COVID-19 upturned my family life but vaccines for kids offer us a pinch of hope

This First Person column is written by Jenn Summers, a mother of three who lives in Saskatchewan. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ. 

The excitement of a kids' vaccine for COVID-19 has made it feel like Christmas has come early in my home. 

Hope for a better future has become a reality this week with Canada approving vaccinations for children ages five to 11. 

The relief I felt getting my second shot is nowhere near the relief I feel for my three medically complex children about to get their vaccinations. Now, there's no more explaining why they need to wait to help put an end to COVID-19. No more anticipating the approval. Our hope is renewed. 

Being a mom of three children during a pandemic comes with challenges. Being a mom of three medically complex children during a pandemic — well, let's just say it's exhausting and profoundly overwhelming. 

As mothers, we try to protect our children from the day they are born. We allow them to take steps and we encourage them to grow, to thrive, to live life. We would do anything to keep them safe. 

Not all children are born healthy. Some have complications even in the womb. Some parents see their child so ill that they fear they may die. That fear in your heart goes through your soul and takes up space in the back of your throat. You wonder if you will ever breathe the same again. That fear in itself is terrifying.

Then a pandemic comes along — with a virus we knew nothing about how to control, much less stop. 

In the eight years since having our twin girls, I have never felt so alone. It's worse than when I was in a out-of-province city when my newborn was getting health care, knowing nobody but the sick baby in my arms.

Back when my children were first born, I had so much support. So many people, even complete strangers, helped us through one of the most difficult times of our lives. 

Now, I'm once again depending on complete strangers to help us end the fight against COVID-19. 

We keep hearing that children are less likely to get seriously ill from this virus. Often forgotten are the children who are medically complex. My three children have serious asthma, along with other underlying conditions that doctors believe may be neurological and neuromuscular in nature. 

They have taken the brunt of the pandemic. They stayed home, they lost contact with friends and their social circle. Their medical appointments went virtual, their therapies and surgeries got cancelled or pushed into longer wait times. They hardly see anyone face to face anymore, including doctors, unless it's an emergency. 

The system fails to protect our most vulnerable. In Saskatchewan, health-care slowdowns have meant children like mine have seen their therapies and surgeries cancelled — children whom we as parents would do anything to protect.