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!

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...

A Mostly Great Weekend

I'll get the bad news out of the way first so we can be angry, mourn and then move on... My Vikings are now 0-3. Ugh. After leading by double digits at the half, they let the Lions - THE LIONS! - come back to tie the game and then win in overtime. In case you aren't up on the news, they broke the NFL record for such outcomes - a record they held after last week's 2nd "leading by double digits at the half only to lose the game" loss. I think they've been outscored in the 2nd half by approximately 61-6 in 3 games. And don't get me started on the sudden-death rule in football... it stinks and should be rewritten. Here endith the Sunday afternoon pity party...


Saturday - typically a much better day of the week than Sunday anyway - was the highlight :)

A Month Is A Long Time...

... so how come it feels like just days?

Hi everyone! If, in fact, there is anyone still reading (or trying to read non-existent posts), I commend you! The last time I posted was over a month ago and time is flying by. I think an update is way past due!

Pet Peeves

I have a handful of pet peeves: bad elevator etiquette, people who say "irregardless", TV shows that are "to be continued" or when the DVR ends the recording of a show early... and now, baby nails. I've discovered I have an incredibly low tolerance for being scratched by baby nails! Have you ever tried to cut them? I even have baby emery boards but you truly just can't keep up and there's always that one you miss. UGH!

First Shots

And here it is the end of July already! Funny how time moved so slowly while we waited for approvals, referrals, court dates, and then that dang visa... and now time is speeding past like it's making up for, uh... lost time? The figure of speech loses something when you're actually talking about time, doesn't it? Well, you know what I mean. Every day Grace does something new. It seemed like there were weeks in the RMI where she was pretty much doing the same things - sleep, eat, poop, gurgle, repeat - and now, that rattle that she couldn't care less about yesterday is the very thing she's seeking it out today. The next day she's grabbing it with both hands... then the next it's going in her mouth... then the next she's growling at it and able to pick it up when it drops next to her. Really, is this what it's going to be like?

Adjusting - First Week Back

As I said in my last pseudo-post, Jeff returned to work on July 12th. I still have a handful of weeks of FMLA left before returning to work half-time for an additional 8 weeks. I have to say I feel very disconnected from friends and family here after being gone so long. I guess my ability to compartmentalize and focus on one specific thing at a time has worked against me. I'm slowly starting to mesh the different parts of my life back together but it's taking time.

Days 49, 50 and 51, July 8 & 9

Isn't coffee an amazing thing? I sometimes wonder how these things were discovered and then, like now, really don't care as long as it results in something that sustains me and is sorely needed... Coffee, you have the sincere appreciation and undying loyalty of this new mom!

Day 48: Thursday, 7/7

Very, very good news people! Of course, as with everything else, I had to wait... and wait... and wait. I was up with Grace at 4:00 and even on the best days when I wasn't expecting news, it's been difficult for me to fall asleep since it's, oh... 11:00 am back home. Even after 48 days, my internal clock is not fully adjusted to the different time zone. So I refreshed the DHL tracking page 439 times – no change. When I was cyber stalking Stacy's package it actually did give pretty good information throughout the delivery process. Not so much on ours. But finally the magic time of 8:30 rolled around... so I waited until 8:45 to call. A slight adjustment for island time.

Day 47: Wednesday, 7/6

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.

Day 46: Tuesday, 7/5

Ah, Tuesday. The day I've been waiting for. I figured that after the holidays we'd finally receive some information and, honestly, was holding out hope that the package would be sitting at the Embassy waiting for their rubber stamp and for us to come pick it up. Well, I'll tell you right now, that didn't happen. But all is not lost... you just have to wait until a little later in the post.

