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Weddings, birthdays adapt to pandemic

Christy Howell-Hoots, The Ledger Independent

Due to concerns over COVID-19, many families have had to make changes to celebrations such as birthday parties and weddings.

Sarah Adkins, a Fleming County resident, said she had to hold a wedding ceremony without her family in attendance.

Adkins said she and her now husband were planning to marry on March 28. Nearly 200 guests had been invited to attend. However, that started to change when social distancing orders went into effect.

“When they said we couldn’t have more than 100 people together, we cut our guest list down,” Adkins said. “Then they cut it down to 50 and we cut down the guest list again. When they changed it to 10, we knew we couldn’t do it anymore.”

According to Adkins, her family is from Ohio and knew that with the orders about social distancing and discouraging travel between states, it would be impossible for her parents to attend her wedding ceremony.

“We moved the wedding to March 20, but we knew my parents couldn’t come,” she said. “We went to our church and had a small ceremony. It was the two of us, his parents and two sisters and one sister’s family member, the pastor and two best friends as witnesses.”

The most difficult part for Adkins was not having her parents in attendance.

“The hardest part was when he asked who was going to give me away and it hit me that they weren’t there,” she said. “It was hard. It wasn’t how we wanted to get married.”

Adkins said she does hope to have another ceremony later in order to have her parents there.

“It’s something we hope we can do later,” she said.

Cindy Lands, another Fleming County resident, said she had to get creative for her son’s 10th birthday.

“Birthdays are a big deal in our family and normally filled with several parties, celebrations at school and a family trip and this year was a big birthday for him so we knew we had to try our best to make it special. Turning 10 and hitting double digits is a milestone for any kid,” she said.

However, plans for a big birthday celebration had to end, due to COVID-19. That was when Lands put out a call on Facebook for help making Logan Lands’ birthday a special day.

“We put a request on Facebook requesting birthday cards to be sent to for him to open on his birthday. The week prior to his birthday cards filled the mail box from classmates, school friends, family friends, my co-workers, school personnel and even my high school teachers. He was so surprised and loved reading each card.”

According to Lands, she and her husband shopped online for birthday gifts and decorations. The night before her son’s birthday, they decorated the house while he was sleeping. They also painted a sign that said “Honk for the birthday boy” and placed it in front of the house.

“This allowed everyone passing our home that day to honk and take part in his birthday celebration. Many people honked and Logan smiled each time. You could see the joy in his face knowing that the honk was just for him,” she said.

Family friends Brandis and Steven Cox also set up a birthday parade for Logan Lands. During the parade, friends of the family drove by the house and threw out candy, gifts and cards while singing happy birthday and blowing their car horns.

“Logan could hear the commotion coming and ran to the road to see what was going on. When he realized it was all for him he was brought to tears,” she said. “Family members that could not take part in the activities on his actual birthday came the day before and and dropped gifts off in the driveway and wished him a happy birthday from a distance.”

According to Lands, the biggest challenge was getting supplies and having her son be unable to spend his birthday with his friends.

However, Lands said her son enjoyed his birthday.

“That night as things started to wind down Logan said ‘I was really dreading my birthday. I thought it would just be another day in quarantine but today has been the best birthday ever.’” she said. “We are blessed with a community of family and friends that helped make his day so special. He for sure felt loved that day.”

The Ledger Independent is online at: http://maysville-online.com