At this point, it felt like we were racing against the clock. With churches and schools shut down, I knew it would be just a matter of time before everything else shut down too. Our nanny was still working two days a week, so I could finish my grading for the semester. I chose to grade in my favorite coffee shops around town since I knew I might not be able to visit them again in quite a while.
Praise the Lord that Daylight Saving Time kicked in the week before quarantine…
While huge changes were happening around society, my body had experienced a huge change as well. On Wednesday night, the same day I finished teaching for the semester, my OB called with good news. My placenta previa had finally resolved and I no longer had to have a c-section the following week.
Micah’s sister, Kayla, had already arrived to help out with the kids during the surgery and recovery, and now we suddenly didn’t really need her for a few more weeks. The c-section was scheduled for 37 weeks, but, naturally, I was unlikely to have the baby until 40 weeks based on past history. The same day we found out my c-section was canceled, the schools in Seattle closed for three weeks. Micah’s other sister lives in Seattle and would desperately need help with her three young kids during that time. Did we send Kayla home to Washington to return to work and to help out their other family members? If we sent her home, would she ever be able to come back if severe travel restrictions were put into place? We took a chance and had Kayla fly home over the weekend, praying she would be able to return two and a half weeks later.
That Sunday, we had our first church service online. Since we are a small church, it was a video conference call with 25 families and our church leaders. Our worship pastor read Scripture to us, our lead pastor preached to us through the screen, and one of our other elders closed out the meeting with announcements and prayer. While it was odd, it was beautiful to see pictures of churches across the country doing the same thing. Bigger churches were having their worship teams sing to an empty auditorium and then live-streaming it to their congregations. Some churches sent recorded sermons on Saturday night along with questions for families and small groups to answer after listening to it on Sunday morning. It was a glorious reminder that nothing can prevail against the global church — not even a pandemic and a quarantine.
