Petersons Never Give Up: Pandemics, Quarantines, and Earth Quakes

I'm pretty sure life has never changed so drastically in such a short amount of time. Over the last few weeks a few cases of Corona virus have started to pop up here in the USA. It is a scary new version of the standard cold that is extremely contagious and is fatal in many older individuals or people with respiratory illness. Last Thursday on March 12 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints canceled all in person meetings including all church services and all schools were closed the next day. In the coming days restrictions have gone from no gatherings of 100 or more down to no gatherings of 10 or more. Cases of the virus are raising exponentially and there are already 150 deaths in the USA. All restaurants are closed to the public although they still have take out. Most places of work are trying to send as many employees as possible home to work remotely. Sean of course continues to go into the clinic and has found new guidelines and protocols each day for how to handle corona testing. The staff at the clinic are scared and the patients are scared. Its a bizarre time. Grocery stores are being emptied out daily as people try to frantically fill their food storage and panic buy all kinds of goods, it is almost impossible to find toilet paper and clorox wipes. One of the things that has been most concerning for me is that Sean is so worried about this virus. I feel like he never overreacts and he errors on the side of "it'll all be fine" but he is truly worried about this pandemic! We are doing our best to maintain quarantine here because he sees so many patients every day and if we are carrying any germs from that we want to make sure not to spread those to our friends and family. It has been interesting to figure out home learning with the kids and also watch them try to figure out how to play together since we are not playing with friends right now. In some ways it has been really nice to slow down and spend so much time together. Brett especially is so busy with school and friends that I feel like I don't get to spend much time with him so its been nice to have him around. Everyone is trying to keep their moods up, but its hard! Sean is under A LOT of stress at work and we are doing our best to stay busy at home. We are most likely not going to go to St George over spring break like we had planned and we are all pretty disappointed.

We went on a nice walk to the park after our at home sacrament meeting on Sunday:

On Monday we did puzzles and painting and art:

We got ready for the Leprechauns to come

We did Lexia and Prodigy

We got a new trampoline!!!!

The leprechauns turned things upside down:

More home school. Brett and Alana's teachers have done an amazing job at putting up work for them online.

Every night is movie night these days. This was the day of the earthquake and we watched Lego Batman

We tried making soft pretzles as an activity and it was easy, fun, and delicious!

Papa and Mimi got us a new picture frame for Oreo from Disney World and Alana keeps asking me to take pictures because Oreo is so cute:

Lots of gaming has happened:

I laughed out loud when I read this:

To add to our crazy situation, yesterday we woke up to a 5.7 earthquake at 7:10 AM. Sean and I were laying in bed and the earthquake lasted for 30 seconds shaking the whole house. It felt like the house was swaying for a long time! Aftershocks continued throughout the day and night. I didn't feel any but Sean felt one while he was at work. Brett woke up to the earthquake and said he thought someone was shaking his bed. The girls slept through it. Mom and Dad Z out in Daybreak felt it more than us, the epicenter was in Magna. Neil and Dad Peterson felt it down in Orem/Vineyard. It was scary as we waited throughout the day wondering if more were coming. There was damage to a lot of homes and building in Magna, West Valley, and Salt Lake. Power was lost to many people and you can imagine how much more panicked people felt with an earthquake on top of the pandemic!

We have been preparing for General Conference this year which President Nelson has said will be an unforgettable experience. One of the recent things we've been asked to focus on is how we Hear Him. Its hard not to feel like some of these experiences are Gods way of getting us to listen. I have felt so dependent on my Savior for comfort and have felt peace in knowing that no matter what happens, I have an Eternal Family and that Christ lives and has a plan for me and my family. This is hard though! One of the most difficult parts about it is not knowing what is coming or how long these trials will last. Its only been a week and we have all felt pretty down today as we deal with homeschool and bored kids and stressful news reports on the virus and the falling economy.

We did have a very special Sacrament Meeting in our home last week. Brett conducted and we sang some beautiful songs. Sean blessed and passed the sacrament and Liz, Brett and I gave talks. I even played the sacrament song on the piano since Sean was preparing the sacrament. Alana led singing time and we did some fun primary activities. It was so amazing to feel that Spirit in our home! What a blessing and unique opportunity for us.

Before the full impact of all this hit I had the opportunity to photograph a birth for a dear friend of mine. I met Linda when we lived in Holliday. I was serving as the second counselor in the Relief Society and we had a lesson one day about miracles. A sister shared how she had been blessed with so many miracles in financing the adoption of her daughter and another sister shared about how she found out her parents had secretly paid for some fertility treatments for them. Linda was sitting in the front row and I could tell she was getting upset. I had talked with her before and knew she didn't have children so I imagined that was why she was getting upset. I went to talk with her after and she gave me the biggest hug and just cried as she told me how she had been married for 13 years and still hadn't been able to have a baby. They couldn't afford any of the procedures or adoptions or anything like that. She wondered why these sisters could have miracles but she and her husband were left out. About a year later she told me that her work was paying for her to have in vitro fertilization. She became pregnant but ended up losing the baby to miscarriage. I mostly have followed her story online since we moved. She posted that she was pregnant and it truly was a surprise miracle! She reached out and asked if i'd take some photos of their family during the birth. She was being induced on Monday morning and they called Tuesday morning when she started pushing. I went right up to the hospital and found Linda laying on her bed in defeat. She had been pushing for 2 hours after a very difficult 24 hours of birth. The baby was stuck and they had decided on c-section. Poor thing was exhausted! I was able to be with them and help as the doula needed to leave and Linda's husband needed some looking after while Linda was rushed to surgery. I stayed with Ryan until they came to take him down to the OR. I waited for the sweet family to return and was so grateful to be a part of their first moments together. We got some precious pictures. The lighting was terrible and the situation was not ideal, but I felt so honored to be there as they welcomed little RJ to the world. In the days following Linda was diagnosed with preeclampsia and had to have lots of interventions at the hospital and had to be readmitted. As far as I know though she is home safe now. Birthing babies is no joke!