This Pandemic Life - Seven Months In

 The world is a crazy place right now.

We are now seven months into this Covid-19 pandemic, and there isn't a near end in sight.

I say that because I just got a news alert on my phone saying Arkansas set a new record high number of Covid cases in the past 24 hours with 1,278 cases. New record high. Seven months in. Awesome.

And have I mentioned there's a presidential election happening in less than a month and the nation is more divided than ever? The division is bleeding into churches, with lots of disagreement and people leaving over issues deemed "political," such as face masks, systemic racism, and a myriad of other things.

Republicans and Democrats are clinging to their parties for dear life and ruthlessly vilifying anyone or anything associated with the opposers. I guess every election year is like that but it's either worse this year, or I'm just paying closer attention.

Schools are back in session, and most places of business (the ones that are still open) and churches have reopened, but masks are required pretty much everywhere and only a limited number of people can be allowed inside buildings so as to allow for social distancing.

For the past couple of months, I've been going to church on Sunday mornings as I am on staff, but Leslie has been staying home with Audrey. The nursery and toddler classrooms open back up this weekend, but we're not ready to take Audrey yet. As a matter of fact, Audrey hasn't been inside of a store or church since we started quarantining back in March.

She has however, started seeing her grandparents again, as my staff team began meeting in person again once a week a couple of months ago. And although I still use grocery pickup to get our groceries and avoid going into the store, I sometimes sneak into a thrift store or Hobby Lobby on a morning my parents have Audrey or on a Saturday when Leslie is home, and I savor those times.

Have we avoided getting Covid thus far? Well, we think so. But we don't really know. We haven't been tested. But the symptoms vary so much from person to person, with some claiming to have no symptoms at all, you could honestly have it and never know it.

The most common way to get tested for Covid is to have a long swab stick stuck up your nose, basically all the way back to your throat. Then it gets swirled around. Pretty sure both sides of your nose get done. I don't know that I could survive that. I come close to having a panic attack during strep tests. 

Ragweed allergies are bad right now and have been for over a month. Did you know the symptoms of ragweed allergies mimic the symptoms of Covid? They do! Including the potential for loss of taste and smell. Isn't that just the darnedest?

The picture below is from July, taken in the parking lot of Target. This was only my second time in a place of business since March. (The first time was in a children's consignment store and went undocumented. I remember no one was wearing a mask so I didn't either. It had to have been in the early days of the pandemic because masks have been mandated since July.)

"This is a Global Pandemic," She Said, in Response to Everything.

We are currently in the midst of a global pandemic. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) began in China and is working its way through the nations. This virus is characterized by a fever and cough that easily works its way into the lungs and causes pneumonia and breathing difficulty. It's killing people.

People are being asked to stay home as much as possible in order to "flatten the curve," which means lowering the statistics of how quickly this virus has spread in other countries.

I wanted to document what things look like right now, on March 27, 2020, for us here in America.

- Some states have been put under a "stay home" order, meaning you can only leave your house for essential business. Arkansas is not one of those states as of yet, but public gatherings of 10 or more people are basically against the law right now.

- Schools in some states have already been shut down through the end of the year. Arkansas schools are supposedly set to return to the classroom on April 17 but I'm almost positive they will end up making the call to not go back this school year. Kids are doing school from home, with online instruction from their teachers.

- Many companies have sent their employees home to work remotely. A lot of locally-owned businesses have either had to shut their doors or rethink how they do business. For example, local thrift stores have started offering online shopping with curbside pickup. (Leslie is still going to work at his office at Arvest despite most of his team working from home. Because he has his own office to quarantine in, he hasn't been sent home yet.)

- "Non-essential" places of business, such as places like hair/nail salons and tattoo parlors have been forced to shut down by the government. People in those professions don't have any income right now.

- Restaurants have closed their dining areas and are operating solely via drive thru, delivery, or curbside pickup.

- Churches are online only right now, which means I am working a lot. We have been prerecording our worship and message to post as live video on Sunday morning, so for the past two weeks, I've been staying busy editing all that together while also maintaining a regular presence on social media. A church's online presence has always been important, but right now, it's more important than ever because people can't gather in person to worship. And a lot of people need help right now, so it's our duty to "be the church" and do what we can to serve those who need us.

- People have been hoarding food, toiletries and cleaning supplies. So toilet paper, hand sanitizer, frozen meat and canned food, among many other things, are hard to come by. It's not safe to go in stores right now because of the risk of catching or unknowingly spreading COVID-19 (because you can apparently have contracted this virus and not display any symptoms for up to 14 days), so grocery pickup and delivery have become so popular, it's hard to find available time slots. For Walmart and Sam's Club pickup orders, I've learned they only open up 1-2 days at time of time slots, and those go live at midnight. You have to have your online cart already filled and either stay up until midnight to book a slot or hope that you will wake up early enough to get one. So I think about groceries basically all the time and try to plan ahead of when we'll need to replenish what we'll potentially run out of before I can make it to a grocery pickup.

- Hospitals are running low on protective gear for the caregivers and essentials such as ventilators and surgical masks, to name a couple. There's a real fear that if the curve isn't flattened, hospitals will be overrun by sick patients and not have the space or means to care for them. Lives will be lost. We are not at that level here in the US yet, but Italy has been.

- The CDC (Center for Disease Control) has recommended "social distancing," which means staying at least six-feet away from other people and staying home as much as possible. People are getting creative with how they visit each other. Lawson and Abby drove by with the kids and stayed in their van while Leslie and I stood back on the sidewalk and talked to them for a few minutes last night. Online conference call apps like Zoom and FaceTime are being utilized like never before as as way to see faces of people you can't visit with in person. Our weekly staff meetings for church are happening via Zoom now.

Personally, I've been self-quarantining for two complete weeks now (beginning on March 12). Audrey and I stay home all day, with our only outings being getting fresh air in the yard, taking a drive, going to pickup groceries (where someone brings them out to our car), or when I go record the Sunday morning message in the evening and Leslie stays home with Audrey.

The hardest part (besides the unknown of how long this will last or the anxiety of how bad it could be if anyone in my household or our family or friends catch the virus) is not being able to see family. Audrey is growing and changing so quickly right now and who knows how long she'll have to go without seeing her grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. She'll be turning 2 in three months and it's very possible this will still be going on and we won't get to invite family over for her birthday party. Experts are saying we could be 4-6 weeks out from the peak of this virus. It's scary to think of that.

It's a crazy thing to be living through. The stock market is crashing. I'm hearing words like "recession" and "depression" being used in regards to the current and future state of our country.

The term "COVID-19" is heard in lots of commercials that play on tv now--even in car commercials.

The world is slowing down though, and that is nice. Calendars are completely clear of social events.

Not everyone is keen to quarantining or social distancing. You will still see full parking lots outside of Walmart. But for the most part, the world has gotten a little more quiet. People are getting outside more and riding bikes and fishing with their families. Children are drawing inspirational messages with chalk on their driveways and sidewalks for passerby to see. People are reaching out to check on each other and make sure they have what they need.

There's beauty in the struggle; we just have to open our eyes to it.

And no matter what, we always have hope if we have Jesus. He's a constant that doesn't waver, and he promises to take care of us. Under his wings is where we are.

I'll leave you with a sweet picture of Audrey getting some fresh air yesterday--which, by the way, ended way too quickly, as the street in front of our house was the only adventure she cared to seek, no matter which direction I attempted to steer her.