England and sleepy

I’ve been in England for a few days now and I’m almost adjusted to the 8 our time difference. Tam and I came here to see a new baby (Tam’s sister's baby) but it appears that the baby wants to stay in her womb for a bit longer than we expected. So we’re here visiting the baby, but the visiting is through layers of skin and an amniotic sac (not to mention depths of amniotic fluid). This in itself is a fascinating thing though. I’ve actually never bonded with an unborn baby before.

But yesterday, courtesy of Tam’s sister Jen, I sang to the kid inside. I introduced several styles of music and ranges. The baby responded most to the lower range stuff (I sang a bit R&B-ish) with some kicks and punches inside. This may have been out of sheer joy and booty dancing OR out of terror because no strange musician at this point has dared to growl directly into Jen’s belly.
It was quite emotional actually. Sometimes, you can feel the whole baby’s back and feel which direction he is in. Anyway, we’re praying daily that the kid actually comes out at some point.

My last journal entry was about a vivid dream. The last 2 days I’ve been trying to adjust to the time change, so my sleep has been irregular. Have you ever been in and out of sleep and you know you just had a million dreams but you can’t pin-point what they were about? I feel like my mind is processing or detoxifying. Being in a foreign country is an emotional relief. I am taken outside of all of my norms. It’s a chance for my heart and mind to operate in a totally different and new space. I keep waking up and I want to go back to sleep because I KNOW I’m dreaming something good. Its often not like that for me when I am home. Its often the opposite. Like those times you wake up and you feel sad but you don’t have any particular reason. I hate that. Its like you’ve been sitting in this dream-like sadness, then you finally wake up, but the sadness has kinda soaked itself on you and you can’t dry off for a while. The last few days have been the antithesis of that. I feel this relief, this nostalgic happiness when I wake up. I keep thinking, “Dang, I gotta fall asleep and get me some more of that.”

Anyway that’s what my days here are looking like. Waiting for a baby to make his short but laborious (pun intended) journey down the V-canal. (And trying to get used to this time zone while taking sweet little dreamy naps.) Hopefully, at some point I’ll discover what I’m dreaming about.