You rascal, you. You just had to have the last laugh didn’t you? Well I for one say, good riddance.

Wednesday after last post started off great. When you have such an amazing and supportive community like we do and a sick kid, those two things can combine to create some pretty special experiences. See getting to flip the McAdenville light switch, or getting a personal voicemail from Dabo. On Wednesday, a good friend and fellow cancer mom arranged for us to get an hour of private jumping at Adventure Air Sports in Rock Hill.

Jennings has gotten it into his head that anytime he has a procedure and gets “sleepy juice,” afterwards he and I must go on a date. Time before last I was asking him what he wanted to do and this was top of the list - go to the “jumping place”…after the obligatory trip through the Krispy Kreme drive thru, of course. I blamed us not being able to go on coronavirus and the late hour of the day, trying to sidestep the fact that he can’t go because of his weakened immune system.

Well, when we realized we would have the week in Charlotte and he was feeling good, Lauren put out the feelers on making his wish come true. So, Wednesday morning, Adventure Air opened an hour early for us and we all got to jump in private. Check that, semi-private. Spiderman himself made an appearance and jumped with us…brought some nice moves with him like backflips off the zipline into the foam pit which relegated me to simply bouncing and falling ungracefully into the foam pit. The kids all loved it and had a ball.

And as if that was not enough, we followed jumping with a private lunch inside the Chick-fil-a that shares the parking lot with Adventure Air. They had a table set for us in the play place where we got to privately dine inside, much to the chagrin of the cars stuck in the 3-wide drive-thru line who could see us through the windows.

Lauren & I planned a date for that night on the way home from Rock Hill. It had been awhile since we had spent any time together alone outside of our home or before all 4 kids are down for the night. Plus, the stress of the pediatric cancer world had finally caught up to me on the way to jump and I caused a tiff over a treatment option that Lauren had asked his doctors about. My tone and demeaner during the discussion left something (or everything) to be desired. An hour later, that treatment path was no longer an option and the whole bit was for nothing. We had semi-patched it up during lunch and were looking forward to a night out together.

Unfortunately, that’s where 2020 struck again. Lauren got a call from our nanny (who has been super helpful this past month) that she tested positive for COVID. She had been with the twins all day on Monday when Jennings had his surgery. She had noticed some symptoms following that and had not come since Monday as a result, but found out Wednesday she was indeed positive. We’ve all been one big happy family since Monday, so we’ve all had to assume that we’ve been exposed.

In talking with several medical professionals Wednesday afternoon, mostly in an attempt to find a more palatable answer, we discovered that their consensus was that we should quarantine ourselves from the twins. Lots of things are possible and there is still very little known for certain about this virus. They could have it, but not yet be able to transmit it. They could have it, be transmitting it, but we may not have been infected yet. They could not have it. They could have it and we could have it. And probably a hundred or so variations in between.

Since it is not socially acceptable, or even legal in most states, to lock the twins in the basement for the next 10-14 days, we transitioned from date night planning to quarantine planning. Our main focus was not delaying Jennings’s treatment, so the goal was to isolate him and I from the rest of the family. We talked through options of somehow isolating from each other in the house, but quickly realized that was a pipe dream. Our house is not set up for that scenario and a 7-year old, 5-year old, and two 3-year olds are not exactly going to be helping us in that endeavor. Charlotte, thinking we may have been wavering on that, decided to cement it for us by taking one of Jennings’s medicines that I had left unattended on the counter while I talked to a doctor about what to do. Fortunately it was just Pepcid, which in liquid form tastes horrible so the joke was on her.

We landed on Jennings and I leaving the next day for Memphis. Our short-term housing was already available and that would be the surest way to isolate us from the rest of the crew. We came to this realization about halfway through our takeout dinner, so we scarfed the rest down and transitioned to packing. Jennings and I got on the road on NYE about 9:45a after refilling some prescriptions to make it through the holiday weekend. Not bad considering it was about 9p the night before when we decided we would leave with nothing prepared.

We drove so that we would have a car here. The first bit will be (hopefully) outpatient, so we’ll need the transportation. It was a loooong trip, but we made it. Jennings watched the iPad in the backseat the entire drive. We stopped at 3 gas stations to load up on junk food and fuel. Every so often, with increasing frequency, Jennings would look up from the iPad to inquire as to the anticipated time of our arrival…all with great sincerity, concern, and respect. “How much wongerrrrr?” with a glazed look in his eyes. After my unsatisfactory response he would yell, “you stinkin’ old fox!” and go back to his show. The cruelest response I could come up with was when I told him we were not even halfway there after being in the car for 4 ½ hours. He was not amused.

We arrived into Memphis about 7p local time on NYE and were greeted by our incredibly gracious hosts, Lee & Dave. We have mutual friends & connections in Charlotte and made great friends with them when we were here for transplant #1. Since Sean’s House, where we stayed last time, is not currently available, Lee & Dave offered to move out of their house and let us stay there until we can get into Sean’s House. We did our best to social distance with N95 masks on while they gave me the lay of the land, going over minor details like how to not set the alarm off while my 5-year old inventoried every priceless breakable item within his reach. All kidding aside, this is an amazing gift to our family and another example of the body of Christ at work. Not only has our extended Memphis family provided housing, but groceries were already stocked before we arrived and there is a meal train set up starting this week.

We have unpacked, settled in, and tried to keep ourselves entertained with all sorts of different activities…at least those that are COVID / quarantine-friendly and that can be done by a 5-year old and 37-year old. We’ve done the tried & true like LEGO building and going to the driving range in 43 degree drizzle. We’ve tried some new ones…Jennings did his first 35-piece puzzle yesterday with minimal assistance. I also tried to teach him H-O-R-S-E with an over-the-door indoor basketball hoop. It’s on the back of a chair. His version is more dance moves followed by a dunk, rather than a challenging basketball shot. So, needless to say, I’ve lost all 4 games. He was telling L and sissy all about it on FaceTime. Emphatically, with his hands gesturing, “If you miss, you get a horwus wetter. If you get awwww de horwus wetters, you wose!”

We have one more chill day before some action resumes on Monday. These last few days have not been what we thought they would be. Jennings and I got a head start in Memphis and realized quickly that we only have each other here right now. That is a place we have been before, but it is also a strange place now that we have all adapted to being a family of 6. It is eerily quiet in the house and our ears are lost without the constant barrage of screaming & crying. Thanks to technology, all of that is only a FaceTime away where we can see Charlotte with her signature face-bandaid and Henry asking to come to the beach house. Nothing about Memphis or the house we are in says “beach,” but he is stubbornly convinced that is where we are and where he shall go. Our ultimate prayer is exactly that. Give us back the crazy, chaotic, hanging together by a thread life of a family of six. May Monday be a step forward on the road back to that.

“The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Ps 34:18-19

#allinforjennings