Written July 25th...but forgot to hit Publish. Oops :)
What a season 2020 has been. Thankfully, I only sporadically blog anyway, so no one can blame 2020 or Covid-19 for my silence. But I did feel the need to write today and process with you, dear friends, where I am at.
I know that this year has been hard for all of us, but I've been really trying to seek out the blessings despite the craziness going on in the world around me. Can I share a few of those blessings that I've been especially thankful for with you? I can? Aw thanks! I'm going to write a bit of a series on the things that have been a blessing to me during this season of insanity and unknowns. We'll see how far into this series I get :)
I know that this is an unusual one in this season of borders being closed and quarantines, but let me explain (or at least summarize):
I first received news of the virus when I was in South Korea with a good friend on our Chinese New Year holiday. It was just a day or two before we were traveling out of Seoul and into a city in Eastern China where some dear friends lived. Masks started being more normal (welcome to Asia...we've been through big diseases before and masks are the immediate go to for prevention) and we started checking updates several times a day to see if we should be worried. We bought a few masks and continued with our original plans. Once we arrived in our next destination, we battened down the hatches, donned masks every time we went out, and settled in for a week of card playing and movie watching and just being. Cities in China during the New Year are quiet, for sure, but this was a different kind of quiet. Nevertheless, we enjoyed intentional time with friends and started to wonder what the rest of the school year would hold.
Our trip back to Chengdu was uneventful, but the thermometers were out at the airports and there was an extra layer of paperwork each step of the way. Worry crept in, but again, it was early on in this whole situation. We didn't know what we didn't know and luckily we were able to return home uneventfully.
Vacation ended and we began the journey of what our system called Home Based Learning. I started working from home and prepared for the long-haul (2 or 3 weeks at most, right??). Unfortunately, numbers continued to rise within China and the world was watching. I wasn't planning on leaving China at all, even as this novel coronavirus (remember when it was just called that??) continued to gain traction, but when my parents said it was time for me to get out for a bit and come to them, I didn't hesitate. I don't see my parents very often. Maybe once a year. That's become very normal for our family, but when there is an opportunity to spend more than just a week or two working out of their apartment and doing life with them, I couldn't say no.
What a blessing it was to be loved on and cared for by my amazing mom and dad. To take long walks with my dad almost daily, to watch cooking shows with my mom and willingly be the taste-tester for her creations. To explore new areas and do new things. This was long before France had any cases and based on where I had been it was fairly clear that I hadn't brought anything with me. This season was a gift.
But I knew I needed to get back home. Europe is not a convenient time zone region to be in when your staff and students are in the US and Asia. 2 a.m. staff meetings and before the crack of dawn check-ins were wearing on me and I knew I needed to get back to at least Southeast Asia before things got more precarious, as they appeared to be doing. My brother was in Malaysia at the time, working form his AirBNB online, and some dear friends from Chengdu were also there waiting out this storm. I bought a one-way ticket, knowing that quarantine was a possibility when I returned to Chengdu and that if I was going to spend 14 days in my apartment alone I would have to have my people cup filled up first.
When I checked in in Marseille, they said you have to have an exit ticket from Malaysia (for visa purposes) before you can fly into the country. Okay...$15 ticket to Singapore (where other dear friends were waiting out this virus) it is.
The week or so that I spent in Malaysia was so life-giving. 3 days with my brother, who I hadn't seen since October and likely wouldn't see for another year or two depending on both of our schedules, was a gift that I didn't expect to receive. Time with the family there that I adore and whose kids I am the principal for (imagine having your principal stay with you during Home Based Learning! Yipes!) was exactly what I needed...and I think what they needed to.
And then Singapore, with a family I've recently grown close to and have so appreciated on so many different levels. I got to be the entertainer (aka distractor) for the kids as their parents figured out next steps.
And then I came home to Chengdu. And served 14 days in quarantine. And got back to this absolutely non-normal season of life in a year we won't soon forget. The borders essentially closed to foreigners on March 28th and we're still working out what that looks like for our community...that was the day before my quarantine ended. Just 13 days after I returned.
And both of the families that I visited on my way home were not able to return to Chengdu.
So how is this all a blessing?
I am blessed to have been able to help those families pack up their apartments and love on them through that from afar. To help them close out their Chengdu life. They are families that were my Chengdu families and I will miss them. I know that some would see traveling to them in the midst of all of this as a poor choice...but I stand by it and am so thankful that I got some more laughter and tears and hugs in with them before and as they made the hard decisions not to return.
I am blessed to have had quality time with my family that is so rare and so so precious. I haven't spent more than a week or two with my parents since probably 2007. What a gift to be able to just be and enjoy and breathe together....even while working random middle of the night hours and figuring out what Home Based Learning was going to look like.
I am blessed to be in China right now, where domestic travel is possible with minimal fear and safety screenings to keep the country with very low numbers of this virus.
There are blessings hiding around the corners of this pandemic. What are some of the blessings that you have experienced?