Days 43, 44 & 45: Saturday, Sunday & Monday, 7/2-4

Another 3-day post... sorry about that! I'm sure everyone reading is, like us, only waiting for one thing so I'll get that out of the way first. As we expected, we don't know anything more about our visa or when we're returning home. The Embassy here was closed from Friday through Monday so even if something was delivered last week or during the weekend, there would have been no information shared and certainly no paperwork signed and given to us so we busied ourselves with other things to pass the time. Everything considered, it was a nice weekend... here's the short story (and I mean short for a 3-day post):

Day 42: Friday, 7/1

Well, hello July. Didn't imagine seeing you here... or more precisely, seeing you while I was here. Nevertheless, here we both are. Happy Fisherman's Day everyone! A Marshallese holiday that's sort of like fishing home opener back home but everyone hops on someone's boat and head out to try their hand. Of course, their hand is much more skilled than ours and the kind of fish they get, well, it would put even the best northern to shame :)

Day 41: Thursday, 6/30

Thursday was a good day. Thought I'd start out with that lest you think my homesickness and irritation with the U.S. Embassies has gotten the best of me. While still afflicted with both, I want to highlight some of the great things we're experiencing here in the Marshalls.

Day 40: Wednesday, 6/29

Happy 3-month Birthday to Grace! She's blissfully unaware of her big day but we sure know it. She's getting so big – people are making comments all the time about her buddha belly. Emi jokes that it's just like dad's :) Not sure how much she weighs now but it's got to be at least 14 pounds. She has discovered her fists and frequently tries shoving them all the way in her mouth. There's no awareness of individual fingers yet but grabbing has become a favorite pastime... blankets, shirts, any exposed parental skin, oh, and dad's whiskers... somehow, she gets those too!

Day 39: Tuesday, 6/28

I was going to have banana pancakes in honor of Stacy and Oliver's trip home but since we'd planned a visit with Emi and the girls for lunch at 11:00, I decided to go light so I'd have room for lunch. Well, they finally had bacon so my plan was abandoned and I ate my fill.

Day 38: Monday, 6/27

A great big YAY goes to the Simmons! We confirmed with DHL this morning that their package has arrived on island and would be delivered to the U.S. Embassy at some point between 1:00-5:00 pm today. She then called the Embassy to give them her cell phone number so they could reach her more directly and they confirmed that they will be calling her this afternoon to come pick up the visa. If I'm this excited for them to be heading home, I can only imagine how thrilled I'll be when it's our turn.

Day 37: Sunday, 6/26

Thump, thump, thump... it's 3:30 am and the folks next to us are really enjoying their MTV. The folks on the other side of them are not and keep banging on their shared wall or maybe it's the the door. Guess who I side with... I would add to the “hey, shut up” banging if Grace weren't so peacefully asleep. Guess I'll get up and, uh, check my online bill pay? Fun.

Days 34, 35 & 36: Thursday, Friday & Saturday, 6/23-25

Wow – a stretch of nearly 3 days without posting... I'm slacking. Or, maybe island time is truly setting into my bones. Let's see if we can recap the last three days without putting y'all to sleep.

Days 32 & 33: Tuesday & Wednesday, 6/21 & 22

I seem to be making a habit of posting 2 days at a time. It's not so much that we're too busy to spend ½ hour on the computer – I just don't have much interest in doing so every day. Sorry!

Days 30 & 31: Sunday & Monday, 6/19 & 20

Okay... so all the times that you experienced RMI families told me that the time will fly by, I thought you were crazy. Well, here it is 31 days in and I find myself really, really glad I've been posting something about each day. Those of you who know me well know that my memory is... uh, what was I saying? Anyway, without this record of our time here, I'm afraid I would forget many of the wonderful experiences we've had. So, to the experienced families – You were right. I was wrong.

That said, I think my clock is winding down an the next week is going to be really, really long. More about that later...

Days 28 & 29: Friday & Saturday, 6/17 & 18

We didn't have any plans for Friday with the exception of lunch with Emi. We both looked forward to the visit since we haven't seen as much of Emi as we'd hoped. There's been a pretty complete lack of communication with the CAA since the 20 minutes we saw Donna on Tuesday and as far as I know, Maddy still isn't back to work. We arranged it through Bubu when she drove us home last Tuesday and confirmed 1:00 when we saw her at breakfast this morning. I asked if she was coming as well but she said that it would just be Emi. While we were excited about the visit there's still some apprehension since we'll have no translator. I guess I figure it's better to sit around staring, smiling and trying to make ourselves understood than to not have the visits. The best part is watching Emi interact with Grace – it's clear she's not taking any time with her for granted as she knows that we could be leaving in as little as a week.

