As the entire world is living smack dab in the middle of the least funny April Fools' Joke ever...I thought I'd take some time to jot down some of what our March brought us. The main reason? So I will remember this crazy, upside-down, bizarro-world moment in time. I mean, I seem to be programmed to forget the bad in life and remember the good. So there's a pretty darn good chance that my brain will choose to forget most of what this pandemic has left in its dust. And as much as I'll be glad when we're on the other side of this...there's a lot of God-moments and gifts in the chaos that I don't ever want to forget.
Just over four weeks ago, the girls and I ended up taking a pretty last minute "girls trip" to Florida. It ended up being my two girls, plus Liva, Abby, and Allison. Back then, the college girls were stressed out and ready for Spring Break. They were also still recovering (physically and mentally) from a pretty stressful couple of weeks prior to that due to Abby's emergency appendectomy surgery and some "girl drama" with someone who got her nose out of joint for not being invited along on the impromptu trip. (It was completely blown out of proportion and not rationale in the least...but it's the "stuff" that was on our minds a few weeks ago.) The point being - we were ALL ready for some sunshine and a break from reality. Little did we know what was just around the corner! We would set the clocks ahead on Sunday the 8th and jump right into the Twilight Zone.
We left for Florida on Friday, March 6th. That night was Luke's last regular season game - which also happened to be at Savage Arena AND Senior Night. As much as I was glad to be getting a chance to be in the Florida sunshine with my girls and my Mom...I was having MAJOR mom guilt for not being there at Luke's game. By the time we landed in Florida, the game was almost over. We caught the last few minutes on our phone in the car rental as we made our way to Grandma Betty's house for our "home away from home" for the next 5 days. Dave also videoed the special senior night ceremony at the end of the game so that I could feel like I was there. Still. Major Mom Guilt. (Why can't I be in two places at once again?! Sigh.)
I think you can summarize our time in Florida with just these things: strawberry shortcake, sunshine, sleep, strawberry shortcake, shopping, pool/beach...and a really cool rental car. :-)
The timing of all the things we found out are a bit fuzzy already, but I'm pretty sure it was while we were in Florida that we found out that spring break had been extended an extra 2 days and that the kids would be doing their classes online for the next two weeks (or so we thought). That made us already wish we could change our flight home and stay in Florida longer, but we scheduled our trip so that we'd be back home in time to travel to Cleveland for the MAC Tournament on Thursday.
But...the Rockets would only make it to the tournament in Cleveland IF they won their first round game on Monday, March 9th. Again, I felt HORRIBLE that I wasn't there to watch this game at Savage. Dave, of course, was there again and I could (sort of) watch it on the ESPN app. But my heart was torn between enjoying the time with my girls and feeling sad that I wasn't there to see my boy in person. Our internet connection at Mom's house wasn't great, so the girls and I watched most of the second half out on her carport. Much to our excitement - they WON! They were heading to Cleveland and we were SO excited that we were going to get them play in person (at least) one more time!
Then it was Tuesday. And cases of Coronavirus in Ohio were making everyone nervous. It was getting more and more obvious that something BIG was about to happen. As we were packing up our stuff to be ready to leave bright and early for the airport on Wednesday, Allison was on the phone a lot with her family (her brother's high school hockey team had won Districts and was heading to State Tournaments...the same time as the Rockets were heading to Cleveland). Suddenly, we were finding out that only immediate family was going to be allowed to enter any of these tournaments in Ohio. We were all so sad that all these high school and college players were going to be playing in such important games - inside such large arenas - to a mostly empty stadium.
Wednesday, March 11th, we arrived home to GR with no issues & Luke's team was hanging out in Cleveland getting ready for the start of their tournament the following day. They had already had a shoot-around practice at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse - the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Luke was saying how cool it was to see the entire hotel decked out in MAC Tournament stuff. Even their hotel room keys said MAC Tournament on them. I was excited that I had managed to get a hotel for us that was literally a block away from the Fieldhouse. I was SO excited to be about to head to see my boy and his team at the biggest tournament of his life! The girls and I quickly transitioned from Florida suitcases to Cleveland suitcases. And we hit the road for Cleveland about 11:30 AM on Thursday. The first MAC game for the men's teams was scheduled to start at 12:30PM (Luke's was scheduled for 6:30PM that night).
Literally, as Dave was approaching the on-ramp to I-96, I was on Twitter and saw the announcement: "The MAC Tournament has been cancelled." My heart sank.
I called Luke. He had been taking a nap at the hotel. I was the first to inform him of the news. While we were on the phone, he got a text saying that there was a team meeting in Coach's room. And just like that, his freshman season of basketball was over.
