Happy Birthday Jared! (and an abnormal past few weeks)

Saturday was Jared's 40th birthday.  We tried to make it a special day, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, decorated the house while he was gone, and enjoyed Mexican food and friends for dinner.
Later that evening we were reminiscing on Jared's last 10 years.  He and I met right around his 30th birthday and started dating soon afterwards.  At that time he was finishing up his master's in Spanish literature, looking for a place of his own, and was coaching soccer and teaching Spanish.  In the past ten years he married me, has completed another master's degree, had 4 kids, moved to the other side of the world, learned to speak Chinese, and faced many, many new challenges. What a full past ten years.  Jared has become a caring husband, involved father, and a man who desires to follow Father in how he lives his life.  I appreciate every aspect of him, even the ones that are so opposite me :).  I like how he can be talking on the phone in Chinese, then a few minutes later be singing a song in Spanish to the kids.  I like how he listens to sermons while he does the dishes.  I like how he tells the kids stories about his childhood before they go to bed.  I like how he takes an extra trip out, on his bike, to a place with overpriced flowers, just because I like to receive them.  I like how he doesn't complain about getting up with sick kids over and over again, even though I know he is so tired.  This leads me into the second half of this post....

We are in the third, or maybe fourth, week of sickness in our house.  All six of us have been going through a 3 week cold with fever/flu thing. Yuck!  Jared, Judson and I seem to be the only ones not over it yet.  Emma and Josiah have now, for the past few days, had a stomach virus type thing.  Jared and I have been so tired and not feeling well ourselves, and have been caring for sick kids during the day and night.  It has been wearing on all of us, for weeks now.  This has definitely been a test of our patience and ability to work together when worn out physically.  Somehow in the midst of it we have still been able to take care of many of the things we have needed to here, visiting with friends, having people over, preparing for our time for the states, etc.  Everything has just been a little slower getting done, and some things I have had to just let go or put off, like mopping the floors (wow are they bad!).  A few things we can be thankful for...Judson has not had a fever!  A bad cough, yes, but no fever!  Jacob has been sick the least of all of us and therefore his eating habits have not been affected much.   Josiah has been asking over and over again to go to school and looks forward to the days when he gets to go.  I have been able to spend a lot of time with the kids, since we are all at home, all the time.  We have just over 3 weeks before we head to the states.  I am beginning to wonder if we will be sick the rest of our time here.  It is all in the Father's hands!