Day 27: Thursday, 6/16

So you'd think that jet lag would hit me more at the beginning of our trip or after we returned home... well, it's going on 4:00 am here and I've been up since 2:00. What's up with that?

Day 26: Wednesday, 6/15

After a bit of a slow start today, we met Stacy and Oliver for breakfast downstairs and were off to run a couple of errands. Jeff had some word to do so he stayed in the hotel with Grace with hopes that she'd have a more hands-off morning. From what I understand when I got back, that wasn't really the case. She wasn't fussy or crying... just wanted to chat and look at dad's goofy face. Not much work got done but he didn't look like he minded when I got back to the room.

Day 25: Tuesday, 6/14

Today started out great and ended even better! Grace slept almost a full 8 hours going down around 8:30 and getting up around 4:00 am. It's still not hard to get up with her since it's around 1:00 pm back home – the hard part is going back to sleep. I stayed up for another couple hours getting the past two day's posts finished and uploaded and responding to a few pieces of email.

Day 24: Monday, 6/13

I was pretty happy to know that we didn't have anything scheduled for Monday besides breakfast with Stacy at 9:00. We ate, Stacy went to her room with Oliver, and Jeff and I decided to camp out at the restaurant for a while. He went to grab his Mac and I had my book. We'd been there for a little while and who should walk in but Emi!

Day 23: Sunday, 6/12

Yay – Sunday! A second trip out to Enemanot on the Cramers' boat. It was just Jeff, Grace and me as Stacy and Oliver were staying back at the hotel and the Wilsons were (probably) landing in Columbus, OH. Last week we'd asked what we can do to help with food or gas but our offer was quickly dismissed – instead, Ken suggested we bring some beer next time. They have the same law here as in MN where you cannot sell/buy alcohol on Sunday so we'd picked up a couple 12-packs of Bud and Bud Light (ugh – but that's what they were drinking) and one of coke to go with the rum.

Day 22: Saturday, 6/11

It was a very exciting but long day. We were scheduled to got to Laura Beach with Emi, Destiny and Bertha around 11 or 1... Claudia would check the weather and then call us to let us know when. However, while we were at breakfast we received a text from the Wilsons that they were going home at 2:00!

Day 21: Friday, 6/10

We are planning to go to Laura Beach with Emi, her girls, and Claudia on Saturday and we needed supplies. I really hope we end up going – Claudia said we will check the weather report on Saturday morning and then decide. If it's supposed to rain, we may not go. I'm not sure how to interpret that as the report is always the same... high of 80-something, humid, with a chance of rain. So, since it's rainy season, there's a pretty good chance of it raining at some point. The sporadic rains didn't seem to bother anyone a couple weeks ago when we went but, for some reason, Claudia doesn't want to go if it's going to rain. Our backup is to have them here for lunch... yup, food again.

Days 19 & 20: Wednesday & Thursday, 6/8 & 6/9

The big event of the week is apparently the sushi buffet at our restaurant downstairs. We'd contacted Jamie (the wife of Andrew from the U.S. Embassy) through her blog and hoped to run into their family during lunch. The Wilsons and Simmons were going to join us so we went down early – at 11:00 – and held a table for 6 with a 2-top nearby in case we needed more room. We were stood up...

Day 18: Tuesday, 6/7

Well, what an exciting day... tongue firmly planted in cheek. We weren't sure if we were going to get a visit today from Emi or not so we didn't make any plans that would take us away from the hotel. Turns out we needn’t have worried as plan have now been put off until possibly Saturday. So, what did we do?

Day 17: Monday, 6/6

Monday was a day for running errands... got more formula, more diapers, more wipes, some stamps, more souvenirs, lots of information on the Marshall Islands, and even tried out a new place to eat.

Day 16: Sunday, 6/5

Sunday = Great Day!