Side note: this was a smidge like his last game in high school the previous year. They were supposed to play their Friday game at Nationals - but the other team had to forfeit because too many people were sick. So he played his last game as an Angel the day before...and we didn't even know it.
The silver lining in finding things out when we did was that we were able to swing into Dave's parents to pick up the dogs (he had them there most of the time we were in Florida, since he was still working) AND we were able to cancel our hotel in Cleveland (even though I had just done mobile check-in). Once I told the receptionist that our event was cancelled due to the coronavirus, they let us cancel without any fees. AND, since Spring Break had been extended until Tuesday, Luke was able to head home as soon as the team bus arrived back in Toledo later that night. That meant that my boy, who hadn't been home since Christmas Day, was finally able to sleep in his bed and spend some time with the family. That part certainly made me happy.
And then it was Friday, March 13th. Pretty sure that's the day we found out the entire rest of the semester would be done online AND the kids had to move out of their dorms by the following weekend. AND Liva found out her school was also closed for at least the next month. Ugh. Every morning was something new!
Here's a quick look at everything that came in the next 10 days:
Just over four weeks ago, the girls and I ended up taking a pretty last minute "girls trip" to Florida. It ended up being my two girls, plus Liva, Abby, and Allison. Back then, the college girls were stressed out and ready for Spring Break. They were also still recovering (physically and mentally) from a pretty stressful couple of weeks prior to that due to Abby's emergency appendectomy surgery and some "girl drama" with someone who got her nose out of joint for not being invited along on the impromptu trip. (It was completely blown out of proportion and not rationale in the least...but it's the "stuff" that was on our minds a few weeks ago.) The point being - we were ALL ready for some sunshine and a break from reality. Little did we know what was just around the corner! We would set the clocks ahead on Sunday the 8th and jump right into the Twilight Zone.
We left for Florida on Friday, March 6th. That night was Luke's last regular season game - which also happened to be at Savage Arena AND Senior Night. As much as I was glad to be getting a chance to be in the Florida sunshine with my girls and my Mom...I was having MAJOR mom guilt for not being there at Luke's game. By the time we landed in Florida, the game was almost over. We caught the last few minutes on our phone in the car rental as we made our way to Grandma Betty's house for our "home away from home" for the next 5 days. Dave also videoed the special senior night ceremony at the end of the game so that I could feel like I was there. Still. Major Mom Guilt. (Why can't I be in two places at once again?! Sigh.)
I think you can summarize our time in Florida with just these things: strawberry shortcake, sunshine, sleep, strawberry shortcake, shopping, pool/beach...and a really cool rental car. :-)
The timing of all the things we found out are a bit fuzzy already, but I'm pretty sure it was while we were in Florida that we found out that spring break had been extended an extra 2 days and that the kids would be doing their classes online for the next two weeks (or so we thought). That made us already wish we could change our flight home and stay in Florida longer, but we scheduled our trip so that we'd be back home in time to travel to Cleveland for the MAC Tournament on Thursday.
But...the Rockets would only make it to the tournament in Cleveland IF they won their first round game on Monday, March 9th. Again, I felt HORRIBLE that I wasn't there to watch this game at Savage. Dave, of course, was there again and I could (sort of) watch it on the ESPN app. But my heart was torn between enjoying the time with my girls and feeling sad that I wasn't there to see my boy in person. Our internet connection at Mom's house wasn't great, so the girls and I watched most of the second half out on her carport. Much to our excitement - they WON! They were heading to Cleveland and we were SO excited that we were going to get them play in person (at least) one more time!
Then it was Tuesday. And cases of Coronavirus in Ohio were making everyone nervous. It was getting more and more obvious that something BIG was about to happen. As we were packing up our stuff to be ready to leave bright and early for the airport on Wednesday, Allison was on the phone a lot with her family (her brother's high school hockey team had won Districts and was heading to State Tournaments...the same time as the Rockets were heading to Cleveland). Suddenly, we were finding out that only immediate family was going to be allowed to enter any of these tournaments in Ohio. We were all so sad that all these high school and college players were going to be playing in such important games - inside such large arenas - to a mostly empty stadium.
Wednesday, March 11th, we arrived home to GR with no issues & Luke's team was hanging out in Cleveland getting ready for the start of their tournament the following day. They had already had a shoot-around practice at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse - the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Luke was saying how cool it was to see the entire hotel decked out in MAC Tournament stuff. Even their hotel room keys said MAC Tournament on them. I was excited that I had managed to get a hotel for us that was literally a block away from the Fieldhouse. I was SO excited to be about to head to see my boy and his team at the biggest tournament of his life! The girls and I quickly transitioned from Florida suitcases to Cleveland suitcases. And we hit the road for Cleveland about 11:30 AM on Thursday. The first MAC game for the men's teams was scheduled to start at 12:30PM (Luke's was scheduled for 6:30PM that night).
