02|04|2017
The night before we left for Africa I balled my eyes out. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go. After all, we’d been planning this trip for months. We were so excited to experience the wild, raw culture of the people and the animals and the food. Oh yes! The food. I can’t tell you how eager I was to partake of the exotic spiced veggies with chicken and couscous in steaming pots of tagine in Morroco. Food is at least 90% of the joy of traveling (and come to think of it, living) for me.
The real reason I lay on a tear-soaked pillow on the eve of our departure was that we had just discovered we would have a tiny little stowaway accompanying us on the trip. I took a pregnancy test just days before we were to leave in order to ease my mind that my usually right-on-schedule period was just running a little late, and not the more obvious truth; that we were expecting a baby. My heart pounded wildly when I saw the 2nd little pink line appear on the test. This was the moment I had dreamed about for so long, but I didn’t imagine it would be accompanied by such a mix of emotions. ‘Are we ready for this? Is anyone really ready for this? What about Africa? Oh my gosh, we’re going to Africa! With a baby! There’s malaria in Africa! I need to tell Max. Wait, aren’t I supposed to come up with some cutesy way to break the news to him? Bake a cake or something? No way I can keep this in long enough to think of something. Max!’
The real reason I lay on a tear-soaked pillow on the eve of our departure was that we had just discovered we would have a tiny little stowaway accompanying us on the trip. I took a pregnancy test just days before we were to leave in order to ease my mind that my usually right-on-schedule period was just running a little late, and not the more obvious truth; that we were expecting a baby. My heart pounded wildly when I saw the 2nd little pink line appear on the test. This was the moment I had dreamed about for so long, but I didn’t imagine it would be accompanied by such a mix of emotions. ‘Are we ready for this? Is anyone really ready for this? What about Africa? Oh my gosh, we’re going to Africa! With a baby! There’s malaria in Africa! I need to tell Max. Wait, aren’t I supposed to come up with some cutesy way to break the news to him? Bake a cake or something? No way I can keep this in long enough to think of something. Max!’
So there I lay, trying to get some sleep before our 3 day journey to Morroco and all I could think about was if I would be one of the unlucky ones to experience the infamous side effects (paranoia, hallucinations, erotic/disturbing dreams, unusual behavior…) from the “pregnancy safe” malaria pills I had been switched to. I was in the midst of my first baby breakdown. That’s when Max took a break from packing and came into the bedroom and kissed me softly on the forehead while tucking me into the blankets a little tighter. “Just sleep on it” he said.
Well, Africa was just as wild and raw and real as we thought it would be. We were forced to take things a little slower than normal and unfortunately the baby wasn’t quite as excited about the exotic spices and flavors as I was, but we managed just fine and made it home safely with a bucket full of memories of our very first trip as a family of 3.
Aaaand I only had one erotic/disturbing dream...
Aaaand I only had one erotic/disturbing dream...
