Nanchang->Beijing->Shanghai->L.A->Dallas/Ft. Worth->Norfolk Airport->Norfolk Hospital->Suffolk.There are advantages to jet lag. I can work the night shift with the baby. She was being born as I was flying across the country. When I arrived at midnight she was 11 hours old.
Anyway, it's the parents that care most about the painstaking details.
So far no culture shock. It's more the predictable but still demoralizing jolt that comes with leaving celebrity/sideshow status and the most supportive and encouraging community I've ever known and coming here to where most spoken sentences include an obscenity and it's really stupid of me to expect anyone withing a mile radius of this baby to care where I've been, what the great shepherd accomplished with his sheep, how much I've slept, how I feel or whether this is a difficult adjustment for me. (not that I'm going to expect anyone to neglect a newborn to listen to me tell stories) My own sense of whiny bitterness is probably the biggest problem right now. Don't worry, though. I don't fell totally angry, depressed or even disappointed, just inevitably frustrated, rejected and out-of-place.
There's good news, too, but it's hard to condense it into a summary. The baby herself is good news. Making it safely here is good news. Receiving sufficient grace to keep on going without any recognition from people is good news.
1 comment:
aw rachael! i'm so glad the baby girl is here and safe! what's her name? sorry to hear it's been a frustrating adjustment.. i'll be "thinking" of ya.. hope to skype with u soon sometime and catch uP! miss u and ur hugs/kiss on the forehead/playing with my hair.. hahaha
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