Moving Forward

If you’re reading this post on the morning I’m releasing it, I’m likely on an airplane right now.  Odds are, my husband dropped me and our kids off at the Salt Lake City airport in the wee hours of the morning, and the three of us are totally masked and sanitized on an airplane.

After moving our young family from Chicago to rural Idaho on a seeming “whim” last year, no one could have come close to guessing that a global pandemic would nearly forbid us from flying back to see family for the past 3 months.

And believe me…we had plans to see family.

My sister and her family flying in for Spring Break – CANCELLED

Us flying back to Chicago for Easter – CANCELLED

My parents flying in to help me plant my first Idaho garden – CANCELLED

So, here we are again.

Do we cancel the trip or not?  Is it safe to go through airports or not?  How many confirmed cases are there in Illinois?  What’s the exposure risk?  How many door handles do I need to touch between here and there?  What’s the incubation period?  Remind me again how this affects children?  What percentage of alcohol is this hand-sanitizer?  Wait…can you get it through your eyes?  Should we be wearing goggles?

My head is spinning just from writing that.

No doubt, some of you are thinking:

Are you insane?  Why would you take that chance with your health and your kids’ health?

I hear you.  Believe me, I hear you.  I get it.

And the other half of you are thinking:

What’s the big deal?  This whole thing is fake news and blown out of proportion anyways.  You’re fine.

I hear you, too.  Believe me, I hear you.  I get it.

The truth is, I don’t know what to think anymore.

I know that a global pandemic surely doesn’t feel like it’s happening in rural Idaho.  And I know the dramatic political tug-of-war happening with personal freedoms in Illinois seems like the other extreme.  And I know people are getting sick and dying.

I also know that none of this is ending anytime soon.

If you haven’t realized, we’ve entered a new norm.

A “norm” where my pizza delivery guy could double as a bank robber with a bandana tied around his face.

A “norm” where high school seniors celebrate their biggest life accomplishment to date in a car parade or at a drive-in theater (which was pretty clever, by the way).

A “norm” where we discuss how to socially distance kindergarteners in the fall (please tell me that’s a joke).

And a “norm” where my expert-airplane-travelling-kids now hear me say “don’t touch a thing until I wipe it all down”.  (I would be remiss if I didn’t commend Delta Airlines for sending me no less than 30,000 emails in the past 3 months telling me how sanitized their planes are…and I believe them.)

My marriage was built on air travel – thanks to a long-distance relationship with a country boy I was head-over-heels for.  And our kids have taken more flights in their short traveling careers than I took in 20 years.

This is what we do.  We get on planes.  We visit.  We make this giant world feel smaller.

For us, it’s time to move forward with the new “norms”.  And for me and my family, that means figuring out how to safely get on an airplane again.  Because, either we get on an airplane armed with masks and Clorox wipes today or we get on an airplane armed with masks and Clorox wipes in 6 months.

And believe me, there’s zero chance I’m not getting on an airplane in the next 6 months.

So, we do what we have to do.  We take precautions and say our prayers, hoping one of those keeps us safe.

Because, today, we’re choosing to move forward.