Preston's Little Miracle

I've been wanting to write about this all week, and am just now getting the chance.

The day that Will left on his mancation, on the way home from the airport Preston was telling me that his ear hurt.  

Kids often say somethings hurts in an attempt to get a bandaid :) Or a kiss or sympathy from Mom.

I didn't think too much of it.

When we got home from taking Will to the airport, I put the boys to bed and then I did some busy things. Two hours later I JUST got settled into bed when I hear Preston whimpering.  I thought at first he must be having a bad dream.

So I go into his room and he is crying, and I ask him if he wants to come crawl into bed with me. He does, so he comes into my room.  

He keeps wiggling and can't get comfortable and then just sobs.  I mean we're talking an all-out cry. 

I could tell something wasn't right and I kept asking him to tell me about his bad dream, and I assured him that dreams are not real and everything was going to be okay, that mommy was right here, etc.

He wouldn't tell me about it, and then finally after like 15 minutes he blubbers out "My ear hurts!"

I felt so bad.  His ear really DID hurt.

So at this point, the boy is like screaming and I can tell it hurts him pretty bad.  

Neither of my boys have ever suffered from ear infections before and so this was a first for me.  I'm sitting there trying to think of what to do. The first thing I do of course is get on my computer and Google ear infections in children and "home remedies".  I read all sorts of things and finally find a remedy that called for ingredients that I had in my cupboard:  salt, warm water, wash cloth, garlic.

I pour a teaspoon of salt into a washcloth and then tie it off with a rubberband. Then soak it in warm water and hold it to his ear.  

He didn't exactly find that very comforting.

I also gave him some ibuprofin.

He was still in a lot of pain and screaming and crying, and I'm just going "Great, this would totally happen the night that I'm a single parent."  So I go back to my computer to find more remedies, also posted something on facebook to see if friends had ideas. I also put some garlic oil in his ear (supposed to get rid of infection).

It's about 10:30pm and I call my parents because I don't know what to do.

My dad tells me "Remember when you had an ear infection when you were younger, and you got a blessing and it was instantly gone? You need to find someone to give him a blessing."

He was right. 

When I was about 14 years old I had my first and only ear infection and it was BAD.  I remember it felt like someone was pounding my ear with a rock, and I cried for HOURS. My mom put garlic in my ear and the whole 9 yards and nothing was working.

Then my Dad gave me a Priesthood blessing and the second he ended the blessing with Amen, the pain was gone and I was asleep within 10 minutes.  I remember having SUCH faith in blessings, and I KNEW without a doubt that once I got a blessing my ear ache would be gone. And it was.  It was my first experience in gaining a testimony of blessings and the Priesthood power.

So back to Preston...

Our next door neighbors go to our church, and I felt terrible calling them so late but I tried. Nobody answered. Well of course not because they are probably sleeping.

I thought well I will try our hometeacher, Br. Apken, though I felt bad because they didn't live super close to us and I didn't want to take him away from his family so late at night. But he was happy to come over.

So about 20 min later, he showed up. Beforehand, I sat down with Preston and told him about the time when I was little and had an ear infection just like he did, and how Grandpa gave me a blessing and it was all better.  I told him about faith, and if he would believe in Jesus Christ that he could heal him, that his pain would be all gone.

Now to a 4 year old, I'm sure not all of this made perfect sense. And the only way I could figure out how to explain to him what Priesthood blessings were was to compare it to "magic", but of course that is NOT anything what it is. But to a 4 year old, it made sense.

So Br. Apken put his hands on Preston's head and gave him a blessings, and blessed him that his ear infection would be gone and that he would be able to get to sleep and feel better.

After Br. Apken left, Preston cried for about 10 more min. All the while I turned on Sesame Street to take his mind off of it. All of sudden, he started giggling.  Wow, did he just giggle? The boy who had just been screaming and crying out of pain for the last couple of hours just giggled?

I sat there and watched him as he was laying next to me completely change from screaming/crying to giggling at Sesame Street within 10 minutes after he got the blessing.  I seriously had a HUGE warm feeling come over my entire body and a tear trickle down my face.  Just another confirmation in my life that God is real and he loves me, and he loves my children and answers prayers.

Preston watched Sesame Street for about an hour!  Haha!  And then he finally fell asleep. He only woke up once around 4am whimpering a bit and then fell back to sleep. But then Taylor woke up screaming at 4:30 and I had to go in with him.  

To say the least, I did not get any sleep that entire night, but I'm so grateful that Preston had a small miracle that night and was healed. I'm also grateful for the Apkens. :)