What a season 2020 has been. Thankfully, I only sporadically blog anyway, so no one can blame 2020 or Covid-19 for my silence. But I did feel the need to write today and process with you, dear friends, where I am at.
I know that this year has been hard for all of us, but I've been really trying to seek out the blessings despite the craziness going on in the world around me. Can I share a few of those blessings that I've been especially thankful for with you? I can? Aw thanks! I'm going to write a bit of a series on the things that have been a blessing to me during this season of insanity and unknowns. We'll see how far into this series I get :)
1st Blessing - Mobility
I know that this is an unusual one in this season of borders being closed and quarantines, but let me explain (or at least summarize):
I first received news of the virus when I was in South Korea with a good friend on our Chinese New Year holiday. It was just a day or two before we were traveling out of Seoul and into a city in Eastern China where some dear friends lived. Masks started being more normal (welcome to Asia...we've been through big diseases before and masks are the immediate go to for prevention) and we started checking updates several times a day to see if we should be worried. We bought a few masks and continued with our original plans. Once we arrived in our next destination, we battened down the hatches, donned masks every time we went out, and settled in for a week of card playing and movie watching and just being. Cities in China during the New Year are quiet, for sure, but this was a different kind of quiet. Nevertheless, we enjoyed intentional time with friends and started to wonder what the rest of the school year would hold.
Our trip back to Chengdu was uneventful, but the thermometers were out at the airports and there was an extra layer of paperwork each step of the way. Worry crept in, but again, it was early on in this whole situation. We didn't know what we didn't know and luckily we were able to return home uneventfully.
Vacation ended and we began the journey of what our system called Home Based Learning. I started working from home and prepared for the long-haul (2 or 3 weeks at most, right??). Unfortunately, numbers continued to rise within China and the world was watching. I wasn't planning on leaving China at all, even as this novel coronavirus (remember when it was just called that??) continued to gain traction, but when my parents said it was time for me to get out for a bit and come to them, I didn't hesitate. I don't see my parents very often. Maybe once a year. That's become very normal for our family, but when there is an opportunity to spend more than just a week or two working out of their apartment and doing life with them, I couldn't say no.
What a blessing it was to be loved on and cared for by my amazing mom and dad. To take long walks with my dad almost daily, to watch cooking shows with my mom and willingly be the taste-tester for her creations. To explore new areas and do new things. This was long before France had any cases and based on where I had been it was fairly clear that I hadn't brought anything with me. This season was a gift.
But I knew I needed to get back home. Europe is not a convenient time zone region to be in when your staff and students are in the US and Asia. 2 a.m. staff meetings and before the crack of dawn check-ins were wearing on me and I knew I needed to get back to at least Southeast Asia before things got more precarious, as they appeared to be doing. My brother was in Malaysia at the time, working form his AirBNB online, and some dear friends from Chengdu were also there waiting out this storm. I bought a one-way ticket, knowing that quarantine was a possibility when I returned to Chengdu and that if I was going to spend 14 days in my apartment alone I would have to have my people cup filled up first.
When I checked in in Marseille, they said you have to have an exit ticket from Malaysia (for visa purposes) before you can fly into the country. Okay...$15 ticket to Singapore (where other dear friends were waiting out this virus) it is.
The week or so that I spent in Malaysia was so life-giving. 3 days with my brother, who I hadn't seen since October and likely wouldn't see for another year or two depending on both of our schedules, was a gift that I didn't expect to receive. Time with the family there that I adore and whose kids I am the principal for (imagine having your principal stay with you during Home Based Learning! Yipes!) was exactly what I needed...and I think what they needed to.
And then Singapore, with a family I've recently grown close to and have so appreciated on so many different levels. I got to be the entertainer (aka distractor) for the kids as their parents figured out next steps.
And then I came home to Chengdu. And served 14 days in quarantine. And got back to this absolutely non-normal season of life in a year we won't soon forget. The borders essentially closed to foreigners on March 28th and we're still working out what that looks like for our community...that was the day before my quarantine ended. Just 13 days after I returned.
And both of the families that I visited on my way home were not able to return to Chengdu.
So how is this all a blessing?
I am blessed to have been able to help those families pack up their apartments and love on them through that from afar. To help them close out their Chengdu life. They are families that were my Chengdu families and I will miss them. I know that some would see traveling to them in the midst of all of this as a poor choice...but I stand by it and am so thankful that I got some more laughter and tears and hugs in with them before and as they made the hard decisions not to return.
I am blessed to have had quality time with my family that is so rare and so so precious. I haven't spent more than a week or two with my parents since probably 2007. What a gift to be able to just be and enjoy and breathe together....even while working random middle of the night hours and figuring out what Home Based Learning was going to look like.
I am blessed to be in China right now, where domestic travel is possible with minimal fear and safety screenings to keep the country with very low numbers of this virus.
There are blessings hiding around the corners of this pandemic. What are some of the blessings that you have experienced?
