The Test (I failed)

You wake up in the morning ready to start a new day, refreshed and re-energized. Sometimes it's hard to see what's coming, and sometimes it's too late and you don't know what hit you. I'm having a difficult time even gathering my thoughts enough to make sense...it's been one of those days!
So the day started with me waking up Reilly and Shea to get ready for school. Very normal. A few minutes later than normal, but not bad. Shea rolls out of bed, but Reilly immediately notifies me,
"Mom, my throat hurts like three times worse than it did yesterday."
"Okay, go back to sleep. I'll take you to the doctor later." (The pus pockets we found last night on his tonsils made me think the morning would be like this, but I still tried. That's my mother in me!)
Shea gets off to school, then Kinley (early day for p.m. kindergarten), then we get ready to go to the doctor. I should've taken them in their P.J.s. By the time we got there, there were no seats left in the waiting room. And this is a TINY office. I think they have one doctor, and I think he took his lunch break when we got there. Cam brought a back pack, but only three little books in it. We read. All of them. Then we waited. And we waited. Everyone else had been called in. The kids were antsy. They were climbing all over the chairs, laying down, getting up, poking each other, climbing on me, being silly, being mean (to each other), and asking, "HOW MUCH LONGER??!?!" The first time they ask that question, it's not too irritating. But...
"Reilly?" The nurse was standing in the doorway.
"YES!!!!" I thought to myself. Maybe we'd get through in time for some shopping at Ross, which happened to be across the street.
So we went into room one to wait for the doctor. We waited. We read books. All three of them. We waited some more. We ate Teddy Grahams. You might think that since Reilly was feeling sick, he'd be a little more mellow than usual. Not a fighting chance. He had all his energy, no fever, no other symptoms besides the sore throat. In that next 45 minutes of waiting, you can only imagine what happened in that pill box of a room. We used every available "toy" we could find. We read ESPN magazine (Macy too-looking for dogs). They took turns sliding across the floor on the doctors stool (the fun kind with wheels) until Reilly crashed on the floor, making quite a loud noise. Then, wanting to do something productive, I cleaned Reilly's ears with the swabs. I made a math multiplication chart to help Reilly with his twelves, and quizzed him. We ate the applesauce cups. We tore apart the paper sheet on the "bed", and made it "snow". Then we really got creative. We inflated a couple of gloves. After putting my ring on the glove (and exhausting the "high-fives", boxing, etc. glove-fun), I discovered something pretty cool. I took the glove, twisted the palm part (like an expert balloon art person) to make a head, then wrapped the thumb around the "neck" of my puppet. I made a chubby pillsbury doughboy looking person! The kids thought it was great, but all fun only lasts so long, and in doctor's offices, the fun lasts less long. Reilly finally hit exaggeration mode, to the extreme.
"Mom, we've been waiting here for like 10 hours!!!!! When are they going to come in???" Again, the first time they say this, it's not so bad. But by like the 10th time, when I'm thinking the same thing, it just doesn't help the situation.
"Okay Reilly, please don't ask again. I have no idea. There's obviously a lot of people that need to be seen today."
So the kids had exhausted me, and exhausted every possible "toy" in the room. Macy had climbed up and down off of the bed at least 15 times. I was beat.
FINALLY, in came the doctor, swinging the door open without knocking. Hit Cam. It could've been bad, but he just hit her foot. Startled him though. At this point, I should have realized that the Lord was testing me. Refining me. Putting me through the fire. I hadn't passed the test yet, so on came the next phase of testing.
"So, who are we seeing?" (I point to Reilly) He reads the nurses notes.
Checks Reilly's glands. Looks in his ears.
"Open your mouth and say, AAHH."
"AAAAAHHHHHH."
He walks over to the counter. Starts writing.
"Um, is that a prescription?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to swab his throat?"
"No lady, someone used all the swabs." Just kidding. He didn't say that.
"Nope."
The end. He walked out. That was it.
I went to the nurses station, paid my $10 co-pay, took the prescription, and left. I still hadn't passed "the test".
I went out to the car. Someone had "created" their own parking spot, right behind me, perpendicular to my van. Okay, not right behind me, but close enough. I had to make a 20 point turn, and with each cranking of the wheel, I was getting mildly more irritated. I should never open my mouth at these times, but I couldn't help it.
"WHO in the WORLD thought it was a good idea to park right there???" There were seriously 10 available parking spots. This was NOT one.
So I get turned around. Since the exit driveway only allows me to turn right, I plan to drive around the next little shopping center to the next driveway, so I can turn left, the direction I want to go. Only there's someone sitting in her big old SUV, facing me, not moving, looking down, not caring that I'm sitting in front of her, staring at her, waiting for her to move. Okay, so I'm not that mean. I quickly resigned to having to make a right turn, and driving two miles before any u-turns were legal. Okay. So we made it.
I check the clock. There's still time for Ross before the kids get home from school. I check my phone messages.
"Hi Julie, this is Mrs. Fitzpatrick. McKinley is here with me and she is sad because she said you forgot to give her money for the holiday shoppe and we're going at 1:00 today. If you're home, you can bring her money before 1:00." It's 12:40, I'm out of gas, I want to go to Ross, and I'm 20 minutes from home. Forget it. I call back and leave a message.
I hit the gas rather hard, and Reilly comments, "OOOOO, Mom, you're speeding..." Just enough to get under my skin. "No, I'm not speeding, I'm just starting off fast." Two seconds later, I was speeding, but only by a few MPH. So we head for Ross. Instead of waiting at the light (to turn in to the front of the parking lot), I turn right, not realizing that because of the construction, the left turn entrance is now blocked by a new island in the middle of the road. Another 1/2 mile down the road, another u-turn. Finally, we make it to Ross.
My throat starts hurting. Ugh. Not enough to stop me from shopping. I never think about this beforehand, however, Ross is the WORST for checkout lines. I saw it when we came in. After 25 minutes of shopping, we find a couple of things, and head for the door. When we get to the front and see the line, I decide it's not worth it to wait in line for my purchases. We leave. (The kids are confused). Oh well. I still haven't passed the test.
We get home, just in time for the kids to be getting home. 20 minutes later, I call the school. "I'm waiting for Kinley and Shea Gebhards, and they're not here."
"Oh, they're sitting out front waiting for you to pick them up."
What??? How does this happen? They've been walking home from school for weeks now, and they "forgot" today?? (it's a half-day, which is once a week, but hasn't thrown them off all year...) I load up all of the other kids, and we head to the school to pick up the girls. "What happened?" I asked when they got in the car.
"Don't you pick us up on Wednesdays?" (I wish you could have seen my face)
"Uh, no, I haven't done that all year." No need for further discussion. Stranger things have happened.
Well, that is the test that I failed today. It wasn't until I sat down and started writing this that I realized that I was missing something. Something like, the sovereignty of GOD??? Kurt and I had a lengthy discussion about this very subject just LAST NIGHT. How can that be? I went through this whole morning not recognizing my circumstances as being from the Lord. Every mis-parked car was HIS doing. Every new island in the road was HIS doing. The long line in Ross? Yep, even that. Wow. It's a little embarrassing to think that we had that conversation last night, and here I was, getting irritated with so many "little things" that He designed for my day. Tomorrow, I will see His hand in whatever comes my way, and will thank Him for refining me!