Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Day 47: Wednesday, 7/6


(Note: this post was originally from 7/6/11 but was just found sitting in my draft folder. Better late than never, right?)

As I figured, it was a bit too much to expect that the package made its way with magical speed to the Embassy here in the RMI. We heard back from our lawyer late last night and he suggested we call Ken at the DHL office to see if he had better information than was available from the tracking tool online. While it said that the package finished processing in Guam, there was no further information. After breakfast (the ham and cheese omelet was delicious, btw) we drove to the DHL office to ask. Ken said that his system shows our package is on the flight arriving tonight, however, the manifest he has does not list it. This isn't uncommon... sometimes a package is thrown onto a flight but not noted so there's a good chance it'll be here tonight... around 8 or 9 pm. Guess when our original flight leaves? 8:45 pm.

The End of Summer

Hello again, friends. Summer has passed in a blink and the first days of Fall are here. I've taken the week off of work with no particular plan in mind... so far it's been a day of yard work and a day of puttering around the house and completing small tasks. One of those was assembling some boxes to send to Grace's birth mom and sisters in the Marshall Islands.

Friday, May 10, 2013

2 Years Old... give or take

I can hardly believe it's been almost 2 years since we returned from the RMI with our daughter, Grace. An amazing, fun, sometimes crazy and sometimes very routine 2 years! I find myself a bit nostalgic for a couple of reasons. Of course, Adoption Day is 2 weeks away - but if that weren't enough, dear friends of ours have just arrived on island and will be adopting their second daughter on Monday. And the pictures... oh, the pictures... just make me want to jump on a plane and fly back - today - right now.


Friday, July 20, 2012

First Roadtrip!

I really don't think I could make any acceptable excuse for not posting an update as we caravan our way across Wisconsin headed towards our first Midwest Pacific Islanders' Reunion on our first real roadtrip... just too much time to kill while the hubby drives and the kid sleeps!

Yes, she's sleeping and, hopefully, will be for the next couple hours. We met up with another family from our area who are also driving down. A third family is on their way by plane. In all reality, probably the right way to go but then we wouldn't have this experience to relive - good or bad, right? So expect a few updates throughout the weekend.

To catch you up on things, our little baby is now almost 16 months old! She'll be moving up to the toddler room at daycare starting Monday - sniff, sniff. They focus on teaching them to do things on their own. I'm not sure I'm ready... Oh, wait, this isn't about me, is it? Well, Grace is certainly ready so I guess it's time. We toured the toddler rooms on Thursday and met her new teacher, Emily. Everything seems to be in order so Monday we start. I was told to expect Grace will be returned to us covered in food and random art supplies and not to dress her in anthing, uh, nice. I want to know what I'm supposed to do with all of her cute clothes now... weekends around my house are going to turn into a fashion show with multiple wardrobe changes just so she'll get some wear out of all those outfits!

Ah, that's better. I just reclined the seat a bit... and yes, it is a big deal. Until recently Grace, being only 23 pounds and 29inches, was still in her infant carrier. The contraption could only be installed behind the passenger seat - my seat - and required that I be closer to the dash than I tend to like. As for reclining, forget it. We finally made the switch to the convertable car seat but, per AAP recommendations, we installed it rear facing. What a royal pain in the butt to get her in and out. After a week of bumped heads, twisted straps and all around discomfort for both of us, we flipped it forward. While she doesn't exceed the weight or height limits for rear facing, her feet were travelling up the back seat even with her knees bent. Not sure how any kids can safely use these seats facing backwards since Grace is only in the 15th percentile for height.

So, what else have we been up to...

For us, mostly working. We get out once in a while to grab dinner or BBQ with friends. We attended another Kemem at the beginning of July and have another one in September! We go to a lot of Twins games of course but it's getting harder to bring Grace. She's been walking since her first birthday so by this point she'd rather be walking around than sitting on our laps. I think a babysitter is going to be a neccesary expense for most of the games going forward.

Speaking of Kemems, for Grace's we asked guests to consider donating to the WorldTeach organization. We ended up raising just over $500 and decided to use the funds to sponsor a project co-lead by WorldTeach and The Unbound Bookmaker. They are trying to publish 30 new children's books written by Marshallese students. They'll be in both English and Marshallese. The first book is finished and available on Amazon.com - search for "The Very Important Book About The Marshall,Islands". If that wasn't cool enough, our donation is enough to sponsor an entire book so they wanted to recognise Grace by dedicating it to her. I can't wait to see it - what a great gift our friends and family have given not only the students in the RMI but also to Grace!

Grace has been snowing off her rather extensive vocabulary of 6 words: uh-oh, daddy, ball, baseball (you knew it was going to be in the first handful of words, didn't you?), dog, and hi. She's a champion waver and kiss blower. Despite the small vocabulary, she understands more and more each day which helps when you want her to pick up her blocks or throw the ball or not eat the dog's food. She's also using some sign language: eat, milk, more, and all done. They tell me she's also signing "like" and "thank you" at daycare... I don't believe it though.

Well, we're cruising through WI at a pretty good clip. The kid is stirring which means she'll probably be up soon. I'll post more on the reunion and include some photos. Right now I'm going to try to upload a few recent pics. If they don't appear in this post, then I have failed and will have to wait until I'm back at a computer.







Sunday, April 22, 2012

RMI Visit

Hello again - it's been a while. I figured it was time to get back online and chat with you all. First, I want to say hello to anyone new to the blog. I'm amazed that there are so many reading... so many of you I don't know. People tell me that my blog is one of the first that google returns in a search. I don't know if it's true or not but it seems people are finding me. Motivation for more frequent updates - if someone's listening, I'll keep talking :)

Some of you have posted comments on my blog and want to correspond via email. While I'm more than happy to do this, I'm less excited about posting my personal email address here. If you're okay doing so, by all means, I will reply. If you'd rather not publish your email address, find me on Facebook and send me a message - make sure you tell me it's about RMI adoption and give me your email. We'll get in touch eventually!

So on to the rest...


Saturday, December 31, 2011

3 Months Gone... Poof!

For being so addicted to reading other RMI adoption travel blogs, I'm terribly lazy about updating our own. Although it's no longer a travel blog, I still want to add things from time to time as I know a lot of folks stumble across it while searching for information about adopting from the RMI. To any new readers, welcome!

It's hard to believe that 3 months has gone by so quickly but the title of my last post was something about Grace's 6-month well baby visit and guess what... her 9-month visit is coming up next week!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

6-Month Visit, 4-Month Shots

So yesterday my little smushy had her 6-month well-baby visit and, because we are redoing her immunizations, received her 4-month shots. "Smushy", you ask? Well, yes. She's just so darned squeezable and those cheeks are just begging to be pinched and kissed and gobbled up... sigh... can you tell I'm missing her today?

Big dramatic pause with drum roll...