We left this morning around 7:15 to head to Harrisonburg to hopefully find a doctor who could do the health certificates for the children. Unfortuantely, the clinic we were hoping to use had a full schedule, so we were turned away. They thought they may have an opening tomorrow, but they couldn’t be sure.
So, Steph started calling around while I drove to the chiropractor. She called various health facilities, including some urgent care options, the health department, and a pediatrician recommended to us by a friend. No one seemed able to do it. I talked with a doctor friend of ours this afternoon, and he said if we had simply asked for a wellness check and had a document for the practicioner to sign, that might have worked.
However, another friend messaged to let us know she was praying, but when she heard what was going on, she did some thinking and suggested another doctor. Turns out, he is our family doctor from a few years ago. I happily called him, and he was glad to do the health certificates for us.
When we walked in, he greeted us at the door, talked to the children a bit and said, “Dad and Mom, you sit here. I’m going to steal your children and give them some snacks.” He took them to a play room, gave them applesauce and crackers, and came back to the exam room to talk over what we needed. Then he and I went and did the wellness checks in the playroom with the children.
“This is fun,” Dr. Shomo said. “We have been so swamped for days on end, and I tell you, we never get a quiet time like this with just one family. This feels like a miracle. Were you praying?” We assured him that we and many others were praying. “Well, you tell all those people to pray for me tonight while I do the paperwork and for the lab techs tomorrow while they do your test. God will take care of the rest if you do the praying.”
This is why we loved going to visit Dr. Shomo.
I noticed that he had a sign out offering to do Covid tests. I asked him if he could do the ones we were looking for, and he said he absolutely could. Walgreens had told us that we couldn’t be guaranteed to have the results back in time, but Dr. Shomo is pretty sure he can get us what we need in a day, “if people are praying about it, for sure.”
So, I canceled all the Walgreens appointments, and we scheduled to do them this afternoon with the dear doctor. Caleb’s have gotten here already, so the timing is working out beautifully. I told Dr. Shomo that I think we ought to do the children also, even though they aren’t requiring it, because I don’t want to be surprised.
Then I checked my email, and I had a notification that all the children except Willow and Ashlyn, must have a Covid test. The tests will be $85 each, but a few friends gave us some gifts this past week, and I think it’ll actually be completely covered by that! Isn’t that amazing?
Since we had time, we came over to Steph’s sister’s place. Steph was happy to be with her a bit more before we left. I worked on lots of paperwork and did some editing while the ladies got lunch together and sent the children off to nap. Now we need to think about waking people up so we can go get everyone swabbed.
Thanks for your encouragement and prayers. Keep it up!
Juan David 