The year 2020 has been a whopper for the entire world. I don’t need to tell anyone that, but it seems the best thing to say when explaining the year the world freaked out about Covid-19, and shutdown everything.
This year has also been a blessing though. Raise your hand if you realized how much you actually like people? Or you realized you don’t ‘need’ to go out as often as you thought you did. Or perhaps you realized the people you live with are actually people you enjoy being around, and have truly gotten to know them better this year.
The suicide rate increased, the stillbirth rate increased (worldwide), the social interaction decreased, everyone hid their faces from disease and each other, the stores ran out of toilet paper, and tatter tots. Kids were dismissed from school and homeschooling became popular and accepted overnight. Hospitals freaked out and didn’t let anyone in, including pregnant women and their support, which increased homebirth.
When 2020 started I had just said good-bye to a young lady from Mongolia who decided she wasn’t happy staying as our exchange student. I had just started working with a local midwife and her newly certified and licensed partner. I was for the FIRST time in my parental life, a working mom. And I was preparing for my bachelors degree courses by taking some community college courses. A few months in and the whole world had changed.
In April everything shut down, fear dominated every interaction, republicans and Democrats were pointing fingers at everyone. The stores made mask mandates, and enforced them, people died over mask wearing!
In June we were all sick of it, but w continued on, with the hope that the situation would calm down, but mostly the governor in my state said she couldn’t allow a relaxation of her policies and the mandates stood firm, are still standing firm in December.
But do you know what didn’t change?
My love for friends and family, and gathering in celebrations.
My love for childbirth, and excitement for learning it, and experiencing it as a midwife.
My love for each of my brilliant kids, and continuing to educate them from home as I always have done.
My love for my husband, who I’ll admit has gone through some pretty profound changes himself this year, (he became a stay at home dad this year!)
My absolute love for Jesus, and how he doesn’t give me a spirit of fear, and how he is constantly just right there beside me, and relieving my anxiety when I enter a store and wonder how badly I’ll be judged by the patrons there.
I just read my post about Christmas, written so long ago now... and yet, every little thing I said still holds true. We just finished our celebration of the birth of Christ. I don’t care what day he was born, I care that I celebrate one of the biggest events in human history, when God became man and lived among us! It is an amazing thing!
This year our Barn burned down, with the kids bikes, pet rabbits, lawn mower, and many other rather important things inside. Patrick lost his job, 3 times. I started full time school and an apprenticeship and found myself gone from home more than I ever had been in the past. Life has absolutely changed here, with or without the worldwide pandemic. And yet, somehow I’ve survived it, not just from disease, in fact disease is furthest from my mind when I think of this.... no I’ve survived trials, tribulations, celebrations, altered plans, distraction, and so much more.
I could choose to think 2020 was terrible, and I would be absolutely within my rights to say I hope 2021 is better, but I would rather think that 2020 brought challenges that proved I’m a winner, and 2021 will bring more of the same, and I’ll find myself leaning on God’s grace, and following him as best as I am able, guiding my children along with me, and serving people as I go.
This song perfectly describes this year... there is so much beauty, even in this pain, even in the pandemic.
