Random Story from the COVID-19 Project

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Keeping Faith, Adapting and Balancing

The CORVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the route of my family’s daily activities. In order to keep our family and community safe from the coronavirus, we’ve had to be receptive and adapt. I’m a single working mom with three children (1, 5, and 8) and I’m an MBA graduate student. Initially, the lifestyle changes were very overwhelming and challenging. In the beginning stages of the pandemic, my family experienced a death in the family. There was concern for the funeral arrangements due to the coronavirus. On the day of the funeral, the executive order of ten individuals or less was not mandated. However, there were still modifications to the arrangements for public safety. Our family opted not to host a repast to gather and fellowship, instead to-go dinners were provided to all that attended the funeral. It was an odd feeling to not stay for a traditional repast to celebrate the life of our loved one while consoling family and friends.Weeks prior, an announcement was made that schools for grades K-12 were suspended until further notice. As a working mom, childcare is a necessity to be able to work and provide for my family. My 1-year old’s daycare opened their facility to grade school kids that were misplaced due to school closures. This was truly a blessing, but a couple of weeks later the daycare made an announcement that they were closing their doors to keep the staff and children safe until further notice. In order to keep working, I had to send my two oldest kids to Georgia to be with my mom. My 1 year old was able to stay with her dad during the day while he teleworked from home. During this time, my University announced campus closures and the transition to online classes.After two weeks of submitting a request to telework from home, it was approved! Even though my children were in good hands, I was eager to return them home and to able to help them with distance learning school. Then again, I had no idea how challenging it would be to telework with two children attending live classes twice a day, attend to my 1 year old, and attend a demanding online graduate class. Not knowing what to expect, the first week was extremely unorganized and challenging. There were missed assignments, I got caught up with telework and forgot to log one child into live class, lunch was served late, house was a mess, etc. We have since established a routine and balance to this new way of living, but it is still a challenging process. Nevertheless, I’m blessed I’m still able to work and provide for my family.Another adjustment to our lifestyle is how we attend worship service. We now attend worship services and bible study via Facebook live. I really miss attending church with my family and worshiping with my church family.It…
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