Being grateful for what we have

Today is my friend’s birthday. We were talking about Covid messing up our plans and celebrations. I have a friend who’s wedding was canceled three times and finally held a “protest of social distancing” for a small group of family and close friends in another friends’ backyard.

My 9th wedding anniversary was also canceled because of covid. Our hopes were to take a long weekend together and have a friend of mine watch the kids. We tossed around several ideas. I, of course, started out exotic and tried to stretch the planned 4 days into 5 with mentions of London, Paris or all inclusive tropical resorts in the Caribbean. my husband looked at me like I sprouted a second head every time. I don’t think any of my options were crazy I have done all of them on long weekends before. We were still deciding on a destination the world closed.

We stayed hopeful and hoped that it would open again before our anniversary and started talking about places closer to home but far enough that a long weekend would be needed… San Diego, Catalina Island, Ashland or Cabo San Lucas we’re top choices. As it became evident that we were still going to be quarantined we hoped to at least be able to go out to a nice dinner. Well that was squashed as well so we ended up with boring Netflix and take out like any other Friday night.

It’s easy to look at this and be sad or angry that our plans have been crushed. But we have decided to be happy that we have a home and are together.

My sister is currently homeless. She isn’t staying in an encampment somewhere, she is staying at my parents house. Her husband is staying at his moms house. Their son goes between the two homes. They have been homeless since their house caught on fire in February. They are all fine but had to move out while repairs were made to the house. The plan was to stay with the parents as inconvenient as it was to save money to take a couple long weekend trips a month through the 6-12 months repairs were going to take. So they would then turn it into a positive thing by having mini adventures as a family rotating between everyone picking what they want to do. Well, like us her travel plans have also been crushed. But, since the construction company is not getting any new jobs her house is almost done a couple months ahead of schedule.

So many people are struggling. I feel fortunate that we are in a good place. Sure, I’m annoyed that I wasn’t relaxing on a tropical beach at an all inclusive resort celebrating our anniversary. But I’m still hopeful that we can make it to Hawaii in December for a week to celebrate my husbands 40th birthday, although chances of that happening are looking pretty slim as well.

Author: WorkingMomTravelDreams

I'm married, work full time and have 2 small boys. My oldest is special needs with multiple health issues and Classic non verbal Autism. My youngest is a total mamma’s boy. I'm just a mom who is trying to find herself while keeping up with the pressures of working full time while raising a family. View all posts by WorkingMomTravelDreams