Vaccinating for Travel

As much as we love to travel and get away, there are always logistics that we need to work out ahead of time.  Matt (my travel agent/husband/baby daddy) does a fantastic job making sure every detail is worked out before we go.  It is a lot of work and I am so grateful he does all the research to make sure that we don't run into any problems when we arrive and that we are safe.  From calling the US embassy, mailing in visas, and pre-booking rental cars and hotels; he makes sure that when we get there, it is as stress free as possible.

Our next trip is to South Africa: to go to the beach, city and, the highlight, a safari.  The last time we had the intention to go on a safari, we were headed to Kenya and a couple months before we were supposed to leave, I got pregnant.  Because we knew that the area was a malaria zone and I would not be able to take malaria pills while pregnant, we had to cancel the trip and lost a good deal of money.  This time, we purposely chose South Africa because we knew that we would be out of malaria zones and it would be safer for our kids.  

However, as Matt researched the area, we felt that it would be wise to still get the Typhoid vaccine for the trip, just to be safe around potential food and water that could get us sick.  Getting the vaccine isn't required to enter South Africa, but we wanted to put our minds at ease if we were to eat or drink something that could be potentially harmful.  Unfortunately, we didn't realized that Christopher, our one year old, is too young to get the Typhoid vaccine.  At first we were a little nervous about bringing him there unvaccinated; but after discussing it with our pediatrician, we decided that we would just have to feed Christopher packaged food or fruit with a peal for the week.  Really, one week of packaged food isn't the end of the world and I'll make sure to bring a variety of healthier options for him... anyone else love baby "squeezes"!?

Next, we had to find a place to get the vaccine, as it isn't something that you can just walk into your regular doctor's office and request.  The vaccine is expensive too; it would cost about $650 for the three of us.  A lot of times, there are hidden expenses with travel that you just have to bite the bullet and pay, like an extra entrance fee into a country, or taxes; but we try to find out about as much as we can ahead of time and budget accordingly... or find a loophole!  Fortunately, Matt made a ton of calls around Buffalo and was able to find Jericho Road Community Health Center, a Christian organization in downtown Buffalo, which welcomes and supports all refugee families into the Buffalo community.  They also accept our insurance, Independent Health, which means we didn't have to pay the full cost for the vaccines.  We are SO impressed with this beautiful organization and everything that it stands for.  Regardless of each person's ethnic origin or creed, everyone is welcomed and serviced so that they can become independent members of our community.
A little side note on vaccinations.  I know that some of you reading this are against vaccines and I know everyone has a story that impacts their reason for or against vaccines.  Real quick, here's our story: when Christopher was born, he had an immunity disorder which kept us from getting him vaccinated and we needed to stay away from sick people in general.  We relied on others to be vaccinated to help protect him from catching anything and then not being able to fight it because his body literally couldn't.  We are thankful for modern medicine and vaccines to protect our kids and put our minds at ease that life threatening illnesses won't spread through our society.  Obviously everyone has their own story which has affected the choice they've made for their children.  We all want what's best for our kids.  We pray hard and do what we feel is right.  No judgement on either decision.  ♡

When we entered the doors of Jericho Road, we felt the dynamic cultural richness of people speaking in their native language and wearing cultural garb.  We briefly waited and then we taken back to one of the doctor offices.  After a pleasant talk with the doctor, the nurses came in to give us our shots.  Poor Dylan.  We didn't want to scare him that he was getting a shot ahead of time, because we didn't want him to get anxious while we waited, so he got a little nervous when he realized why were were actually there.  However, I think it really helped him to see his mommy and daddy getting their shot first with big smiles on our faces.  And he was SOOO brave!  We were proud! :)
Anyway, I cannot WAIT to share with you everything we have in store for this trip!  If you aren't already following us on Instagram, make sure you check out our instastories next month so we can give you play by play of how we survive with our two boys on on our 21+ hour travel to get there and everything Matt has up his sleeve for Africa!!! :)

Xoxo,

Sarah

Comments

  1. Great post! Dylan is so brave... love the pics!

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    1. Thanks!! He is brave 💪🏻 I'm so proud of him!! 👊🏻

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  3. Such an excellent post!! I'm so glad you are getting that extra protection - there is nothing worse than getting terribly sick while on vacation - so far away from home! Dylan was super brave!!! And super cute! Can't wait to see your African travels - so exciting!

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    1. Thank you! Yes, we are so proud of Dylan and excited that we can still go without worrying about everything we eat... except with Christopher, we'll have to keep an eye on him, although lucky for us, he hardly eats anything anyway! ;-)

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