All For Nothing

As you may know, I had planned to give birth to Lil’ A in Africa.

But that didn’t happen in the end.

But for many months that is what we prepared for!

Example 1: Our vehicle only had two seatbelts in the backseat. Now to an African this is not a problem. “What would you wear a seatbelt for? Hahaha!” You wouldn’t believe how many pointing finger laughs we got because we actually drove our kids around buckled into carseats! The locals though it was very strange and very funny.

Aaaanyway, we needed a third seatbelt so that we could strap in the baby’s infant seat. So we had a local mechanic track down an extra seatbelt at a junkyard and install it.  The junkyard guy must have thought him crazy. Why would anyone want one of those?

There it is.

Room for one more!

We were all ready to put baby sister in the backseat. It made me giddy when it was finally installed. I was getting ready for my baby girl! But we never got to use it.

Example #2: I needed somewhere in our bedroom to store the baby’s clothing. A dresser was what I had in mind and when I have something in my mind, well… I like for it to happen. Ha!

So one day we loaded up to go to the used furniture market (again). Dressers are not typical furniture in Africa. They are more into big cabinets (we call them dulaabs). I almost missed this one, but Jesus loves me and we found it hiding behind some other things.

I was thrilled.

We haggled a price, took a picture of a stranger standing with my children after he saw me take this one and dropped the dresser off at a carpenter to get cleaned and repaired.

The next day it came home with me and I began filling it with tiny little things for my sweet one that I was so excited to have with me in that very room.

It was already getting tense in the country at this point, but we had to be prepared for either scenario. I remember packing valuables into totes in case we had to leave in a hurry while simultaneously unpacking infant items into this dresser in case we got to stay. Go or stay. Go or stay. Either way a baby is coming. Aaaaaackkkk!!!! It was a schizophrenic time, to say the least.

In the end, I took all my sweet baby things right back out of that dresser within a matter of days and sold it. It was nice while it lasted.

We were expectant and ready for you in Africa sweet baby girl. We were ready for ya.