How do you spell ha-le-lu-ya???

I knew there was a "j" in there somewhere!  Seriously, that has been one of those words that makes no phonetic or phonemic sense - and in my "real" life, I'm a trained diagnostic and prescriptive reading teacher. 

A miracle, of sorts, happened to Harris and I today.  After some difficulty finding someone who was willing to write orders for the infectious disease screenings that SCI requires, my primary care physician agreed.  Now, that may not seem like much when you first read it, but let me enlighten you to his other full-time job as a Free Will Baptist minister.  We have been to his church a time or two and Harris plays in the golf tournament that they put on each year as a fundraiser for the church.  He's a great pastor and I've always liked him as a doctor.  But after today, I LOVE him as a doctor.

As you can imagine, I was nervous about having to say anything about surrogacy to a Baptist preacher (God forbid that I say "fetal embryo transfer") because of the moral arguments that immediately begin when you mention anything related to infertility to those who have had no difficulty bearing children.  You know who I'm talking about.  It's those people that start their arguments with the phrase, "Well, why don't you just ..." and end it with some reference to praying harder, taking your temperature (regardless of the fact that I don't ovulate), or just relaxing (my personal favorite).  But, I digress.  When I went in today, there was much discussion amongst the nurses about whether or not they could order the bloodwork...apparently they didn't know the codes for the order or something?  At any rate, my doctor came out and asked what the problem was.  He declared that he was in the business of solving problems and helping people and wanted to know what he could do for me.  I thought that was a good sign and I was right!

Not only did he listen to the 2-minute synopsis of the situation with respect and compassion, but he also asked intelligent questions to make sure that I had checked up on certain parts of the process.  Then, he wrote everything possible to justify the tests.  Before he left the room, he actually asked me if it was okay for him to pray with me.  He wanted to pray with me - about surrogacy - about safely completing this journey - about having peace with the process - and about our future child.  He also said that he would continue to pray for me and hoped that I would keep him informed about what was happening because he'd never had a patient to do this before so he was curious.  It was such a surreal experience compared to the normal poking, prodding, and intrusive questioning/grilling that I normally get in medical settings.  I left there feeling so much better.  How much less stressed, happy, and hopeful would we be if all doctors were like that???

Can I get an "amen"?