Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Home, Safe and Sound










Well, here we are home safe and sound replete with all the activity associated with an infant. We made it home safely Saturday evening and let me just say the BTDT people did not exaggerate their warnings for jet lag. Greg and I suffered greatly (and still are to some degree) from jet lag. That said, I can only imagine how hard it is for Jackson. Our internal clocks were only reset for ten days. Imagine poor little Jackson who has been on Africa time for his entire five months of life. I can’t say the adjustment has been easy. Jackson is a very high-maintenance baby. This may also be due to the fact that he has some type of infection (I presume) in his chest, sinuses and possibly ears. He has no fever, but a strong, rattle-like cough that has gotten worse since we’ve been home. Additionally, his tummy is so bloated with what I presume is gas, that I swear it’s going to explode! We have our first pediatrician appointment scheduled for tomorrow and I cannot wait to get there!

He is on an extremely tight feeding schedule of every three hours. Once in a blue moon we can stretch it to four during the night, but not often. It’s pretty firm at three hours and there is no way around it. When hungry, Jackson screams at the top of his lungs until you put that bottle into his mouth. I had expected it to be trying, and I have not been disappointed in my expectations.

To top it all off, Greg and I are both sick. My throat became scratchy Thursday of last week, but I was optimistically hoping it was from the dense smog we had been driving through for hours throughout the day. It worsened somewhat Friday and by the time we got to the airport Friday night I was pretty miserable. Our flight, scheduled to depart at 10:15 PM Ethiopia time, didn’t actually take off until nearly 1:00 AM Saturday morning. During the six hours of travel to the airport and waiting at the airport I deteriorated rapidly. But the time we got on the plane (11:15) I had a fever, severe body aches, chills and a pretty bad sore throat. Twenty-seven hours of flying was absolutely miserable. Here it is Tuesday morning and I still have a severe sore throat and no voice at all. I cannot even say Jackson’s name aloud. This makes me sad because he cannot hear me tell him how much I love him. Needless to say, Greg now has the sore throat and fever so he’s a few days behind me in whatever bug we have.

Enough about me though, let me just say that Jackson was such a trouper on the way home. We had four total legs of travel—two international and two domestic. He slept through the entire first leg and much of the second leg. The third leg? Well, let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. Our travels took us from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta and ultimately to West Palm. The aircraft from D.C. to Atlanta was a smaller plane that never really cleared the 10,000 foot pressure barrier and poor Jackson screamed bloody murder the entire flight. I felt bad for the entire plane, because I’m certain they heard us, but I feel much worse for poor Jackson whose ears must’ve been throbbing.

We have some adjustments to make here at the DuBose household and they are on a fast-track schedule. But it’s all good. This is what we’ve waited for, for nearly nineteen long months and firsthand experience tells me that we’ll be through this phase before you know it. Until then, say a little prayer that we might get at least a couple of hours of shut eye. Just because Master Jackson demands a bottle every three hours it doesn’t mean he sleeps for three hours in between. Au contraire, mon frère. Master Jackson just LOVES that hour and a half of playtime and walkabout following each feeding. Yes, my friends, we certainly have our work cut out for us.

I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

James 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.


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