You’re probably noticing that I’ve been a bit absent here on the blog for the past two weeks. And really, it’s because I have been. After a very large amount of deliberation (emphasis on the very), Ryan and I made the last minute decision last week to head home to see my parents.
It honestly was not an easy decision for us to make, nor one that we took lightly at all. But in the end, we did it. We had been agonizing over whether to travel by air for weeks, maybe even months. The desire was there, but obviously given the current circumstances, we both felt pretty unsure about the whole thing. But then last Wednesday I woke up with a gut feeling that we should be going, and so we listened to that feeling. We called my parents, asked how soon was too soon, and then basically hopped on a plane.
We both knew that we would benefit from getting away and spending time with family. But it wasn’t until we were actually there, that we realized just how badly we had really needed it. Neither one of us has worked outside of the home for the past six months. Nor have we seen any family or friends in any sort of in person setting. So yeah, we needed it – the change of scenery, the warm embrace of my parents, and that country air.
Within our control, we did everything that we could to safeguard our travels. My parents very generously booked us nonstop tickets, and we chose to only do carry-on luggage. We wore a double layer of face masks and face shields from the moment that we left our apartment until after we left the airport in Chicago and were greeted by my parents at their car. (And just in case you are curious, we did purchase waters in the airport with the “sport top” so that we could slide it under our masks and squeeze a quick drink.) We wiped down every square inch of our seats, the armrests, the trays, the remote controls, and the seat-belts. We washed our hands so many times that they dried out almost instantly. But it was worth it.
I know that I have been pretty vocal here on the blog about all of us making the effort to do our part to help beat this virus. And that hasn’t changed one bit for us. Yes, we traveled. We made that decision. But we still feel very strongly and very passionately about doing everything that we can do. And so that is exactly what we will keep doing. We will keep doing our part while also finding balanced ways to live with this. We will keep doing our part and continue to be so very grateful for our health and all of our blessings. We will just keep doing our part in our way, the best that we can. And I think that is really all that any of us can do.