March 2020

Our good friends, Mark & Kelly Gott led a missions trip to Ukraine at the beginning of March.

We knew that their sons - Stephen and Matt were missing them (or at least their mom's home cooked meals) so they came over for a night of fun.

Stephen at his finest...being silly.

You won't catch Matt dancing away...he's actually getting ready for the police academy!

Halfway through March...things started to get a little crazy in the US.

In January, we had heard about the Coronavirus in China. 

Then quickly it started to make it's way around the world.

By March, it was hitting closer to home. Schools began to close. Church closed.

 All sports and activities were cancelled.

Basically, life as we knew it came screeching to a halt.

Jason took the two big kids to try Sherman Branch trail again.

The last time...it didn't go so great.

Amy would say this time was a bit rough also...but she did great.

As a reward...we had chocolate chip scones and cream with tea.

Perfect for a spring morning!!

I asked Jason to go back out the next day to the bike trail.

I did NOT do well :-) 

A couple of trips over the handlebars and I think I might stick with PAVED trails.

The weather is calling us outside now everyday. It is impossible to resist the beauty of spring emerging.

All our plans for the foreseeable future were cancelled.

Rather than stay cooped up in our house...we hit the mountains for a hike.

We were not alone in that thought...in fact, the parks are one of the only places that haven't been closed due to Covid.

It turned out to be a HOT day but we did make it to the top finally!!

The Governor is throwing around the word "quarantine"...

and we don't know for how long or what that will actually look like...

but I'm thankful to be quarantined with these cool kats!

Extra time = time to play cards!

Hand and foot is NOT their favorite game...but they do oblige me every once in awhile!

We celebrated Jeremy's birthday at the end of March!!

Strawberry shortcake in lieu of birthday cake.

Jeremy's version of a Covid-hug.

This is how we did church from March until July...live streamed from church...to our basement.

It was definitely an adjustment.

There were some good things - we weren't rushed getting to church...we could wear whatever we wanted...we never had to search for a parking spot...we were NEVER late...we always had a comfy spot...we could see and hear just fine.

Sadly, we really missed being together as a "family" of believers.

We missed serving in our First Step class.

The kids missed Sunday school and their friends and youth group.

We missed being a part of corporate worship.

We missed being able to SEE so many of our dear friends.

We tried several times to put together a "game-night" with three different families.

One week we did a scavenger hunt type game.

They kids came up with the clues that the different families would run around doing.

Connected by Zoom (which QUICKLY became a HUGE part of our lives!!)

It wasn't nearly as fun as being in person...

but we still felt connected in a way.

The kids' writing class got moved to Zoom...which proved to be a bit more tedious than they had anticipated. They still learned some great writing skills...had to do presentations...and turn in homework.

And then the masks came...

every where we went...we had to take a mask.

Our friend, Kailey Gott, made our first round of masks...we now have gone through quite a few!!

Little did we know at this point that masks would be our accessories for the entire year.

When quarantine started, most everyone thought that it would be for a few weeks...or a month at most.

But as the weeks started to tick by, more and more of life was "cancelled".

I had been planning - since the previous fall - a missions trip for the big kids and several other youth from our church to Ukraine.

We had our first planning meeting and the kids had started worship practices and sent out their support letters.

Tyler and Amy were fully funded for their trip that was supposed to take place in July.

But...like most things in the year of  2020...it got cancelled.