When my Okapis were babies, I never really got to see them sleeping. So many parents talk about the beauty, the awe of seeing their children sleep, but I was pretty unfamiliar with that sensation. Our Okapis always seemed like such light sleepers that we were always afraid of waking them up. Before we went to sleep, we never checked in on them the way they always seem to do in books and movies. I heard them breathing through the monitor, but especially once we moved into the house, I never really saw them asleep.

One of the surprisingly enjoyable parts of my vacation was seeing my little Okapis asleep every single night. It turned out that Karina (Gem’s cousin – but they are like sisters) and her children, Dani, 21 years old, and Sharian, our goddaughter who is 17 and just graduated from high school while we were there (the reason we went down when we did), had arranged one of the rooms just for us in the three bedroom apartment they rent. It was a long room and at the far end was a bed for Gem and I. Right near the bed was a bathroom and on the left-hand side were two small beds for the Okapis. It was about as perfect a set-up as possible and it worked out extraordinarily well. The Okapis felt better about going to sleep at night knowing we were coming into the same room. The strange noises outside didn’t seem as scary because we were there. And when they woke up, there we were, in the same room, able to help them really quickly.

It was a little strange because Gem and I had no privacy, but we were pleasantly surprised how deep our Okapis slept and how much conversation we could have at night without disturbing them.

After a couple of nights of asking them what their favorite part of Ecuador was, they began to tell me that sleeping in the same room as us was their favorite part. Here was something I was so worried about and it turned out to be one of the things that made their adjustment to this different country much easier and really significantly impacted them.

Ironically, it turned out it was one of my favorite parts of our vacation as well. Every night I took a moment to enjoy walking into the room by myself and seeing them sleep. Elijah, who seems to sleep like me, up against the edge of the bed as if someone else is taking up the rest of it, lying on his side or his stomach, slightly curled up. Jordyn, who sleeps like her mother, sprawled on the whole bed, sometimes sleeping across the width of the bed (a couple of nights I had to move him from the edge of the bed and straighten her out). They almost never needed covers, the nights were lovely and cool, and they were the most beautiful little beings in the whole world. I don’t know what it is, but there truly is something precious about watching your own Okapis sleep peacefully, like everything you are doing as a parent is making a difference, as if there are no problems, no stresses anywhere in the world, as if just maybe they know something you don’t or maybe more likely, they don’t know something you do.

Either way, instead of creating more stress and complications, it increased the sense of intimacy within our family in a special way. And even though we are back in the US and Ecuadorian Rules no longer apply, they are sleeping pretty well at night (so far heh heh).