I didn't think anything besides hearing we were on the next plane home could top finding the grocery store fully stocked... but I was wrong. We spent the day on Enemone (sp?) - an island owned by the Cramer family. It was the most home-like thing we've experienced while here and the best thing is, we've been invited back every Sunday until we leave. We are SO in!

Day 15: Saturday, 6/4

After two weeks we're settling into a nice little routine here. I suppose that's good for us but maybe not so good for blog posts. Grace is sleeps pretty well at night and off and on all day. Jeff gets up early and plunks on the computer almost ever day (just like home, right?), and I putter around cleaning and organizing things. Big shocker, that...

Day 14: Friday, 6/3

Our second Friday here and this is going to be a really short post! We did nearly nothing all day... the biggest event so far was that they had the banana pancakes for breakfast. I will admit they were very good and do deserve proper mention in the blog.

Day 13: Thursday, 6/2

It's officially been 1 week since our appointment at the U.S. Embassy... but just under a week of waiting for the Visa. The slight difference has to do with our paperwork not being sent to Manilla until Saturday, 5/28 so we'll be counting our waiting weeks from then. They gave us a tracking number but we hadn't checked on it until last night – by Tuesday the documents were in Guam and by Wednesday they'd been received in Manilla. This is faster than I'd expected but we've also heard most of the wait happens while the case is waiting to be adjudicated and/or during the delivery on the way back. Basically, this tracking information tells us nothing about the speed with which Grace's Visa will arrive in Majuro but at least we know they received our paperwork.

Day 12: Wednesday, 6/1

Happy June 1^st everyone! I didn't realize the month had changed... another day closer to coming home. As you can tell, I'm missing MN a little bit. Jeff was nice and pulled out the first season of Modern Family for a little reminder of home. We hadn't gotten into the show until season two so it's like brand new episodes for me... and wouldn't you know it, the pilot was when Cameron and Mitchell fly back from Viet Nam after adopting Lily. It might have been a bad idea to be holding Grace and trying to get her to sleep while watching this show... my spontaneous laughing did not not settle her down. But dang, is that a funny show!

Days 10 & 11: Monday & Tuesday, 5/30-31

The days are starting to mush together and island time is having it's way with me. Didn't realize at all that I missed a day of posting! Maybe that's a good thing... a coping mechanism that will help me manage the home sickness and keep me from counting the hours and obsessively checking the tracking number for Grace's visa. Let's see... what have we been up to...

Day 9: Sunday, 5/29

Sundays in Majuro don't seem to involve much besides church and family time... for many of us, just like home. We'd made plans with the other families to visit Laura beach on the other end of the atoll so we set about eating breakfast and getting ready for the big excursion.

Day 8: Saturday, 5/28

Lazy, lazy Saturday. Nothing happening except a walk up the road to see some more of the area and to try and find the Tourism Office... we did, but it's only open M-F. A little bit farther is a place offering the “Best Bar-B-Que in the Marshall Islands”. It wasn't half bad – I received 2 spare ribs, a chicken leg, white rice, macaroni/potato salad (yes, combined) and some spicey cole slaw for about $4. It was sprinking a bit on the way there but started to rain a bit harder on the way back. A nice guy pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride since we had the baby. He dropped us off at our hotel just a few minutes more down the road but in that time we found out he was originally from Guam but is married to a Marshallese woman and now lives here... he's also familiar with the Minnesota Vikings – yay! I offered him a few buck for gas (it's $5+ a gallon here) but he refused and wished us a good day and was off.

Day 7: Friday, 5/27

Most of the official parts of the trip have been completed and now we settle in for the long wait. The days will seem longer but hopefully more enjoyable and less stress-filled. We've brought a small collection of DVDs, games and a couple books but haven't busted them out yet – we're waiting until we get desperate for reminders of home.