Literally, as Dave was approaching the on-ramp to I-96, I was on Twitter and saw the announcement: "The MAC Tournament has been cancelled." My heart sank.
I called Luke. He had been taking a nap at the hotel. I was the first to inform him of the news. While we were on the phone, he got a text saying that there was a team meeting in Coach's room. And just like that, his freshman season of basketball was over.
Side note: this was a smidge like his last game in high school the previous year. They were supposed to play their Friday game at Nationals - but the other team had to forfeit because too many people were sick. So he played his last game as an Angel the day before...and we didn't even know it.
The silver lining in finding things out when we did was that we were able to swing into Dave's parents to pick up the dogs (he had them there most of the time we were in Florida, since he was still working) AND we were able to cancel our hotel in Cleveland (even though I had just done mobile check-in). Once I told the receptionist that our event was cancelled due to the coronavirus, they let us cancel without any fees. AND, since Spring Break had been extended until Tuesday, Luke was able to head home as soon as the team bus arrived back in Toledo later that night. That meant that my boy, who hadn't been home since Christmas Day, was finally able to sleep in his bed and spend some time with the family. That part certainly made me happy.
And then it was Friday, March 13th. Pretty sure that's the day we found out the entire rest of the semester would be done online AND the kids had to move out of their dorms by the following weekend. AND Liva found out her school was also closed for at least the next month. Ugh. Every morning was something new!
Here's a quick look at everything that came in the next 10 days:
- Saturday: Mikayla and Abby headed back to UT to pack up their dorm and enjoy their last couple of nights in their freshman-only building.
- Sunday: Liva's parents began thinking they might want to just bring her home early
- Monday: we headed to UT (grabbed a U-Haul trailer on the way) and moved both of the twins fully out of their freshman dorms.
- Tuesday: Liva found out she was going to head home within the week
- Wednesday: all 3 kids were once again homeschooled...and our at-home internet situation became a challenge to say the least.
- Saturday: we got word that Liva's parents had found her a flight & that we'd be driving her and her friend to Chicago the next day to fly home.
And somewhere in the midst of all our personal changes, the entire world cancelled every single thing that was larger than 10 people. So no more sports, no more in-person church, no movies or gyms or anything "non-essential" left open. By the time March 31st arrived, nearly all 50 states (plus several other countries) were living under "Stay Home" orders.
It is now April 7th. The Tuesday of Holy Week. Most of the country is currently on lockdown mode until at least April 30th. I'm praying that will be the end of this madness. Companies are going out of business, tens of thousands are filing for unemployment, people are unable to be with their loved ones in nursing homes or hospitals, and the entire world is living in a state of fear and frustration.
We are blessed in that Dave is an essential worker. So his paycheck is steady. But I do fear what any extension of this madness will do to our economy in the longrun. It appears that the "curve" of the virus is possibly starting to flatten in some areas. (And that's supposedly the whole point of this shutdown.) I just pray that lawmakers will stop their partisan fighting and they will do what's best for ALL people. Ruining our economy is NOT helpful to the majority of people. It seems that our state & federal government has gotten too full of itself and is showing us just how much power they wield. It's quite frightening that THEY'RE the ones determining who the essential businesses are. There is, of course, a reason to fight the spread of this virus. But not at the larger and longer expense of our economy! People losing jobs leads to people losing houses. This madness is already taking a noticeable toll on people's mental health. And people are turning to alcohol (because THAT's essential?!). I mean it doesn't take a genius to see the damage that any lengthening of this shutdown will cause. I just pray I'm writing a new blog update in a month to say that things are starting to re-open and businesses are getting back to normal.
BUT...even in the midst of this madness...I'm trusting God. I'm leaning into Holy Week with all the faith and hope I can muster. I believe with every ounce of my being that God is using this worldwide pandemic to get people's attention. I imagine this is Him saying to all the unbelievers of the world: "Wake up! Are you listening yet?! My patience with the sin of this world is running low. One day soon I am sending my Son back and there WILL be an end to this current life. Do you want to spend eternity with Me in Heaven? Then NOW is your chance. I am giving you this warning because I love you and I don't want anyone to perish. But don't delay. It's time to pay attention. I mean business!!!"
We certainly don't know WHAT the future holds...but we know WHO holds the future. Thankful that regardless of what craziness is ensuing down here, HE is in control. He promises in His Word that He will NEVER leave us or forsake us. I'm clinging to that hope every day right now.
Thank you, Jesus, for your love for us. Have mercy on us. Let us find peace in You. Amen. ♥
Comments
Post a Comment