Three Years of this New Normal- COVID

                 

   Well, it has been about 3 years since I have blogged. I did not realize it was that long until I opened it up and realized I had not posted since 2019! So many things have happened in the last few years. I think it has also been that life has just been plain crazy in this journey! However, I would like to start again continuing to share David's story. My hearts motivation in sharing is to truly help others who may be struggling with the same journey and feel alone, for those who know David and would just like to know more about his struggles as he gets older and for me as his mom. Journaling quite frankly helps me process all the changes, challenges and blessings that come in the journey. So, I am going to go back a few years and see if I can share some of those things with you.... hopefully, I can remember! LOL! Here it goes........

             As I think back on the past three years, I can say that it has come with its difficulties. Certainly, we can also say that at least the last 2 years have been extremely challenging f. all of us. So many changes. So much stress. For David it was a whole new road he had never traveled before. Right before covid hit David had just been finishing the end of First Grade. He was in his routine. Going to school on the bus every day, coming home at the end of the day and having ABA Therapy on Mondays and Fridays and then karate three times a week as well. He had church and home schedule as well. All was normal in his world. And then......COVID! Suddenly EVERYTHING changed and was affected by this new sickness that all of us were not familiar with. Suddenly everyone had to stay inside or if you did go somewhere you had to wear masks everywhere and social distance and not shake hands or hug or do any of the regular things that we were so accustomed to doing.

          Overall, David did okay but not be able to see his teachers or therapists or do karate in person all of a sudden was not fun!  He was not happy about everything suddenly changing to Zoom. He wanted to be able to have ABA in person. He wanted to have karate in person. Those were the most challenging parts. He liked having school through Zoom, but he loved his ABA therapist, and he LOVES karate and those things he felt he wanted and needed to do in person. Yet it was out of anyone's control. After a while as some families may have started doing with their kids as they got weary of the whole thing was whenever I told him that we could not do something or go somewhere or something was canceled due to COVID I would say, "Well, unfortunately the party was canceled because......"  and then David would say...."dumb COVID". He would get so tired of everything changing and not being able to count on things happening because it never was 100% sure. I guess on a positive note it did help him with handling changes in life but at times it was just too much!       

        I tried to make things as normal as possible whenever there was opportunity and one of those things, I insisted on making great was his birthday. It was his eighth birthday, and everything was closed, and we could not have a birthday party at all with his friends and I just wanted to make a great memory for him. Some of you who may be reading this I have to say thank you because you contributed to this amazing day! I ended up decorating our kitchen and went all out with Mario themed decorations and put out all his presents so that when he woke up in the morning, he would wake up to this amazing surprise to celebrate his birthday! I had friends send him birthday cards in the mail that I had laid out on the tables, and I had little party favors for him to keep and we ordered him a Mario birthday cake. I also called his sitter who was supposed to do a Zoom time with him and had her get on the Zoom but outside of our house. Then she rang the doorbell and I told David he needed to answer the door. He said, "But Miss Olivia is going to be on any second". I said, "Well answer the door really quick!"  Then she was standing at the door! He freaked out with excitement! It was awesome! I just wanted to give him something extra to have and have at least one person come. It was my favorite birthday party he has ever had! It was such a fun time and I loved being able to forget about COVID and give him some "normal". That is all that I wanted for him in that moment.

           There were also really difficult times of trying to explain the impact of COVID on families who lost loved ones or those were really sick with COVID.  During that time we had not had anyone in our life that was impacted greatly until September 2021. On September 9, 2021 my brother in law Tony ...... Uncle Tony to David....unfortunately passed away after having COVID. David had a sweet response to it though. It was interesting to see how he processed it.  He was very very sad and cried when I told him. He also understood that it was okay to cry and that Mommy was crying because she was sad when she talked about him and about Aunt Patty being sad. And then one day out of the blue I was sitting down with him to play Nintendo on his Switch. I noticed he had a meme that said Tony.  I asked him why his meme was named Tony.  He said, "well, its because I wanted to remember Uncle Tony because I love and miss him.  I dont know what his favorite color is so I made him red. I wanted to make it for Aunt Patty as well because we love her."  He also wore the shirt that Tony bought him to Disney World when we were there two months ago.  He made a card for my sister Patty when I went down to Florida for Tony's memorial service specifically from a picture that he had seen of them on the beach.  This is how my son processes things. He doesn't talk about it sometimes.  He shows his feelings. In future posts I will share more about that but I remember at Tony's memorial service in Virginia he said he was crying because he saw Aunt Patty crying and he was just so sad for her.  But he was trying not to cry. He has a sensitive heart and I love him so much for that. We still talk about Uncle Tony a lot and pray for my sister and niece and nephew. If you are reading this please pray for them as well. They really need it. 

          I just wanted to share David's love for his Uncle Tony and how COVID has impacted David and how he has processed these last few years of the unknown. I know it has been difficult on thousands of people but I know on our kids who have special needs it can be hard to handle all the unknown.  And that's ok.  I wouldn't change them one bit!  It's just my job as his Mom to help him navigate through the changes and sometimes it can be easy and sometimes it's not but Jesus is always on the road with us as we both learn how to do it day by day.  More on big changes to come.......