5:00 PM Monday, September 2
My wife had just finished feeding the baby and laid her down across her lap on her back. Without warning my daughter erupted, spewing breast milk, ground peas, oatmeal, and a little bit of formula all over my wife's pants, the couch, and the floor. At first we all thought she had just spit up more violently than usual. We were a bit freaked about the mess and the fact that my wife had to completely change her clothes, but other than that we felt the night would continue as normal. About ten minutes later, while I held the baby, she exploded again, launching more partially digested particles of joy across our bamboo kitchen floors. She soaked my left arm and bracelet my son had made for me on Father's Day 2012. The wheels in our minds began to turn - did I feed her too much that day while my wife was working, or did her first taste of formula upset her stomach? All three of us (including my eight year old son) had our theories but we still weren't in complete panic mode. I placed my baby daughter in her exer-saucer and asked my son to keep her entertained while we cleaned up the floor. It wasn't five minutes later that I heard my son let out a loud yelp. I turned around to witness him shoot five feet across the kitchen floor as my daughter launched another baby puke grenade overboard, barely missing my son's sock covered feet. Funny thing was that the baby was calm after so much ill digestion while at the same time my son began to sob for fear that his sister was sick. We all pitched in and finished clean up effort #3. A half an hour passed with my wife holding the baby, circling the room, while we all mulled over calling the doctor. Since so much time had passed we figured the all clear had been sounded. But alas, like a thief in the night one last blast of vomit (fortunately, less Regan McNeil-esque this time) gushed from that sweet innocent mouth. The doctor was called in a jiffy and we were informed that our daughter may have a virus that's been going around and that we should expect a long night of dry heaving and explosive diarrhea. Oh, and we should all expect to get the same thing as it's highly contagious. My son began to cry - as if he had been banned from video games for life. The tears were part concern for his sister and part concern for his own welfare. My son does not like to get sick or injured. While I consoled him my wife tended to the baby. We both looked at each other knowing we had our late night work cut out for us.
7:00 PM Monday, September 2
I was reminded, via a text from my father, that my mom would be going to the hospital in the morning for surgery to remove a growth inside her body. The doctors would then biopsy and determine whether the mass was benign or malignant. At this point it was a waiting game full of doubt and prayers. I tried my hardest to remain positive as nothing would be determined until the next morning, but it proved to be a difficult task. My wife, the rock that she is, had to continuously remind me that everything would turn out okay and to keep my head up. Reality gave me something to take my mind off of it though. My daughter hadn't puked in an hour and gently slept in my wife's arms. Maybe the night wouldn't be so bad.
5:34 AM Tuesday, September 3
I had previously decided to take this day as a vacation day so I could spend it with my son on his last day of Summer Vacation. Normally, on a work day, I arise at 5:40 AM. But this day I had another alarm to wake me. No, it wasn't a vomiting, dry heaving, diarrhea daughter - she hadn't stirred since 7:00 the previous night - thank God. It was a strange metal clanking noise floating through our open front window. I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. And what to my wondering eyes did appear? But some strange dude lowering a beat up Ford Ranger pickup truck off the back of his trailer in the middle of the street and his dog ambling around each neighbor's yard. Across the street another suspicious vehicle parked on the side of the road with its engine running and occupant at the wheel. Another man appeared out of the hazy dark early dawn. He entered the now lowered black truck and quickly backed it down the street and onto the main road. I yelled out, "What the hell is going on?!". The female occupant of the parked idling car responded, "Who the fuck are you!". I retorted, "the man calling the cops!". She immediately started her vehicle and raced out of sight. The trailer operator calmly walked to his attached Suburban, as if to make it appear he wasn't doing anything suspicious, whistled to his dog to come, and disappeared into the early morning of my vacation day. The cops were called but never responded. It was too late anyway. If I hadn't been such a vigilante and had dialed them while things were happening they might have been able to do something. But now I was left awake, my wife out of bed as well due to the commotion, and my eight year old son up as normal at 5:45 AM on a Tuesday meant for sleeping in.
8:55 AM Tuesday, September 3
Not only do I handle the accounting at my job with MBC Law Firm, but also all the networking and computers, including the servers that keep our data and email flowing. When I am out of the office another employee backs me up, but she doesn't normally interact with the infrastructure on a day to day basis in the detail that I do. And it just so happened that the day I had chose to be home with my family I get an urgent call from work that our email server had gone belly up, not responding to multiple restarts of the machine. My gut reaction was to throw away the day my family had planned and rush to work to see what could be done. Instead, my backup had already called our outside IT emergency help, and I let go of my need to control things and asked her to keep me informed. But I did not let go of my ability to thoughtfully obsess over situations and continued to think about that woeful server all morning long. Since my daughter had slept solidly through the entire night we decided to continue on with our plans to take our son school clothes shopping at the mall. I tried to push the work problem out of my mind in order to enjoy the day, but it kept reappearing. I coped by remembering that my daughter had not come down with the MD described virus. We would all be okay. But still, the suspicious activity on our street early that morning and my mom now in surgery at St. Joseph's hospital were weighing on my deep conflicted soul.
9:00 AM Tuesday, September 3
I received a text from my father on the status of my mom. The growth had been removed, biopsied, and determined benign! Thank you Jesus! She would remain at the hospital for a few hours to recover but should be home by dinner time. A weight off my shoulders. I dropped my earnest concern for my mom and thanked my wife for helping me stay positive.
11:15 AM Tuesday, September 3
Off and on all morning I had been refreshing my work email on my iPhone. Up until our arrival at the mall it returned errors. I hadn't heard from work since the first call. I assumed the outside IT help had arrived and was trying to resuscitate the flat-lining server. About fifteen minutes after our arrival at the mall my wife and I both had to use the restroom. We navigated the surprisingly affordable, stylish women's clothing racks of J.C. Penny to find the women's bathroom tucked away in the corner. While my wife relieved herself I again refreshed my work email. After a brief hesitation emails began to appear! I had never been so happy to see new tasks and requests from my fellow employees. God is real and lives in the realm of 1s and 0s. I called the law firm to make sure everything was on the up and up. Yes, the server had been brought back to life. Interestingly, the email machine wasn't at fault - instead, the backup power supply connected to it had failed and allowed a power surge to mess with the machine's internals. All was well at my place of business and employees could now go back to avoiding face to face confrontation with a click of the mouse.
All is well that ends well, they say. It's darkest before the dawn, they also like to repeat. Faith can move mountains, I read somewhere. I don't have any explanation or sage advice regarding everything witnessed those blurred 18 hours. It was what it was. And on the other side I realize how much my mind can blow things out of proportion. My admiration for my wife has grown as well. She is strong and disciplined. I enjoy growing from that example.
But let's hope reality gives us a breather for a while now.
Thanks for reading.
Peace Out,
Nathan J.
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