Yep – I was THAT Mom last night with the screaming kids…

Lessons on grace and calmness amidst chaos from the Curtis Crew! So, my kiddos weren’t feeling good, and I took all 3 of them to the doctor yesterday to try to catch anything that might be lurking in their bodies….before it got worse. I have a 4 year old, 2 year old, 3 month old. Let me set the scene: It was around 4pm I had picked the older two up from Children’s Day out. They were: HUNGRY TIRED AND not feeling well….hmmmm – setting myself up for complete disaster?!?  Been there? But…I forged on through the traffic to get to the doctor 35 minutes away.  I have great kids and they usually love a drive -but not so much today! It was a “loud” drive 🙂 So, we get to the doctor, and my 2 year old wants me to carry him in.  Well, I have to carry the car seat and him, so that was a funny sight by itself.  Then, walking through the parking lot, my 4 year old starts dancing the “I have to go potty dance”. We make it through the door and she runs to the bathroom – makes it – whew.  Then we wait. They call us in, and they put us in a room, and we wait.  About 30 minutes later, the doctor comes in, and sure enough, one of the kiddos has an ear infection, and the other is starting one.  The third one really didn’t seem too sick, so I didn’t have him look at her. Oh -and I didn’t bring the diaper bag in from the car, so now two of them need new diapers, so I have to ask the doctor’s office for diapers….ONE more “chalk it up for mother of the year”- ha!!  He writes us a prescription – and asks where we want it sent.  I normally get this at Target, but I was thinking…hmmm 3 kids not feeling too well, at 5:15pm going into Target – may not be the best choice 🙂  So, I had them call it to a CVS.  We check out of the doctor and make it back to the car. I call when I leave the doctor to see when it may be ready.  She tells me it will be at least an hour to an hour and a half before they will have it ready.  YIKES!!!  I give her my sob story and she says she will do her best! At this point, my 3 month old is VERY ready for a bottle, and the other two are hungry!! So, we stop at a not so healthy fast food place to fix one problem.  🙁  Again – feeling like “mother of the year” for having to pass back not so healthy food to them.  Then, I have an hour to waste before their prescriptions are ready.  Mind you – I am 35 minutes from home, and am not going to leave until I have their medicine.   Now it is 5:00pm in crazy traffic.  So- we just start driving around neighborhoods. The drive calms them all. About 45 minutes has passed, so I drive to the CVS.  I think the whole town was in line at the pharmacy line.  So, it is our turn and we pull up to the window.  Right as I roll down the window and the lady asks how she can help me, the “calmness” has worn off and all 3 lost it.  So, the lady can’t even hear me tell what I need since all three are pretty loud.  I finally get it across to her of our name, and she asks for our insurance card.  I grab my purse and guess what?!?! I can’t find the card!!!!  So I ask if she can just look it up with my Social Security #? She replies- “No – sorry ma’am – I need the card.  Can you go home and get it and come back?”  I explain to her that I live 35 minutes away, and can’t.  So – I decide to call my husband.  Who doesn’t answer any of his phones.  Hmmmmm All 3 are more calm now, and then my husband thankfully calls back.  I ask if he can take a picture of the card and send to me…yes!! So, I get back in the eternal CVS drive through line and pull up – telling the lady I have a picture of the card on my phone – Can I send that to her through the tube?!  She says-  “No, Ma’am, you need to come inside with that”.  I tell her about the 3 kids with me and to please let me stay in the drive through.  She allows me to pull around AGAIN to wait in line at a different window to hand her the phone with the insurance card picture rather than sending it through the tube. We get to the window and the 2 year old asks for a sucker (knowing windows like this usually provided suckers).  I was thrilled of course, knowing that them having a sucker would be a great distraction while we wait.  So, I hand my 4 year old and 2 year old a sucker, but what I thought would be a GOOD thing turned into more drama – been there?  My 4 year old wanted the color of sucker that my 2 year old got….so…here we go again! Then, the 2 month old wakes up and starts crying. At this point, I just start laughing.  I mean…really!?!? The window was down, and so the whole pharmacy staff could hear the 3 kids crying and they all start just LOOKING at me like – “what is WITH this lady and her kids?!?”.  I just smile and roll up my window!! CALM Rachel – it’s okay -they just don’t feel good!!! Grace… So -after another 15 minutes, we successfully have the prescriptions, and can head home. I drive the 35 minutes home, and decided that 6:30pm is NOT too early for bath and bed, and so that is what we did.   🙂 Once everyone was clean and PJ’d up – we sat on the couch for a good ol’ “Dora” episode.  My 4 year old lays her head on my shoulder, my 2 year old climbs up on my lap around me holding the 2 month old while she is having her bed-time bottle.  And I think to myself….Whew!! A few things I learned from this crazy afternoon: 1)  The peace that comes from within is so much stronger than the chaos that sometimes defines our moments. 2) Kiddos are REAL – when something is not right inside, they have no way of hiding it, they just express and that is okay! 3) No matter what kind of chaos I may have – I LOVE these kids and this life!! 4) How I react impacts how they react.  If I lose it while they are losing it – things will be MUCH worse.  I want to do my best to be a calming influence on them through their struggles. 5) This is just like us and God – we have HARD days, we whine, cry, scream, and He is always there to help us through it all!  His patience is amazing for us!!  So…yesterday,  I was “that mom with the screaming kids”…..It was REAL, it was RAW, and it was WHAT IT WAS.  I couldn’t “control” the situation, but I could react in the best way that I could with as much GRACE as I possibly could.  I learned a lot from this experience, and I know that God works powerfully through the chaos of our lives!!!  Amen?  Isn’t that the truth?  God loves us, is gracious towards us and is THERE for us!! In a weird way, I hope this encourages you and blesses you! Go bless others today!!!  -Rachel Curtis]]>