Day 6: Thursday, 5/26

Thursday has come and gone and it's about 9:00 pm here. I'm whipped. The night went surprisingly well as Grace only woke up for a bottle and change once... she did, unfortunately stay up for about 2 hours but the time difference is still helping me out. Here is was from 2-4 am but back home it was 9-11 am so it was nearly the middle of my “day”. That's not to say that staying up with a baby in the middle of the night is easy, just not as hard as it could have been ;)

Day 5: Wednesday, 5/25

So, before I start I want to let you know that I hear you about the pictures! I would also like to post them but connection speeds tonight are pretty bad so I'm going to wait one more day... call it a teaser :)

Day 4: Tuesday, 5/24

Today is adoption day!

Again we woke up pretty early and, of course, the anticipation of the day wouldn't let me fall back asleep. The schedule for the morning was pretty simple – get up, get ready, go to court.

Days 2 and 3: Sunday & Monday, 5/22-23

As expected, the first few days have been pretty busy setting up our hotel, exploring the nearby area, getting ready for court and, of course, visiting with Emi and Grace! I'll try to summarize (yeah, I know – not likely, right?)...

Day 1: Saturday, 5/21

We've arrived in Majuro, RMI! It's been quite a travel journey so far and, I must admit, I'm not feeling the greatest. I'm sure it has to do with not sleeping the night before we left. I figured we'd have a long time to sleep on the way here but it wasn't a good “lay down in a bed and sleep at the appropriate time” kind of sleep. In other words, it kinda sucked.

Hangin' in Houston

A brief stop in Houston and then off to Los Angeles. Only one mishap so far... have you ever had one of those moments that seems to last forever? You know, the ones that slow down while you yell "Noooooooooooo!" as the event unfolds?

2:37 AM

...or otherwise known as "I tried to follow your advice but couldn't seem to stop long enough to catch a few winks, Kate!"

It's the wee hours of Thursday morning and we'll soon be "getting up" to start getting ready for our trek to the airport. Jeff's just resting while I'm tending to a few last minute things I didn't get to while at work today. Was supposed to leave at 1:00 but a few things hung on and I think I might have left around the normal 5:00 time. That's okay - had a great day nonetheless. My team threw me a shower over lunch and Grace now has all sorts of new goodies! I will miss you guys over the summer but rest assured we'll be in for a visit after we return :)

I think I have everything packed - 7 bags total - and now I'm going to just rest for the next 45 minutes until the alarm goes off.

Flights Booked!

Quick Update:

After 2 1/2 hours on the phone with the nicest woman at Continental... I'm sure of it... literally the nicest woman there... our flights are now booked!

We leave Thursday morning at 6:30 AM and arrive in Majuro, Marshall Islands (via Houston, Los Angeles, and Honolulu) at 8:39 AM on Saturday, 5/21. The bad news is we had to spend about $1,200 more per ticket than we expected... the good news is we were able to upgrade to First Class all the way there by using our frequent flyer miles! This is very good news for Jeff as he is not a great sleeper on the plane... just looking out for my man ;)

Presently On Hold

So as I sit here during my "wait time of 20 to 25 minutes" with Continental Airlines, I figure a quick shout out is in order. We finally received our court date (May 24th) on which everything else is based. As I said, I'm on hold with Continental now and haven't made our reservations, but I believe we'll be flying out on Thursday morning and arriving in Majuro, Marshall Islands on Saturday morning. We will most likely meet our daughter within hours of arriving!

Jeff and I would like to introduce Grace Emma Warren!

Not This Weekend & The iPad Ate My Post!

So I won't be buying baby clothes or anything that depends on size/weight/gender during my shopping trip this weekend. I called LSS to see if my "good feeling about this week" was going to stay that way - it won't. I hadn't heard from our adoption worker in about a month unless you count 5 minutes of generic conversation at the reception on 4/12 - which I don't - so I decided to give her a call yesterday morning and see what's going on.

You're Reading... You're Really Reading!

I was starting to think that my readership consisted of my husband and Daisy... yes, Daisy is my border collie but I'm convinced she's smarter than all of us and is probably one of my anonymous followers. I'm not forgetting about Jet - I just don't think he has it in him to figure out how to log on. Anyway, I've been encouraged lately by the comments people have left in the blog and how many of you tell me you check here regularly. Thank you :)

I don't have news yet - better get that out of the way right up front lest you get to the end and curse me for getting your hopes up. I do have something to pass on though.

