What is funny… I had all these ideas on what talk about and write out. But once I got to the title of these post, just looking at the 2020.. Made my mind go blank, and this overwhelming stress began to creep in. Trying rather hard to look at the positive events that did happen in this year. This has been a long year slow, dreadful year. I remember in the beginning of 2020 things were looking up, I got promoted the year before and money was no longer a issue. We had made an number of plans for the year, started to save for things. Even at one point we were looking at get a house. Kids were doing good in school and healthy.
But that changed towards the end of January and all of February. I remember when we first hear about COVID-19 was at work. At the time it was mostly in Asia and we didn’t really worry to much about it. Then we heard the news of it hitting the UK hard. I remember we had a meeting about what to do if COVID came here. While some were in denial and some tried to throw out some ideas. It all turned out to be folly. Come March we shut down the restaurant for a few weeks to see how things go. Those few weeks turn to months and I found myself out of a job. After about a month of digging into the savings, I was finally approved for unemployment. Even with that , sadly money was a issue again. School shut down and the kids and myself found ourselves stuck at home. Not being able to travel or see some love ones. We tried to make the best of what we can.
I know in the past I have made some post about the kids and a few of the events going on. But I have to say I was rather shocked on how well the kids handled it all. My oldest would video chat or text with her friends, lots of crafts haha. My youngest he would video chat and was still able to play with his friends over a number of video games. At least over the summer things lighten up just a little to where they were able to have a friend over or a sleep over. But that too was short lived. We soon found ourselves sticking to our inner circle of family and friends. People who we knew that kept things clean and followed the CDC guidelines .
Then the Oregon fires hit..
My parents and siblings lived in Talent, Oregon. That whole town was leveled by fire. I remember the phone call I got from my Mom and sister, telling me that they were being evacuated and saying that the house was gone. That all the other homes were on fire around as well. After a few hours of hearing nothing from them and realizing that everything in their is gone was a hard pill to swallow. Once I did hear back, I picked up my sister to stay with us for a few days. So our parents could figure out what they needed to do. While this was going on, the kids other set of grandparents were having health problems and were able to have people over anymore do to being high risk of COVID. So the kids were not about to see any family most of the summer. We did get to have one get together on the fourth of July with my side of the family. Even made plans for Thanksgiving with them, sadly that turned out to be a pipe dream.
Some good news came from the fires, that my parents home was saved. The firefighters were able to save the house with some damage. But that was the beginning of a longer journey for them to get back into the house. Sadly some of my old friends weren’t so lucky and lost everything. So for the next month or so I was watching all the channels and keeping up to date on where the fires were. Because we were now in the circle of burning neighboring towns and everything was covered in ash. Sky was red and dark…
Then the rains came and all but stopped the fires. On the heels of that, we were going into the new school years and school was shut down. They were now at home learning and had to set them for that. So now I am at home worrying about money, keeping the house in order, making sure the kids have what they need, part time teacher/tech support and Dad.. At some point in all this craziness, my Mom got COVID from someone at work and she had to stay away from everyone. So after a number of tests and a couple of weeks, she is now doing better. But at this point we are all quarantine and can’t do anything.
Still out of a job and getting unemployment, luckily my girlfriend still had her job going. Otherwise I think we would have been in some trouble. So Halloween was shot, we just bought a bunch of candy and watched horror movies. Thanksgiving was now a small group of family and we still had Christmas to get to.
Now comes a topic I’ve been wanting to write about for awhile now. But I had to wait to I got the okay from my lawyer. Some of my close friends and family know I have been in a rather interesting custody battle. So while all this events were happening in 2020, I was fighting for my kids. I sadly can’t get into much detail.. But it as been a cause for much stress, headaches, tears and worry. To be truthful this legal battle should have been over with months and months ago. But with someone postponing and COVID, the court date kept getting pushed back. Hopefully this will come to a end this year. I know the kids want this to be done with. I know I want this done with, the families want this done with. The fact is too, I have been dealing with for years, it wasn’t till 2018 where I finally got legal help. Needless to say I have a better understanding of the laws now and beyond grateful for the help they have given me.
So now we are at the end of the year now. We were able to get a number of gifts for the kids and family. Also for the past year I have been planning on proposing to my girlfriend. I’ve talked with my kids about it, to see how they feel about. I think there were a at least 5 different conversations about it over the year. Both of were rather excited about the idea and happy. This is something that was important to me and I wanted to make sure the kids didn’t have any problems with it. Specially with everything going on.. So after talking with my girlfriend’s parents about it, they were more than happy to give their blessing. Aside note, my girlfriend and I had talked around October. Saying that we weren’t going to get each other gifts this year and save that money for a trip or something down the road. To mostly focus on the kids and family members. I had gotten the ring before hand hahaha. So this was going to be a shock to her. On Christmas Eve after all the gifts were open, I proposed to my girlfriend(now fiancee). Luckily my oldest got it on video hahaha.
So 2020 ended on a high note, at least for myself. While I am looking forward to 2021, I am not holding my breath for things to get better. We are trying to plan a wedding and yet make back up plans in case those plans don’t work. School is still currently at home,…. So I will end this post with one of my favorite quotes by Gandalf:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
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