April 08, 2020
Greetings Calvary! It was great to be with you during worship on Sunday ... virtually be with you that is. I am now back from the first half of my parental leave, which consisted of six weeks completely off work. Beginning this past Sunday, April 5, I started my second half of parental leave. Prior to Covid19 and the Sheltering at Home orders the second six weeks of my parental leave would have consisted of me working from home and coming in on Sundays for worship. These next six weeks will function a little differently under the Shelter at Home orders and Calvary moving to digital worship and gatherings via video conference. I will still be working from home but it will now be Sunday through Thursday rather than Monday through Thursday and coming in on Sundays. I will be doing one main Calvary event or service a week and those will likely be recorded or video conference. With all of Calvary's staff working from home my flex weeks of parental leave will feel a bit different for all of us. If you notice that I am not in all recordings for worship services or on weekly gatherings via Zoom it is due to my doing one main Calvary event or service a week. I will be back from these six weeks of flex time parental leave the week of May 17; which might also be the week we could be back at Calvary together if current safety precautions stay on their timelines.
These first six weeks of my parental leave have been deeply cherished as Ian and I learn to be Julian's parents. While six weeks is far too short in many ways I am so very grateful to have had that focused time with my son. AND, did not require me to use my vacation or sick days and was paid which is not the case for many parents in our country. So while six weeks fully off is a short period of time (I'm sure any time frame would feel too short with a new baby) I am thankful Calvary updated our policy almost three years ago and sought to provide families with more time with their new children. Many thanks to the Staff Relations team who updated our parental leave policy!
And many thanks to all of you at Calvary for supporting my taking these six weeks away from my work responsibilities! It allowed our parents and my sisters to come visit and really offer us meaningful support those first two weeks before Covid19 restrictions on travel were put in place. The remaining four weeks were an incredibly sweet time for Ian, Julian, and I to learn how to do life together as a family of three.
I so look forward to the day we can all be together again at Calvary and have you meet Julian in person!
With deep gratitude,
Pastor Morgan
Pastor Morgan working at home with Julian on her first Monday back from leave.