Unclean! Unclean!

I have been so horrible about blogging during 2014! There are so many things that have happened and that I know I've forgotten about already. But I'm trying to remember a few of my favorites and get them added.

So, one of my last posts was about camping at the Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet, SD. A couple of days after that, my cousin's wife called to say, "Annie. I am so sorry. I took Jasmina back to the doctor because it just seemed like more was going on than her eczema breakout and they told us she has Hand, Foot, and Mouth! I never would have exposed you guys if I'd known!" My response was to assure her that it was fine. The four oldest kids had all had it before and if Bristol got sick, she got sick. They didn't know they were exposing us to a crazy-contagious virus at the time and if she hadn't called to tell me, I just would have figured we picked it up at the store or the library or the pool. Kids get sick.

Sure enough. That evening, Bristol started showing signs of coming down with it. She was fussy and a little feverish and by the next day, she had the tell-tale blisters on her feet and hands. Poor girl. She wouldn't eat much because her mouth was full of the sores too, but we tried to keep her comfortable. She really was very agreeable, considering.

What inspired this post, though, was the other kids' reactions to it. Earlier this summer, at our church's Weird Animals VBS, there was a lesson about the 10 lepers. The kids learned about how people with leprosy in that time period were forced to call out, "Unclean! Unclean!" to warn people without the disease that they were nearby. There was even a brief segment in the daily spotlight video that had a recording of people calling it out. Well, because of the open sores on Bristol's hands and feet, the kids taught her to call out, "Unclean! Unclean!" It sounded more like, "Unkeen! Unkeen!" but it was pretty stinkin' cute.