Parental Sacrifice

Our son isn't born yet, but JP and I have made our first official sacrifice as parents. His company is celebrating their 20th anniversary and sending all employees and spouses to the Four Seasons in Costa Rico for an all-expenses paid 4-day weekend. All Expenses. Four Seasons. Costa Rica. The dates: August 29-Sept 1. Our baby's due date: Aug 9. So we RSVP'd no. You can't abandon a 2-week old and I know that when the time comes the thought of leaving him for a few days will be unimaginable (well, there might be moments when it sounds pretty good, but we still couldn't imagine actually doing it).

That weekend also happens to be our 2nd wedding anniversary. If we hadn't decided we wanted to start our family this young, we'd be sipping tropical drinks poolside, exploring the jungle, snorkeling, eating, and soaking up our time together. Instead we'll be figuring out project baby, not sleeping, and eating take out. This trip represented our first "oh my god what have we done" realization that our lives are going to be pretty different. We're grown-ups... and parents! Our lives aren't just about us! But I already feel like we've changed. It actually wasn't with much regret that we accepted the fact we couldn't go. There's even a consolation prize- this trip means that JP gets an extra few days at home with the baby. I expected to feel some real sadness over saying no- it is a pretty amazing trip and JP has worked so hard and really deserves that vacation- but all I could think about was the fact that we will have met our son by then.

I know there will be more cool trips, and when we're back in Texas grandma and grandpa will be close enough to babysit. Plus, an advantage of having a baby at 24 is that I'll only be 42 when we send him off to college- plenty of time to visit all kinds of exotic locales with JP!