There's only One that knows...

I need to be editing a movie for our YouTube channel, but instead my mind is filled with so many thoughts that I fall back to my outlet…my blog. A blog that was started in the hardest time of our lives…a blog that allows me to do something I love to do…write. It’s always things I’m passionate about, and honestly may not be of much value to anyone but my sanity, but tonight…to write is what my soul needs.

As our country has been in turmoil in one way or another this year, I’ve struggled to find normalcy for our lives. Information and recommendations seem to change weekly, even sometimes daily in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. I know so many that have tested positive and recovered. There are also many out there who have lost loved ones to this virus..thankfully, all of our friends and family are not on that list. I’m quite sure my mom had it earlier in the year…before it was even being discussed…loss of taste…loss of smell…fatigue…coughing. “It’s just a virus. Treat the symptoms.” That’s what she did, but it was over a month long recovery. At the time she was in the best health she had been in years…off of her blood pressure medication…exercising daily (and looks amazing by the way;)). I don’t doubt that her adopting a healthy lifestyle helped her so much in that recovery.

My kids returned to school today. In-person. The choice was ours, and for me, it was an easy one to make. I was meant to be a healthcare giver…a midwife…I was not meant to be a teacher. For so many, for different reasons, it was a decision that they agonized over…over and over again. Every parent that made a decision one way or another deserves a hug…something we are recommended not to do these days really. For those parents…I extend to you my virtual hug…my arms wrapped so tightly around you while I’m telling you that you are doing a great job. Protecting your kids and guiding them in the right direction is one of our responsibilities.

Today was a good day. “Great!'“ “Awesome!” “Fun!”…those are some of the words that came out of my kids’ mouths today when I picked them up at the bus drop off. Smiling the whole time, they told me about their day…even smiles when telling me that they had to wear masks more than they wanted to. This year is different…unfortunately I don’t think we get to go back to what we knew before COVID19, but I do hope somewhere down the road, this is all more manageable, but for now, our county gave us parents that choice. Having a choice matters. Having a voice matters. Choosing what is right for your family…it matters.

What I’m struggling with is our local and neighboring county folks that condemn our returning to school in person, and have deemed it to fail before it even started. Today, a local voice told me to “calm down” when my opinion was shared. I was calm…I wasn’t upset…I was being rationale and sharing my thoughts. I rarely comment on those threads, but this week I did twice…both times I was met with condemnation and derogatory comments from a couple of individuals. Why? I think it’s because my thoughts aren’t considered as valuable because it didn’t fit the narrative they were wanting to share. “What’s that narrative?” you might ask. It’s the mentality that the virtual platform these teachers and administrators have worked so very hard on is not worth their time…that it should be better…that schools will close next week…that our kids will get sick…that this will be a failure..that teachers need to send out paperwork and grade it on the weekends. I don’t know about you, but that’s not the narrative I want my kids to hear. I have so many friends that chose virtual this year, and from those I talked with today, it was fine…glitches, yes, but faith that it will get there. Patience is a virtue…something I’m finding rare in society today…and something I’ve been told all my life not to pray for:).

For me, I don’t care which you chose…virtual, homeschool or in-person learning. It’s the choice that is so valuable. In a society where it seems many of our freedoms and choices are being dictated, I am so ever grateful for the choice that fit our family best. I’m thankful for friends that have chronic illness or compromised parents or grandparents at home, to be given the choice. Two days before a neighboring county took that choice away from parents (at least for several weeks), I found a bloody 5 year old little girl pulling a suitcase…on a road…in town…alone. You can read my previous blog if you haven’t already read that story, but she woke up alone with a nosebleed and had been left home alone….all night long. While we waited for police to arrive, I cleaned her up and I hugged her and held her…I told her how brave she was. She is supposed to start kindergarten next week. Will she? Will her mom or dad pick up a Chromebook for her? Will they have the patience it takes to wade through this time in our lives? Will they stay the course and make sure she’s online at 8am? Will she get food? That day she didn’t even have breakfast…no one was even looking for her. For a large part of our society to believe that she is better off virtually learning…I’m just going to tell you that you are dead wrong. She needs the great teachers we have. She needs smiles…she needs hugs. She needs stability and normalcy from someone in her life…but she gets left home alone often. My heart is aching daily for the children that have been forgotten in all of this. School isn’t just academics…for so many it’s a safe place, a refuge, it’s the only place they see smiling faces, it’s the only place they get hugs and positive feedback. If you don’t believe me, I invite you to leave your rock and talk to a teacher…ask them some of the things they’ve seen and witnessed.

We say all the time, “I’ll be praying for you”…”you’re in my prayers”…but does it always happen? The answer is no. Tonight, I invite you to fervently pray for our teachers…our administrators…the school staff…the school board…the parents, and of course our students. Let’s not deem them to fail…let’s pray for their success…let’s pray for them to navigate hiccups in the best way. I want to pray for every student to have access to learning. Let’s pray for the glitches to be worked out smoothly soon for those learning virtually, and for that to also be a success for those families. Let’s build each other up, spread positivity, listen carefully and not judge others’ choices. Make this a daily ritual.

I don’t know how long we get to go to in-person school…I hope continuously. I don't know what next week looks like. I don’t know if one of us will test positive for COVID. What I do know, and what is my belief, is that God is the only One that does know. What else He probably knows is that I need to stay off of our local Facebook chat forums that can be filled with the negativity I’m talking about…but sometimes it takes every drop of the Holy Spirit and all of Lauren Daigle to lift me up and keep scrolling:).

Text a teacher or administrator today and tell him or her you’re so thankful for them…they need to hear it now more than ever.