covid19- week 42

2021. 

on new year's eve, we prayed for what we're most grateful for in the year 2020. the year the world shut down around us and i scrambled to understand zooming, "virtual school" and teaching my dance class via youtube videos. the year that facetiming with the girls' school teachers became the norm, and jon's client-focused career was completely upended. the year we felt more unsettled than we could have imagined in all that we'd felt certain about our entire lives. we worried, we researched, we exercised as therapy. we swam every single day that summer and grew closer in our faith as a family. we wore masks in public, and we marveled at the resiliency and flexibility of children. we grew. we learned not all society members follow public mandates, and we became choosier in our relationships. we didn't get to see cousins, and for a few months, grandparents, too. we prayed school would safely reopen in the fall, and we were among the lucky few in our country that were granted this privilege come august. we learned to "socially distance", watch mass via internet, and take classes with friends online with subjects such as "american girl tea party" and "making oreo ice cream". i didn't get to see my gramma, who was doing her best to avoid crowds, stay home on sunday mornings rather than attend church, and grocery shop when her local store opened at 7am thrusdays for "senior citizen hour". we continued to hear of more and more people contracting covid, and oftentimes dying from complications related to it. we moved. jon changed careers. and as lucy prayed on the eve of 2021, we're "grateful to have all survived the coronavirus". 

while the virus isn't gone and numbers are still alarming, we have the chance at a new year and a fresh start at opening our hearts to a plan that's not our own. and in the meantime, to continue staying home, wearing masks when we do leave, and praying for a swift vaccine rollout that immunizes the 2 million people in line before we're up. 

here's to 2021.

xoxo, 

-ivy