When we initially moved overseas, we brought all the cloth diapers we were using with Whitman at the time. We immediately found disposable diapers to be available and cloth to be practical only depending your laundry situation. Here in Barat we thankfully are experiencing a more consistent water supply than a few months ago, so we have been using our same cloth diapers with Evangeline ever since coming home from the hospital.
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| Looking silly in cloth when first coming home. |
On the 11th of July we left Barat to fly out of the country to retrieve our work visa. I packed one package of disposable diapers, which we use while traveling, for the initial part of our trip. As we spent one day in the big city before flying out, I did not keep a close count on our diaper supply. It turned out I put Evangeline in the last diaper before we left the hotel for the airport. We kindly asked the taxi driver to stop at a convenience store on the way. It turned out all the convenience stores we passed were on the other side of the median on the road we took. We didn't ask the driver to make the multiple U-turns it would have taken to stop because we knew there was at least 2 mini-convenience stores at the airport. Upon arriving at the airport we visited 5 different mini-convenience stores, only to find not a single one carried diapers. At the last store John bought a package of female pads as a last resort to use as inserts. I was frustrated and felt like a terrible mother in having to piece together a diaper for my daughter. Thankfully after our 3 hour plane ride we found diapers, but our adventure didn't stop there.
A few days later it was time to buy diapers again, so we visited a local grocery store in the country we were visiting in SE Asia. As I selected diapers I was careful to avoid the "pull-up" style as these are sold in all sizes, even newborn, which we learned the hard way shortly after Evangeline was born.
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| "Pull-Up" style diaper in size small. |
Upon returning to our hotel, I went to change Evangeline's diaper and found yet again another style of diaper. This time I had bought some sort of insert. After the initial frustration, I had to laugh for these inserts were much like using the pads John had bought in the big city. Finally, I did find disposable diapers with tabs to easily open and close, but boy do you have to be careful as you look through the various sizes and styles.
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| Diaper insert, complete with sticky patches to help it stay put. |
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The small colored symbol is the key.
I thought I had the right kind as I noticed the sides were not sown together as for the pull-up kind,
but I did not know I had to look for tabs. Our lack of language ability in that country didn't help.
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We were accompanied through the whole diaper fiasco by my, Erin, parents. They met us in SE Asia to meet their new granddaughter and return home with us to experience our life in Barat.
We returned to Barat with a work visa in hand for John and year long 'tag-along-with-your-husband/father' visas for the kids and I. The Father had definitely gone before to prepare the way. We visited our host country's consulate on a Friday. After filling out the required forms, we were told we could return that same day to pick up the visas. This had never happened before. The quickest we experienced was a two business day turn around. We were blown away by this same day service!
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| Meeting Papa J |
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| Trying the infant seatbelt with Grammy J |
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| Seeing Sights |
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| We found Mexican food! |
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| Evangeline visited all the sights mostly asleep in the carrier. |
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| Erin and her parents |
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| Sight seeing with friends in Barat. |
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| Erin's mom at a friend's house. |
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| Papa J taking Whitman to school with John |
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Picking up Caedmon
School mates went crazy when I suggested taking a picture.
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| Picking up Whitman |