Another Week...

Are you getting tired of waiting? Us too! Another week has gone by without any word from the RMI or our agency, LSS. To be fair we didn't expect anything this past week as the officials only returned to the RMI mid-week. Claudia (the Director of the CAA) said she was hopeful she'd be able to begin putting some paperwork together for us when she was back in the office but we've learned to not put too much stock in timelines - especially ones that include words like "hopeful". Maybe it's good practice for when we're in country waiting for our child's US Visa to arrive.

Welcome "Adoption Friends"

... and hello to everyone else.  I know, I know... I haven't blogged in a while but there's wasn't much going on - at least not anything that deserved to be shared here. This past Tuesday Jeff and I had the opportunity to meet the officials from the Marshall Islands at a reception hosted by LSS. Also, we had the chance to meet a few more waiting families in the RMI program! Hello and welcome to our new Adoption Friends!

Still At Point A?

Last night we attended the Waiting Families Group meeting at LSS where author, Elizabeth O'Toole, spoke about her book, In On It. Elizabeth is a local who adopted her 3 daughters from Columbia through LSS. She found that while there were many resources for adoptive parents, there weren't any that spoke specifically to the friends and family members who take this journey with them. I think that while we - parents waiting to adopt - hope for and depend on the support coming from our friends and family, we also have a responsibility to step back and try to understand how our decision to adopt is affecting them.

Radio Silence Ended

As I started to write this post I realized that the activity that's gone on this past two weeks was in reality squished into just one. That should give you an idea of how draining the past week has been. We've kept much of this information pretty quiet as we found ourselves in a position of having to make some tough decisions. I didn't want to post anything until we knew for sure what we were going to do so to those of you who've been hoping to hear everything right way, my apologies but I know you'll understand.

Significant Milestone!

A really short update...

Got home from work today and discovered our USCIS approval had arrived! Now all we're waiting for is the referral from the Central Adoption Authority (CAA) in the RMI. I was able to find out today that our Dossier has been accepted by the CAA and that we've been matched with a birth family. There's no additional information yet but our adoption worker expects to hear something in the next few days.

This is a huge milestone - everything is nearly in place. Will update more when we have it!

No Action - Just a Quick Hello

I have a few minutes before I jump online to try and buy additional Home Opener tickets for the Twins so just a quick hello! While I've had some nice conversations with other waiting families this past week, no additional information is coming in from the USCIS or the RMI.

Our adoption worker at LSS upgraded her "soon" comment to "very, very soon" regarding the referral. Friend Lori has made a second prediction. As you may remember, her first (last Friday at 10:30) didn't come to pass. Now it's Thursday at 11:15... this is your last chance Lori - better get your psychic vibe on!  The countdown clock for the USCIS says 34 days - that's a full 12 weeks - but I'm still hoping for 8.

A number of you have asked me if we plan to keep our child's given name or if we're allowed to change it. Seems like a good time to answer that one: We can do either! Jeff and I haven't been talking names yet because, he says, you have to see the baby first. I'm inclined to believe him on that but would feel better if we had a short list to start from! We could choose to keep all or part of our child's given name. People often decide to keep a first name and move it to the middle. We'll wait until we get the referral and then decide.

If you have any other questions, post them in the Comments. It'd be great to hear from you just to see if anyone is reading this... hellooooo... oooo.... ooo...oo (that's my notation for an echo... )

Bad Blogger!

I realized it's been over a week since my last post so I figured I should get something out here! Nothing has really happened to move us along in the formal process since the travel meeting.

