think you'd see something like that in real life...

That's where we were planning on going today.

The drive was almost two hours - down the road with the "pinwheels" and up a mountain of insane switchbacks and cliffs (with no dwellings) leading down a couple thousand foot drop.  No guardrails.

We were running late.  The park closed at five and we were just leaving the bus around two.  Michael was driving a little crazy.  My knuckles were white on the grab bar above my head... but I tried not to show my fear... too much.  I'm still here writing this after all, right?

Once we arrived at the park the rangers told us we were the last group they were allowing to hike to the dwellings.  We were relieved at our luck.  We started over the bridge to the trail... and then Jonah got sick.  So sick...we had to go back home. 

I tried not to be too bummed as the ranger radioed to the top of the trail that our "group of four" wouldn't be arriving and told them to go ahead and shut things down up there. 

It was the beginning of another long bout of sickness.  Especially for Maeryn, who was down with a bug for weeks and we ended up visiting another local urgent care, meeting her awesome doctor Isaac, and getting all sorts of tests run to make sure we didn't all have parasites (we don't).

On the way down the mountain we stopped once to check out the view:

And we stopped here to check the GPS and make sure we weren't lost beyond repair:

 

I made Michael take a picture of the sign.  Too awesome.

We stopped at Sonic on the way back. I got onion rings.  They were good.

Jonah woke up that night puking, but in the morning he seemed better.

A few nights later, after another round of Sonic, I was in the bathroom puking too.  All. night. long.

And Maeryn...  she was sick for so long I started having nightmares she would never get better.  And asking friends from home to pray.   And telling my mom I was scared.  

At the same time one of my best friends was being evicted from her apartment.  She needed help.  And I was so. far. away.  

I felt so helpless.  So angry.  

Eventually things did turn around.

Maeryn started to get well.

My friend got the help she needed.

And I felt the calm wash over me. 

And remembered that God is there.  

Even when I'm thousands of miles from the people I know.

Even if I don't get to go to the cliff dwellings.