5th Week of Akathist

Sigh... the Akathist services have come and gone once more.
My mind was all over the place during the service, I once forgot what page I was on and Father had to PROMPT me. Yeah, I haven't slept as much as I should have this week. So I was embarrassed even before I got to "Awed By The Beauty" and Father ONCE AGAIN assumed I knew it in Greek. Nope, still English only!!! I mean, I can follow and sing along with him as he sings the Greek, but there are still juuust enough syllables of which I'm unsure, that I'm not doing it in Greek. His estimation of my linguistic skills is flattering, but still. One of these years I will take a book home and learn the whole thing in Greek and astound him. It's cool, though, that he's decided my English rendition after the Greek is a tradition now.
I was thinking, during the two long prayers in front of the icons, of when I was in the hospital after Kittyboy's birth and I had this long rambling monologue of both prayers running through my head. I don't remember specifics other than instead of "raise us up at the hour of prayer" it was always "raise us up at the hour of pumping"... because I was trying to start milk and so I was pumping for half an hour every three hours round the clock. Or at least, I did that for the first 24 hours, and then the next 24-36 I did little but sleep - and wake, and look at the clock, and sleep again. Did I eat meals that second day? I do not remember. Maybe after the whole HELLP/c-section thing I shouldn't have been dragging myself out of bed every three hours. Probably so. But yeah, "the hour of pumping" is enshrined forever in my memory. Ay.
And at the petition "for those who serve and minister unto us", who should come to mind but Dr. Lehman, Dr. Hendricks, the staff at their respective clinics, and the staff at St. John's Hospital. It amazes me, with all you hear of specialists being hard to see, hard to get a hold of, and rushed when you finally do see them, that Dr. L is none of those things. When the rash and arthritis were still bad, he gave us his cell number in case something went south. He's just great. And man, when we took Kittyboy back the second time with all the spots cleared up, that boy was a celebrity. The receptionists, the nurses, everyone wanted to see how much better he looked. They remembered him! Admittedly, that rash was hard to forget, but that was still really cool.
And Dr. H - it still floors me every time I leave a message for a nurse and within an hour, usually MUCH less, I have an answer. The first doctor Kittyboy had, we liked him okay, but he was honestly absolutely clueless about all things Kittyboy. "You're doing what? I don't think I've ever heard of that. Okay, that's fine..." He signed orders the therapists requested, and stayed out of the mix, which at the time we appreciated (could have been worse, he could have fought them on everything). But we hated, hated the clinic. It might be a WEEK before you got a call back. I once had a voicemail from them "returning a call" and I couldn't remember what I'd called them about, it had been that long. If you did get a call back, because you didn't always. They also had to be reminded about calling in prescriptions, took over a month to get our insurance in the system, and sent us to a specialist two hours away without mailing the CT scans the expert was supposed to review. A world of difference with Dr. H and all the staff there - not just that they're competent and professional, but that they really are CARING, and friendly, and helpful.
And St. John's has taken very, very good care of our little guy twice now. What can I say, God has blessed us with MANY who serve and minister unto us. May He keep and preserve them all to continue doing the good that they do.