You’ll probably know that March 2020 was a big month for the UK and a lot has changed in a very short amount of time. I’d say in the space of about two weeks it went from, people walking happily streets, going to gatherings and getting whatever food they wanted from their local shop to, no one being allowed to leave their homes, no gatherings whatsoever, and queuing up to go into stores then struggling to find essential items because all or most of them will be gone. Coronavirus, COVID-19 has hit the country hard.

I’ve had to work from home for the foreseeable future, Hannah is at home with as well no longer working as a teaching assistant and we only ever leave the house to go on walks or buy food when we can find it. It’s unusual and like many others, we’re looking to a time when this will be over but we don’t know when it will be. All church meetings are happening on Zoom (which is a video conferencing site that has taken the world by storm since the virus). All gyms are closed so I’m using an app called Fiit to exercise form the house, and we tend to spend a lot of time talking, praying, and watching Netflix when we’re not working on personal projects. Hannah has taken to sewing and I’m, actually doing more work at home since I’m talking to fewer people and spending less time for lunch I guess? Anyway, the world is very different now than it was in early March. I won’t go into detail about everything since I’m sure a quick Google search will reveal all the details but it’s weird and scary. People are wearing masks now. I mean, I only saw that sort of stuff in Japan and I thought it was odd but now most people here are doing it. Nevertheless, we believe in a God who knows the future, who knows when this pandemic will end and we have put our faith in Him so whatever happens, He’s in control.

Some good news in this weirdness our first ever game jam game, Maisey and Kevin(https://hellolightbulb.itch.io/maisy-and-kevin), was one of the three shortlisted games which is awesome news for us. Not only does it give our little game studio Hello Lightbulb a tiny bit of exposure but it also affirms the fact that we’re good at making games, and Hannah is a great animator. I honestly think we wouldn’t have got shortlisted if it wasn’t for her great design abilities. Not to put my coding skills down, yes the game ran well on web but one of the judges who was playing it on a live stream did find the only bug in the game which is annoying but yay for us. We plan to do more game jams in the future (especially with this coronavirus lockdown) so watch this space. 

I also managed to finish the first draft of my book which is a huge weight off my shoulders. I’ve sent the first 5 chapters to a literary agent and have an excel spreadsheet with a few others I plan to contact but it’ll take some time. A lot less time than proofreading a small novel, so I have more time to dedicate to other things which is great.

Annnnnnnd now back to the bad news, well, very unexpected and not amazing news. We found out our child (who is a girl by the way), has a complication with her lungs. There is a large mass of lung tissue under one of her lungs which is putting pressure on her heart. We saw it in a scan and it didn’t look good. Hannah and I were both incredibly shocked at the news and very upset, this could be really bad. An appointment was scheduled at one of the top foetal research facilities to see what can be done but unfortunately, we got told to go home upon entering the building, Hannah had a cough. And amidst this coronavirus fear it meant she had to quarantine herself for 14 days. 14 days is a long time to delay potentially life-saving treatment.

We’re hoping it’s not too late and something can and will be done before (or soon after) our daughter is born. With the situation getting worse in London we’re not even sure if the appointment will still go ahead since there are a lot of other health-related appointments that have been cancelled (cancer treatments, whooping cough vaccinations, even all our NCT meetings). 

There are a lot of people praying for us right now, families, friends, our church, and we really appreciate that. We believe in a good God who cares for us and we are believing in him through this tough time.