Patience is a virtue (that I am lacking)

This morning I thought Emma had a therapy appointment at 8:00. At 8:40 I was getting worried that her therapist was still not here. 

Perhaps I wrote the time down wrong. Perhaps she wrote something else down. Who knows! What I do know is that I had an irrational reaction.

But I'm getting this anxious when a healthcare worker doesn't answer the phone immediately, or takes longer than half an hour to return my voicemail.

The fact is, Adam and I *know* how busy these other people are, and that they aren't snubbing Emma by not contacting us the instant that we want them to. That there are other people equally deserving as we are of assistance who must be attended to. Once Emma's doctor was running an hour late. We were, in the moment, really upset. But when we sat down and thought about it, the likelihood is that the doctor was spending time with her patients. Giving them the same additional time to ask questions that she afforded us when we first got Emma's "diagnosis". There are other people! It's easy to forget that sometimes.

Emma is our little girl, and we are her advocates. It's something that is at once overwhelming and awesome. 

These kinds of experiences have just reiterated our desperate need to stop panicking, and calm down. Focusing on the bigger picture is what matters here. Emma can certainly wait for a one hour occupational therapy session, but she can't wait nine months for intensive autism therapy. 

Frustrating situations like this offer us the opportunity to collect our thoughts and prioritize. We need to ask ourselves... in a year from now, will this matter? That's a great rule of thumb. At the end of the day the most important lesson here has to be: Don't sweat the small stuff. There are more important things to worry about. 

Wishing you all (and wishing my husband and I!) the ability to accept the things we cannot change; courage to change the things we can; and the wisdom to know the difference!

Love, the-trying-to-learn-the-art-of-calmness Morgans! x