Wow! What a year it has been, eh?
Like you, I never, ever would have imagined that 2020 would have turned out the way it did. I truly hope that this was a once in a lifetime year. I swear that sometimes the only thing that kept me sane was the fact that I knew that just about everyone on this planet has been affected in some way by the goings on of this year's multitude of events.
I know that a lot of the press coverage has been pretty negative this year, and to be honest, it probably should have been. There was a lot of awful stuff going on, but I also want to acknowledge that from these horrors have also come some blessings.
For our family personally there have been some hardships, but there have been so many good things to come out of this year.
In 2020 -
Joshua graduated from high school.
Andy and Josh began their freshman year at college.
Sarah made the decision (after much thought and consideration) to become a traditionally homeschooled student for the remainder of her high school career.
Elizabeth completed her 7th grade year and began her 8th grade year of homeschooling.
Bobby came home in March to work from home where he continues to be until July of 2021, but may become an indefinite situation.
Elizabeth turned 14.
Sarah turned 16.
Joshua turned 18.
Andrew Timothy turned 20.
Bobby and I turned 41.
Both boys were eligible to vote and voted in their first election.
We lost our sweet dog, Lily, to cancer at the end of March.
We brought home an incredible train wreck of a rescue dog (who is now doing so much better) in June.
Sarah took her first solo flight this fall (before COVID got really bad again) and spent a week in Portland, OR at Sky View Horse Ranch.
We explored the state a bit more and explored several new state parks.
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I think that the most important thing that happened in 2020 for our family was a sense of awareness. We became more aware and paid attention to causes like Black Lives Matter. We talked a lot about how the color of our skin gives us an unfair and unjust advantage in life and why that was/is and what we can do to level the playing field. (We also realized how little we knew about social injustice.)
As a family we talked a lot about voting and causes and parties and political beliefs. We talked about rights and civil liberties.
We also realized and became acutely aware of just how fortunate we are to live the lives we live. COVID rocked our world as a collective whole. It turned families upside down and inside out. Our family life wasn't all that changed. Our kids came home for schooling, but they were used to that since all were homeschooled for most of their schooling years. Bobby began working from home which we considered a bonus. My life didn't change much either. I realize that we are in a minority when I look at our family situation, and I am thankful that we were/are in the place in our lives where we had minimal shake ups in terms of home/work life situations. My heart goes out to all who have had to finagle jobs and day care and schooling.
The hardest part for our family has been social distancing. We take that pretty seriously in our house and not being able to visit friends/family or go to certain places has been hard, just like I know it has been for everyone.
We became more aware of what's important in our lives. Being together is important. Protecting each other, loving one another, creating memories with one another, carrying one another, celebrating one another - all of these things had a spot light shown on them this year cast by all that seemed so bleak. I hope that as we move forward we never forget how awful this year has been, but that we take with us all that was good and use that to propel us into 2021.
As Glennon Doyle is known for saying, "We can do hard things."
We certainly can because we did. All of us each in our own ways.
