Being Prepared

I have been dealing with the complexities required to arrange for Jack’s care when Erin and I go to Peru at the end of next week. For someone not used to extensive future-oriented planning this has been rather challenging. In the last two days I have made out a will and executed a document known as a “consent by proxy” which is a legal form that allows Jack’s interim care-giver (hi grandma!) to seek medical treatment should the need arise. As a lawyer I am a bit of a stickler for having my documentary ducks in a row. God forbid something happens to me in the mountains. I can’t get that movie “Alive!” out of my mind. You remember, the one where the plane goes down in the Andes and the survivors end up eating their dead friends until two of them gain enough strength to walk out of the woods. True story. More likely threats include food born illnesses and tropical diseases. I finally found a clinic where I could get vaccinated yesterday.

I am also slightly concerned that Jack is going to forget about me in the week I am away. I recognize at some level that this is just paranoia ungrounded in reality and perhaps some guilt at taking a week-long vacation without him. But I still worry, probably needlessly. He is being left in capable hands and I suspect that running around a large lawn in rural Virginia chasing chickens is just the thing he needs to shake of the remnants of cabin fever. It’s just that since he was born I have never been away from him for more than a few days at a time, and those separations were business trips and not by choice. I’ll miss him. As much as he depends on me for all his physical needs, I depend on him for the comfort that his presence brings to me. The feeling I get when he smiles at me is simply inexplicable. I am really looking forward to the day when he’s old enough to come with me and we can explore the world together.