I love the holidays! Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year celebrations all bring such great memories and are full of planning, talking to family and friends, and excitement for the time we get to all spend together. In 2020, the holidays had a whole different feeling for all of us.
Just days before Thanksgiving, my daughter began to feel ill. I immediately thought, “She has Covid.” We immediately scheduled a test and by that afternoon she and I had both been tested for the virus and promptly quarantined. As we awaited the results, all the fears that come with the unknown crept into my mind – where has she been, who has she seen, what about school, what about our work, and what about our Thanksgiving plans with family? My husband and I were so relieved to get that infamous email. SARS-CoV-2 Not Detected. Tentatively, we started to let hope creep back into our lives, even though we cancelled our plans for a large family Thanksgiving and opted instead for just the three of us at home. Our daughter stayed in her room while she still continued to feel exhausted and run a temperature. I knew that she had to have something.
On Thanksgiving Day, we smoked a small turkey and gathered for a simple, yet special meal. The day after Thanksgiving, our daughter woke up covered in a red rash. I again began a frantic search for another test site or clinic, which is not easy on a holiday weekend. The first two stops I was met at the door with a PPE-covered nurse turning us away, saying “appointments only, we are booked.” Finally, we landed in an ER where we tested for an array of flu-like diseases. The doctor barely came inside the door to present the news, “SARS-CoV-2 Detected.” I remember feeling so sad, kind of ashamed, and then hustled out the door. Then for the next 10 days, my daughter stayed in her room and we stayed quarantined in ours. Even her 14th birthday was celebrated with a piece of pie and gifts opened via Facetime.
It was a strange couple of weeks. We were thankful and relieved when it was over; no one else got sick and she recovered fully and quickly without incident. A true blessing that was not so for many, many people. This holiday season, I am so much more hopeful and so much less fearful. Vaccines, boosters, and masks in public gathering spaces, though inconvenient at times, give me hope. Our lives are often filled with hope, followed by fear, then hope again and sometimes uncertainty – this perhaps is just human nature, as we try to rely on ourselves to navigate life. We worry about a lot, things that are often out of our control.
Let us always remember that God sent His son to give us hope in the good times and in the uncertain times as well. He will be with us through it all.
Lori Hall, Executive Director of Missions
