230 Days

We have so many people that really made an effort to see us during the last 7 months. Both of the girls’ best friends also have amazing Moms that made sure they never went too long without catching up, even if it was from a parking lot or 6 ft apart in a driveway. They understood why we were staying in and made an effort to get together because it was important to them and I’m definitely closer to these people now because of it. We would see Yaya probably close to once a week. My Dad and Jen and Ryan with Piper and Daniel all made the trip up to see us during that time too. There have been daily FaceTime calls with cousins and friends. And of course we had the times we were able to not distance at all from Austin and Josey and Lily Jordan when we all had been staying in and that really helped. So even though we were physically distanced, I didn’t feel socially distant. But even with all of that, there were still plenty of days I cried over missing the “Baton Rouge family.”  It had been 230 days since I had made that trip. When my mom was sick I made a point to go every six weeks. In the last 10 years I still have not gone over about 2 1/2 or 3 months and even if I went that long it was because my dad and grandma had been up here in between. So this 7 months was the longest I had been in my whole life without seeing Nana. She’s been through so much since March and I wasn’t able to support her at all except through FaceTime. And I know that’s all we could do but it wasn’t the same. There was so much drama when she had to move out of The Haven back in April but God was in control and what a blessing it has been to have this place with a patio to the parking lot because people can come to her. And I know firsthand how much it means when people will because that is her only interaction right now. I hate it even more because she has done so much for us over the last 4 years when we needed help with the girls. She came every time Matt was sick and even 1 other time when he was going to be out of town for a week for me to have a second set of hands. So after 230 days, the girls, Gypsy and I all made the drive to visit. 

We still can’t go inside her apartment but I went all 3 days and stayed awhile. Friday was just me and the girls with Piper and the girls gave her the Halloween decorations they had made her. On Saturday, Jen, Allie, Dad and I had lunch with her and stayed over 2 and a half hours. And Sunday the girls and I went again before we left to go home. It was so good to get to see her face to face and she told me to break the rules and hug her hi and bye each time. Other than that we were masked and 6 feet though.  I cried during that first and that last hug. She was doing well and was so happy to see all of us but she’s been pretty down because of being stuck there. I know I will probably see her again but she is 91 and we don’t know what flu season will bring for being able to visit so it was definitely sad to go.  I know it was hard for her too so Janice is going to come Tuesday to cheer her up. She knew us leaving would be no good and wanted her to have something to look forward to. 

I had so much anxiety leading up to this trip that I cried on Thursday at the thought. I hated that it meant being away from Matt for 10 days and I knew I was going to be the most lax that I had been yet and the thought of bringing anything home is terrifying. But it eased some after arriving. 

We did hi and bye hugs but all of our visiting with Allie, Jimmy, Theresa and Lizard was outside at Jens. I stayed at Dad’s but was really only there during morning coffee time and we stayed on opposite sides of the living room. I told the girls to be normal with Piper so there was no distancing there but they needed that. Who knows the next time they will be able to. Jimmy and Theresa even took them to their first patio lunch while we ate with Nana on Saturday. (I’m still not ready for that but glad they had fun. 😉) All in all it was a good visit but we’re ready to get this quarantine over with so they can have their Daddy back! One week and counting...

Everyone is definitely sad but we did intentionally plan it for the first week of deer season. He got the first one of the season yesterday! So at least he will have something to do every evening that will make the quarantine easier.

And this has zero to do with this trip but we looked through pictures and I wanted to save this one. 

My Mom and Dad on their honeymoon. 21 years old