I can’t really post photos but I figure I am going to want to have a written document of my feelings during the great pandemic.
So where we are right now. I have lost track of foster letter I am on… and I am lazy and don’t want to look it up at the moment. However, I will say that I have foster A, a three year old girl who goes to public school as of late last month, and foster B a 3 month old girl.
A week ago I foolishly thought this would all pass soon. We were taking foster A to feeding therapy (which was to be her last feeding therapy appointment as they didn’t like what we had to say). I didn’t think twice about bringing the other 3 children to the hospital for this appointment. After this appointment we also took all of the children to Costco to get a few things. Things were crazy there. The shelves were nearly empty, like we walked into a newly open Costco that had yet to really fully stock. There was a line to get bottle water and no toilet paper. We ended up getting normal staples and 2 boxes of diapers for the kiddies. Wipes were nowhere to be had there.
2 weeks ago I was hospitalized with an “unspecified viral illness”. They also claimed I had low blood pressure (which I did) and a fever (which I did but it quickly went away. I felt like I was in the hospital for about 48 hours longer then I needed to be. Strange as I was only there for 3 days.
So as I was saying, a week ago I felt like everything was normal. Sort of like before anything country wide life changing. September 10, 2001 was just like any other day. Nothing note worthy. March 11, 2020 was the same.
Thursday March 12, I started to get a bit nervous as the school district abruptly went from “everything is fine” to “school is going to go to 1 session day on Friday March 13” so that “teachers could prepare for the Coronavirus”. We went to our kiddie gym and I talked to the owner saying that I was sorry that this was happening to him… a small business owner. I also told him that we would keep coming as long as we were able to do so. Thursday into Friday night I didn’t sleep well. I woke up early and decided that Foster A would not go to school for 1.5 hours and would go on her visit later in the day and then to the dentist.
The dentist office was strange. Closures were on everyone’s mind. The roads were the same as always. Kiddie gym was closed till the end of the month. Schools announced that they would be closed with students working at home, for the next 2 weeks. Friday, it felt like everything changed. Things were closing at an alarming rate. If I wasn’t freaked out before, I was now. It was no wonder you could feel the panic in the air.
Saturday we thought we would make our usual pizza at home. German school was cancelled so we stayed at home. Went for a walk in the afternoon and I was able to go into CVS and found toilet paper and formula. I also measured the new stroller (probably more on this later) and figured out what I would need to make a rain canopy. We placed an order on Amazon that we would have likely placed anyway. Part of that is fabric for said stroller’s rain canopy and seat covers.
Sunday we decided it wasn’t worth it to go to church. I figured this would be just to be on the safe side. Again in the afternoon we went for a walk, avoiding people that we ran across but honestly there wasn’t many out. Walmart we could see looked as busy as normal for a Sunday afternoon.
Monday – I had set up an appointment for me to get my interview done for Global Entry. It was the soonest available unless I wanted to wait till mid August. It was also at Newark Airport. I wasn’t really thrilled to go but I also knew that I had to. I decided to go but take EVERY precaution I could. The airport wasn’t that busy (thankfully) and it was easy to maintain the 6 foot radius. The appointment lasted 5 minutes so I was out fast too. Roads to and from Newark were busy but I did notice more trucks then what I would consider normal. I saw even a couple Costco trucks and wondered if they were full of toilet paper and water. Foster B had a visit this day. I was anxious about sending her but I knew I had to, and there were no cases in the county she was going in so how bad could it be? Visit was only 2 hours long and she came back.
Tuesday – Cases the day before in New Jersey had doubled. This is getting real. I had a conversation asking why visits were continuing. I had went ahead and set up an account so that fosters could video chat with their parents should visits stop. I was told that the visits had to continue. Foster B had another visit. I felt this was unfair and that if the state were going on lock down (curfew was put in place this day) that we shouldn’t be having carriers of many illness going all over the place. I got encouraged when I saw the latest report saying that cases in NJ didn’t double again.
That brings me to today. Today I knew that we didn’t have anything going on. Thank goodness! So today was actually relaxing. I got a call this afternoon saying that the state was closing (I assume to everyone but essential workers… I am hoping they wouldn’t allow children to be abused during this time). So visits are canceled for the next 30 days.
So there we are. I have slowly been getting our Amazon order but it is slow with all the other things going on. Sadly I can’t start the rain canopy till I have everything. Right now I have one item. I have been knitting (something I recently discovered I could do) in the mean while. I actually probably have enough projects to last me 6 months or more. So that is good.
It is ironic that we are going through this now. We were planning on traveling this year for the first time in about a decade. Now that is up in the air… though I wish we had that chance (to go up in the air).