My Day: 8 hours, 4 kids, and 4 medical offices

Summary of my day: Spent eight hours with four children going back and forth between 3 medical offices (one being the dentist) and the local hospital. From 9:30am-5:30pm we were out allllll day long trying to figure out why Noah is always sick and not gaining weight.

At this point I am suspecting either gluten intolerance (could be as severe as celiac disease, not sure) or a digestive issue, something wrong with his GI tract. We'll have the lab results back in about 3 business days (maybe Monday). I am dreading getting the medical bills.... oh my goodness how I hate medical bills. But that's out of my hands.

All day long I kept telling myself that God is in control. He is always with me, even when I'm barely holding it together.... I really clung to that promise today. And I -felt- Him there with me, in the waiting rooms, in the moments when I was about to snap at the older kids, when they were getting too loud and jumping around, just trying to have fun despite the circumstances... And when I had to hold Noah down on a gurney and watch him get pricked so many times that I lost count - that isn't easy for a mommy. But I did it, because I had to. By the grace of God, I did. And the poor little guy is such a trooper. He didn't cry or flinch at all while they were poking and prodding. He only whined once, when they pricked two of his fingers for the very last blood test.

On the way out of the hospital, I stopped to show the kids the chapel room. First I peeked in to make sure no one else was in their praying or something. I told the girls and D that they could go in, look around, then come back out in one minute, but emphasized that they had to be -very quiet- in the chapel. Aliah asked why? My first thought was "because that's what you always do" but I thought about it for a second, and that's not the right answer. You should be quiet not only because it is respectful, but more importantly, because a place of prayer and worship should be a special, hallowed place that is entered with sincerity and reverence. So I tried to convey that to my preschool daughter. On the way home they sang "My God's Not Dead, He's Surely Alive!" at the top of their lungs.

Thank you God, for these children, who are such blessings to me.