That's 235 feedings, and nearly as many diaper changes. I am proud to say ony about a dozen of those feeds and changes were done by others, I am a bit selfish when it comes to Evie. But now that I am back home in Hong Kong I will let others have their turn, Thomas for one has taken to Evie just as a proud Papa should. I arrived home in Hong Kong last Thursday just over three weeks (24 days) of staying in India, it was a wonderful and tiring experience. It started with the birth, a wonderful joyous day in my life. Then came the week in the hospital, after Evie was born three weeks premature it was necessary for me to be in the hospital until she put on some weight and was strong enough to go home.
I then searched for a place for Evie and I to bond and to spend the next couple of weeks before heading home, this included looking at serviced apartments and Hotels that were put forth as options to my co habitating with little Evie. The serviced apartmets were too big, they were also intended for larger families and those comfortable with sharing with other families going through the same thing. Neither of which were Evie and I, it also included a nanny and someone to cook your meals. I felt confident enough not to have a nanny, and I wasn't particularly fond of curry and spice every night and day.
I looked at a few Hotels, and decided to go with the Marriot, for many reasons, one is that it included two meals a day and they had an espresso machine (mmmm). The package also included laundry and the room was very private, this was important to me. I wanted a place for me and Evie to bond alone with little to no interuptions, this was just perfect, we spent the next couple of weeks side by side 24/7.
The two of us had to venture out a few times, doctor visits, passport and visa appts, a challenge to be sure, or so I thought. The first of these visits was the passport office for our DNA test, we had to make sure that she was mine of course. It was a simple procedure of the both of us having our cheeks swabbed with a large Q-tip, Evie slept through the procedure. This is a recurring event with Evie, she sleeps through just about everything. If she does wake up its just to have a look with what is going on and then the eyes close and the arms and legs go limp, they call this the surrender position, it looks as if someone is saying "reach for the sky little lady and give me your pacifier". The only difference is, Evie surrenders and then like a narcaleptic closers her eyes and off to dreamland she goes.
We had to wait another week for the DNA test to head back to the USA and get tested by the same people that do Maury Povitch's and Jenny Jones's guests, although I am a little less white trash then them yahoo's. I am not really sure if it is the same company that does the aformentioned show hosts work, but it makes for a good story. Once the results came in we were able to apply for our US Passport, however I really don't think it was really needed. Holding Evie up to my face was like looking in a Mini Me Mirror, it is really something to be able to look into a little life and see your face staring back at you. Her skin is a little bit better then mine I must say, and she is not at all as hairy as her dad. This was something I had in my mind, but luckily she is arm and back hair free. Woo hoo.
Evie and I followed the same routine as we did the week before, I bundled her in her car seat and belted her in place. The car and drive was the same one we had been using the past week, the drivers name was Kaja and he was very sweet and also a loving father. His driving was very good, it was the driving of others that drove me to hair pulling (my own that is). The streets of India are chaos to say the least, with cars, tuk tuk's (three wheeled taxi's), motorcycles (some of which had entire families of five riding pearched carefully not to fall). I was in awe as some women on the back of these two wheelers were carrying there new borns, I was freaking out that my car seat wasn't safe enough even though it was cacooned within a large SUV.
With a lot of patience on Kaja's part and enough honking to make sure everyone within ear shot will part ways for our Baby carrying SUV to carefully glide through the busy streets, to tell you the truth the honking was driving me a little crazy. I again grabbed as much hair on my scalp as I could and began to pull until the pain took over my worry about the honking and the traffic, we arrived at the Passport office for another meeting to actually get Evie's Emergency passport, it was an Emergency because I wanted to get home asap. And I was all alone, it was more about sharing the experience instead of having others help (there is that selfish Daddy part of me again).
The consulate called and said I would need to get down there by 4pm if I was to get the passport that day, I needed it this day, because if it didnt come today I would have to wait another day and it would put my schedule off another week. Did I mention it was 3:30pm when they called? I never moved so fast, I put Evie in her car seat and grabbed everything I thought I needed and threw them into her Diaper bag. I was only going to be gone for about an hour so I didn't bring her bottle, she had just been fed anyway.
It was a hot day that day, another dry 36 degree's. Evie didn't seem to mind, she just slept. I made it to the appointment and everything was fine, I took my seat and looked down at Evie and she was sleeping beautifully. The consulate was a beautiful building, a throwback to the English presence. The ceilings were extremely high, you could see the modernisation with the ducts of air conditioning and indoor plumbing hanging overhead. The new metal sculpture above didn't detract to what was once a simpler time, something that you see all over India, although not all buildings were saved or upkept as well as this one.
I heard my name called, I approached the window with the excitement of having my daughters passport in my hand, another document proving she exists. It wasn't to be just then, they told me that the computer was down and wouldn't be up until 5pm. They said I could come back the next day or wait, I of course decided to wait. At 5:30pm Evie began to cry, it was feeding time. I did my best to quite her, I held her I sang to her (that is why she probably continued to cry). She finally started to quite and my name was called again and the passport was handed to me, fantastic I thought, just one more process till we get home. I picked up Evie and headed home to wait for our next adventure, it was to be a meeting with the Indian Visa office.
To be continued...
Congratulations!
Posted by: lou | August 05, 2011 at 03:18 AM
Great story Davide, looking forward to the "rest of the story"! aunt mary
Posted by: Mary Bartlett | June 17, 2011 at 06:16 AM