No more counting days. I saw my family yesterday, breaking my isolation, so I think that means I can stop counting. Is covid over? Definitely not. I won’t be doing pre-covid things, I won’t be seeing all the people I used to see, but I will start to see my family more and a friend or two, hopefully. Fifty-six days in isolation, even longer since I had seen my family.
Seeing them, getting to hug them, I needed it. I cried. But I also laughed and felt light and happy. Kaitlin greeted me at the door. I had missed her the most. I had come to rely on seeing her almost every week and being cut off from that was hard. She showed me the truly impressive water color painting she’s been doing. I don’t think she’s really painted with water colors before covid and she took it on, the hardest paint to use, and is crushing it. She’s working on some Toy Story characters right now because both Emmie and Ollie love them, they’re looking really good. Kaitlin also sewed me my own mask in like ten minutes! She let me choose the fabric I wanted and whipped it up so quickly. I’ll have to take a picture and post on here because I actually feel pretty fashionable wearing it, I’m probably going to ask her to make more for me once I can find some fabric (I don’t want to use all of hers!). One side of the mask is a lovely floral fabric that I adore and the other side is a light pink with polka dots.
The day was grand and wonderful but also exhausting so I’m sure there’s more for me to say about it but my brain refuses to tease out specific details other than, “You were happy and you love everyone and everyone loves you.” Emmie ran up and gave me a hug and told me she loved me. Ollie maybe smiled at me and then kept doing his own thing. Kevin talked about cool backyard plans he and Kaitlin are starting to think up. My mom made me vegan stir fry and fajitas and my dad brought me vegan “chicken” nuggets to try (they’re tasty).
I couldn’t tell you everything we talked about or said but know that it was great to just be in the same room as all of them. I went back again today for Mother’s Day lunch. I’m very lucky. I love my family. I don’t know when I’ll see them next but I’ll be it’ll be sooner than 56 days.
Just Lauren 
It was a glorious time. Family is so very precious. I hope we never again have to go that long without seeing each other.