Ring phone....ring

Staying home with the kids was not the only reason that I decided to quit my job. The second reason was to help my husband with his new independent practice.
Rex is a doctor. He is board certified in family practice. He works with the resident program at Deaconess Hospital a day or two a week and also works at the ER in Vincennes about 3 days/week. He has a dream of being that local, hometown doc from long ago who cares for people in the community. He wants to do housecalls for people and eventually have a small office here on the farm or nearby for people to come to. So, we have started Stroud Medical, a fee for service practice.
We have gotten some medical files; nice official looking charts. We have made custom receipts, business cards and flyers. We have our own fax machine, this lovely lap top and portable printer. We have supplies: sutures, gauze, lab drawing supplies, urine kits, you name it we have it. Its all stacked neatly in some boxes sitting in our office room at home. We even had a separate phone line put in for Stroud Medical. I was going to hook up an old phone we had laying around the house but Rex came home the other day, proud as a peacock, with a little black office type phone. It is more than what we need at the moment but he was so proud to have it that I went and hooked it up. And there it sits, on his old desk, in our office, in our house. When I'm in that room, sometimes I will sit and stare at it, like I am willing it to ring. Sometimes I'll pick it up and punch the buttons on it, not entirely sure what I'm doing. Then I may put it up to my ear and kind of hold it up using my shoulder so my hands are free. I'll reach across the desk for a pad of paper and doodle alittle, just getting the feel of the phone, imagining what it will be like to schedule my first appointment or triage my first patient over the phone. Somedays I'll just walk thru the room and lightly run my fingers over the phone, caressing it, as if that might persuade it to ring. I know people would laugh at this little obsession I have with the phone but I can't help it. This phone is a direct link to a little dream that my husband and I are hanging on to, nurturing, encouraging it to grow.
We have had one patient so far. It was a house call around Christmas time. That was exciting. We are trying to spread the news around the community. It is a slow process. We knew it would be when we started.
Some days, Rex will call me from work just to remind me to check and see if we have any messages. There are messages sometimes. The printing company called to say our business envelopes were ready. We get some hang ups and the occassional sales person. One day I almost killed myself running from the kitchen sink, over the laundry basket in the hall, and around some toy trains to try to get to the phone as it was ringing. I caught my breath and in the most pleasant, professional voice I had I answered, "Stroud Medical, can I...". Before I could finish a recording of a sales person kicked on telling me I had been specially chosen to receive a free dvr system. Oh, the disappointment!!!!!! I hung up the phone and almost felt mad at it. Like it had purposely tricked me into running thru the house like a crazy woman to answer it.
But, I can't really be mad at a telephone. That wouldn't do any good. So, I just keep mentally encouraging the phone. "Ring phone, ring".