Would it surprise you to know how excited and relieved I was when the CDC announced that the vaccine was approved for kids 5-11 years? That my youngest two were definitely going to be getting the vaccine the very first day it was possible? Here we are, a mere THREE DAYS before we’d finally “made it through,” kept everyone safe through this pandemic, could sleep a little easier knowing that no one had gotten COVID and everyone in my family was finally vaccinated. I know people have very different opinions about the vaccine, but after our experiences the past year with illness and the personal impact (stress!) of the pandemic, not to mention how high risk I am for complications, I have been gung ho about the vaccine from the beginning.
Can you guess where this story is going? My 11-year-old son woke up this morning with a minor sore throat. He also said he had coughed a few times during the night. No other symptoms. To be honest I might have shrugged it off except I knew that there were a few kids in his class who had tested positive for COVID. I kept him home from school and got him tested, and yep, he is indeed COVID positive.
So far everyone else has tested negative. And I’m hopeful that trying to keep him isolated (poor guy) and everyone wearing N-95 masks will keep it that way. Once again things are complicated with my trying to work, and we are smack in the middle of a big construction project (having an exterior door that will go straight down into my clinic installed, new outdoor stairs and rails, etc.). Between that and the TWO floods from the past two weeks (yes, you read that right), we’re a mess.
To further the irony of getting COVID so close to my kids being vaccinated, I was scheduled to get my COVID booster shot TODAY. Not going to happen now for several weeks, until I know that we are all completely COVID-free. So close! And after we have been SO careful throughout the entire pandemic!
And yet (and yet, and yet…), we continue doing what we must, taking things a day, or sometimes an hour or even a minute, at a time. Doing that next thing. Wading through life and grief and new crises that just keep coming. Amidst all that, though, I can continue to fall back on assurances like those found in Doctrine and Covenants 123:17:
“Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.”
I don’t think it’s merely enough to be “barely getting by” each day. We’re asked to CHEERFULLY do all things that lie in our power. And no more than that. Perhaps this COVID quarantine will help me to stand still, something that I am not very good at. Certainly a loving Heavenly Father knows what we are going through, what we will face, what is best for each and every one of us. I don’t question that. Who knows how His arm will yet be revealed, how these experiences truly can be counted for our good (and not just providing good book material – ha!). It is only through our challenges and our trials that we really grow. No matter how painful that feels in the moment. It is only as I am stretched to my utmost limit that I am able to more clearly see God’s hand in making up the difference where I fall short. And that is truly beautiful.
