Stay-at-home, Songs, & Sammy

In the Midst of a Pandemic- a Moment of Grace

“When we began our journey under a stay-at-home order back in March, it quickly became apparent to me that this was going to be a very stressful time for all involved. I began to read various posts on social media of people who were trying to cope with everyone being home, parents of children with special needs who were trying to figure out how to cope without services, those who still needed to go to work, those who all of a sudden had to switch to working from home, teachers who had to suddenly figure out how to move to remote learning, parents trying to figure out remote learning and people unable to gather for worship with their fellow believers. Personally, I went from associate pastor responsibilities and helping to lead worship, to feeling useless at home while our lead pastor ended up doing most of the work. I also had an eleven-year old daughter and nine-year old son home switch to remote learning and a 15-month old with Down Syndrome who lost all of his therapies. On top of that, my husband began working from home. All of a sudden, I was surrounded by people. All. The. Time. I’m an introvert and suddenly I had no where to go to be alone. As a musician, playing the piano has always been a way for me to relieve stress. So, as the pressure of having my family around all the time and having to cook dinner every night (can I get a witness?) began to get to me, I sat down at my piano with my hymn book and began to play. Then the thought struck me that music was something that I could do to help others through this stressful time. I know that hymns speak to a lot a people and remind them of important truths, so I decided that I would record myself playing and singing a hymn every day and post it on Facebook.

I started with ‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus, requested by my daughter, Aimee. I posted it on Facebook with my plan to do a hymn each day and told my friends that I would take requests. I have been blown away by the response. In less than 24 hours, I had more than 30 requests! As the stay-at-home order has dragged on, I have gone to my piano every day to play a hymn and have felt my spirit lifted. Not only has my spirit been lifted, but so have the spirits of many of my friends. I have received texts and private messages thanking me for the reminder of truth and how people have needed to hear a particular hymn at just that moment. I have even started a YouTube channel and have begun uploading the hymns there because a few people have told me that they have gone back to listen to the hymns again, so I thought that it would be helpful to people to have them all in one place.

While, I would love to take the credit for this, I can’t. This is all because of the love of Jesus working through me. While the initial list of requests has died down, I’m going to keep going to my piano every day and playing and posting a hymn because I never know who might need to hear the message of God’s love.

Meanwhile, Sammy (now 17 months with Down Syndrome) has been living his best life! While the loss of in person therapies certainly made my life more stressful at the beginning, it hasn’t affected him as negatively as I first thought that it would. While there is nothing and no one who could replace his therapists, who we love, his big brother and sister have stepped up and done their best to work with him and to help with virtual therapy sessions. Every week when we have gotten on our computer to do a therapy session, his therapists are seeing improvements that he has made from the week before. Not only that, but his brother and sister are getting down on the floor and playing with him often. Aimee takes him outside to play with her and he gets to go on walks with the family every evening before dinner. He basically has four other people at his beck and call! Ron (Daddy), even though he has been extremely busy with work (a CPA who specializes in not-for-profits), has been able to be with us for dinner every night because he has been working from home and this has been good for all three of my kids. So, while we are all looking forward to being able to go out more and spend time with our friends and extended family, I will always cherish this time that we have spent together growing closer as a family. I see Aimee blossoming as a caring sister who is gaining more and more understanding of how to advocate for her baby brother and I see Caleb growing as a big brother who is learning more and more about how to help Mom and care for someone younger than him.

As this pandemic goes on, may we all do what we can to make this world a better place and to bring joy to others. I am so thankful for the gift of my children and the gift of having a child with an extra chromosome because I have gotten to learn to experience joy in the little things which have in turn become the big things.”

-Genie Marklund