Spain Dad, a baby blog

October 2 – David C. Jacobson – U.S. Ambassador to Canada by US Mission Canada.

After Teo was born in mid November, my family appointed me as the official ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Teo. April, especially, seemed only concerned about homeland security, in other words what happened inside the four walls of our apartment.

Stepping through our front door seemed as intimidating as having to go through customs, and this world beyond was now a separate society, across the border, left to be dealt with by an official representative like me.

I felt bad for our friends who started to miss April. They began to call and ask for her, or write emails with something in the subject line like “This email is for April,” but they always had to talk to me first because, after all, I was the ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Teo.

As the ambassador, I did not like having to tell our friends over and over that April was too busy, or showing up at a friend’s house by myself again. The truth was April did not seem capable of caring about the well-being of anyone except for the four citizens of our small state.

At first I thought April was being heartless and unsympathetic, but as time went on, I began to see that this was the work of a mother. She protects her young. It’s strange to think that hormones and instinct probably had more to do with her focused attention than a personal decision. This was the natural course of things.

Now I greatly appreciate April’s willingness to put her life on hold to care for Teo. I marvel at how her instinct told her to protect our little ones at all costs.

I don’t mind being the ambassador because I know April’s got a good health care plan in place for Teo.