(If you’re here for the 7 read-a-long end-of-the-book party, we’re going to postpone it until next Tuesday. TOMORROW. Ms. Hatmaker just sent me an entire post, so I don’t have to do a single blessed thing. Stay tuned tomorrow. GOOD STUFF.)

You people. Can’t get over all your prayers and encouragement every time we need them. I’ve never been more thankful for the internet than all the times we’ve ended up in the ER/Urgent Care/dentist’s chair in the past 6 months. Yeah, it’s hard to believe it’s only been 6 months since Gabe’s heart attack (we’ll celebrate his half-anniversary on the 29th).

In the last 6 months, we’ve done the heart attack thing, had the heart scare in Cambodia, Ava had a trampoline accident and messed up her mouth and front teeth, Gabe ended up in the ER for 17 hours with chest pains, he went back to the ER two weeks later where they diagnosed him with anxiety, I talked him out of approximately 176 ER visits in the months that followed, multiple doctor/counselor/rehab appointments for Gabe, I had a root canal (and my temporary crown fell off at church Sunday, but no worries, I put it back on with toothpaste), then we take Ava to the ER last night for what seemed to be appendicitis.

Sigh. That’s a lot. And also nothing compared to what so many people have to go through.

So, Ava. Sunday after lunch she complained of her stomach hurting. And complained off and on the rest of the day and night. Then on Monday, she said it was still hurting but now pointed to a specific spot–about 2 inches to the right of her belly button. In my limited medical knowledge, I recognized this as where your appendix lives.

The pain got worse. She was never crying or screaming, just wincing and saying “ow!” when she had to move/get up/bend over. She skipped her soccer game. The girls went to bed at 9:00ish, and she couldn’t sleep. She said her stomach hurt too bad.

I asked for prayer on Facebook and got that and more. Lots of helpful advice for what to do when a kiddo might possibly need her appendix taken out. I was really hoping and praying we could avoid the ER. Our bills from that place still loom over our head, and yeah.

Ava laid on our bed, and I anointed her little belly with some baby oil, and the three of us (me, Gabe, and Nina who also couldn’t sleep) put our hands on her and prayed for God to heal her. Then I took her to the ER, because I know sometimes God uses doctors to carry out that healing.

We walked into an uncrowded waiting room (Praise Jesus!), and 10 minutes later, we were back in a room (unbelievable). We heard from a woman who got there at 3pm that she had waited 6 hours in the ER lobby before being called back.

They took a urine sample and her vitals, then the doc came and checked her out. She said she didn’t want to do a CAT scan, because she’s so young, and she didn’t want to fry her ovaries (good plan), so she ordered bloodwork and and ultrasound to rule out problems with her pancreas/liver/gall bladder.

We got to the hospital at 11:00, and we were both really tired from the beginning. I was feeling super sad looking at Ava in the hospital bed with that IV in her arm, wondering what was wrong, and having flashbacks to Gabe’s heart attack. Several times, I just wanted to burst into tears, but thankfully, God (and your prayers) helped me be strong for Ava.

I took a picture of her on my cell phone and my heart caught in my chest, because for the first time, I noticed that her front tooth (the one that had the most trauma) looked a little darker in color than her others. The dentist told us to tell him if that happens. It might mean they can’t save the tooth. Holy cow, I know it’s just a tooth, but it was about enough to send me over the edge at 1am in the ER.

The pain medication they gave her seemed to help, her bloodwork came back okay, and her ultrasound was good. Four hours later (one of our shorter ER stays), they sent us home. The doc said if she starts vomiting or has a fever or the pain intensifies, to take her right to Children’s Hospital. Otherwise, she gave her a prescription for constipation (even though she’d had more than one bm yesterday) and that was that.

I crawled in bed at 4am and stumbled out at 7:20 to make Livi’s lunch, again at 8:00 to kiss her good-bye and send her to the bus stop, and again at 10:20 for the day.

Right this very minute, Ava “feels better, but it still hurts a little,” so we’ll see.

I’m not sure what all God’s got planned for our lives right now. I’ll share more tomorrow Thursday when I update y’all on Gabe. I was feeling pretty awful last night and kind of hopeful this morning. God’s got it. I have to cling to that.

Thanks so, so, so much for praying. We couldn’t do this without you.