Day 2: Sleep

When the good LORD was about to give the first man a wife and family, He caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. That's because the LORD knew Adam would need it, and it's been the same ever since--where there is a wife and family, the man needs to sleep. That would be good and all if the man could sleep. But it poses a problem when that man travels half way around the world, where the time zone is twelve hours later, meaning what was once midnight is now noon, and so forth. It's okay when said man adjusts to the new time zone, but when he returns to his home, flipping midnight and noon again, and does so not only with his wife and 6 year-old daughter, but also with his new 2 year-old son who has lived the other time zone his entire life, this isn't an easy thing.

It's quite a lot to do this "new family, new country, new home, new life thing" on regular sleep, but try doing it on little sleep, when your body is whacked out because it doesn't know if it's time to eat, sleep, or go to the bathroom. Last night just as I was heading to bed at midnight, Rex woke up and wanted me. So I laid down in his room with him. Since this was noon Philippines time and he already had four hours of sleep, he decided it wasn't time to sleep anymore. We laid down for two hours--until 2 am--and then I got bored and we went downstairs. We played for the next two hours--until 4 am--until Colette came down, took Rex, and put him to bed. I went to bed myself.

I don't know what kind of training the military does to prepare troops for sleep deprivation, but I think it should be part of the adoption process. I mean, is introducing your new child to their new life really the time to see how well you function when you're sleep deprived? Isn't there too much at stake for the weary and bleary-eyed? And what about the little guy? Here he is in a strange new world and suddenly these new people are poking and prodding to wake him up at precisely the time he should be sleeping. And for some reason when he should be playing, everyone is going to bed. What is going on? No matter, at least Adam got some rest.