One Local Couple Makes The Decision To Send Their Child Away Due To COVID-19

COVID-19 has affected our country in many different ways over the past few months. People are practicing social distancing and staying at home, businesses have closed down temporarily, and large events, concerts and sporting events have been postponed or fully cancelled because of the national pandemic.

The coronavirus outbreak has even caused some daycare centers to temporarily close their doors for the safety of  the children and employees who work there, which has made it hard for families with young kids. One local couple in South Bend, Indiana has been affected by these closings and had to make a very difficult decision on what to do with their daughter.

Noa Kakalia and his fiancé’ Bailey Rentschler are both considered essential employees, Noa working as a project engineer for a construction firm in Noblesville, Indiana and Bailey a nurse at a hospital in Carmel, Indiana. The couple contemplated for days on how they will properly care for and keep their one-year-old daughter, Palmer safe while also commuting to and from their exposed places of employment daily.

The couple had to make what they call “one of the hardest decisions” at this time to not have their daughter living under the same roof as them, and sent her off to live with Kakalia’s parents until things started clearing up.

Noa Kakalia discusses why him and his fiancé made the decision that they did and what what his advice is to parents who are also going through a similar situation.

Kakalia says that even if the daycare that Palmer went to remained open, that they still would’ve stuck by their decision to send their daughter off rather than risk her exposure to COVID-19.

Although Kakalia’s parents live close by, also living in South Bend, they have only visited their daughter once since sending her off to ensure that they don’t spread the virus to both Palmer and his parents. He says that this is a hard thing to do, but to make-up for not physically seeing her, the couple schedules FaceTime calls twice a day to see her.

The couple hoped that at the end of April that they would be able to bring their daughter back home if things started looking better, and now after Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb’s announced plans on lifting the stay at home orders, Palmer just today (May 3rd) came back home to her parents.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides safety precaution guidelines to the daycare facilities who do remain open.

To learn more about COVID-19 and how to stay safe and healthy during the pandemic, you can visit the CDC’s website.