Last night while out exploring the woods with the Christian and the Nies,
Claire called us from Brazil for our weekly chat.
Unaware to me, Lottie discovered a plant with three leaves.
Later I would learn that she liked how the plants resembled little people
with a head and two arms.
So she picked them and played with them all while we face-timed with Claire.
Also, meanwhile, the mosquitos that night were nasty and biting all of us, including Lottie.
Do you see where I'm going with this?
We stayed outside a few minutes longer and Lottie showed
Claire the fireflies she caught and then hung up with Claire,
went inside then and went to bed.
When Lottie woke up she had cuts all over her little body
and I remembered how horrible the mosquitos were the night before, and felt
sad that she had gotten it so bad.
The next morning when she woke up they were worse
with even more bites all over her little body!
I thought she had slept with bed bugs or something
so I washed all her bedding and put Benadryl on her sores to help her itching.
That night she was terribly restless and couldn't sleep.
When she woke up her body had swollen up to twice her size!
She looked like a little bulldog.
These were definitely NOT just bug bites.
And our friend who saw Lottie told us that was a case of poison ivy!
Lottie took me outside to where she was playing and she showed me
the plants she was picking and playing with.
With Google lens, we positively identified the culprit as POSIN IVY!
To make matters worse, WHILE playing with poison ivy she was
scratching her mosquito bites,
then spreading the poison resin all over her skin.
And I mean everywhere!
This has been the worst case that I've ever seen.
Several times a day I scrub her body with special ointment and wrap her up
in blankets, so she won't scratch.
She is miserable.
One evening after scrubbing her in the shower
and in between severe itching attacks and tears, she asked
me why God would make such a horrible plant.
I told her that everything has a purpose
even the hard experiences that we face and go through.
And I'm in the middle of learning this lesson again, too.
I don't get it and am trying to muster the faith to believe that
He does and things will work out, heal, and we'll grow in the process.
Yesterday we heard that her 4th-grade teacher is THE SAME TEACHER
AS HER 3RD GRADE TEACHER and she is so excited!
But we're a little worried that when August 23rd, the first day of school
rolls around, she will still be overcoming the rash.
She's missed church twice including church activities and a birthday party.
It would be so sad to miss the first days of school, too.
But, I think she should for sure be Poison Ivy for Halloween this year.