First - an update on our two outstanding official items:
Our Dossier is still in the RMI being considered and we haven't seen a referral yet. I wish we had a better idea of where they are in that process... it's the last major unknown before we travel as everything else seems more of a formality. The comment made to me at the travel meeting about referrals coming "soon" has not come true... I have to keep remembering that things run on island time. Island time is great when you're sitting on a beach drinking pina coladas, however, not so fun when you're waiting for the call. My friend Lori has predicted we'll hear at 10:30 Friday morning... If we don't, blame her ;-)

The I-600A (immigration paperwork to the USCIS) is still being processed. It seems that going in early to get our fingerprints done didn't help speed things along afterall. I guess it's all we can do, right? I emailed with the agent assigned to our case last week and she told me that applications are taking around 90 days. This isn't outside the timeframe of what we were told to expect - just on the long end of it. But I am still hopeful for a less-than-90-days turnaround since our new friends from Duluth just received theirs last weekend! Congrats guys!!! They had a slight delay due to poor fingerprint quality and they still received their final approval in 8 weeks. Our paperwork was submitted about 3 weeks after theirs so maybe we'll see something from the USCIS in the next two weeks.

While we wait, I've been trying to keep busy by gathering things we'll need for the trip. My "shopping" spree at Jen's last weekend produced a Jeep full of baby things and we had to leave two items behind - no more room! We scored big on a high chair, exersaucer, and a bouncy seat that can be taken apart to fit in our suitcase. Everyone's said if you can bring a bouncy seat, you're golden! But wait, there's more! My amazing friend also graced us with a set of new bottles of the Playtex "drop-in" variety - apparently they're great for traveling too so you don't have to sterilize the entire bottle. See all the things I'm learning?! We also have a couple baby swings, a glider, extra diapers of various sizes, pacifiers, some cool toys, play mats, a baby bjorn, a bumbo chair, a mobile... Whew... Thank you, thank you, thank you to Jen and a special thanks to her oldest for letting me borrow these items as long as I bring them back when I'm finished :)

Plans for this weekend include lunch and shopping with the girls on Sunday. Without a referral I'll be limited to getting things instead of clothes. Not knowing the age, size or gender makes it difficult to buy stuff that needs to fit.

I promise to try and write more often and be less verbose... if I keep one of those promises, I'll consider it a success. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments or just get in touch with me. And lastly, hello to everyone just recently added to the list!

Take care!

The Travel Meeting

This weekend we, along with 3 other waiting families, attended a travel meeting at our agency. There were 3 experienced families also there who have been helping LSS put together information to help families who haven't yet traveled. Everything from your normal logistics to things like what to expect in court and what the culture is like. Many, many thanks to all the experienced families - I loved meeting you all, hearing your stories, and seeing your photos!

Armed with the packing list we were given, this will be my first getting-ready-to-travel weekend. I'll start by setting up my travel staging area in the nursery to-be :) and then it's shopping time! Well, I should clarify... I'll be "shopping" at my friend Jen's. She's offered up an entire host of things for me to check out and, if I want, to take with us or use once we get back. Some of you know about the spreadsheet - sectioned out on tabs for clothing, feeding, care, play, etc. It's quite the collection of information she's gathered from parenting her two girls... oh, and the loads of reading and research she does looking into different foods and toys, etc. Everyone should have a Jen - and I am very grateful for mine!

We're hoping to hear from the USCIS and/or RMI in the next week or so. And yes, I think I said the same thing last week... but this time we were told that the RMI was getting ready to send some referrals "soon". With the JOH program on hold, I'm thinking that the referrals will come to LSS. I know we and one of the other waiting families at the meeting this weekend both have our Dossiers in the RMI for review so maybe we'll both get some good news this week!

Keep your fingers crossed...

Our Adoption Still On Track - Hold Affects Another Agency

I doubt that anyone reading my blog has been on the discussion boards or gone out searching for others, but on the off chance some of you have, I wanted to fill you in on some hiccups happening with some RMI adoptions.

First, this DOES NOT affect our adoption or any adoptions going through our agency, Lutheran Social Service of MN (LSSMN). I'm using the full, official name so no one stumbling across this information gets confused and unecessarily worried.

Now... what is happening according to a message board called RMI-Kids is that the RMI has placed another agency (Journeys of the Heard - JOH) on hold for a while. There's much speculation and rumor but nothing explaining why this happened. There are comments stating that the RMI will continue to process the Dossiers they have already received from JOH families but will not take any additional. If true, I'm glad for that. I can only imagine how heart broken those families would be!

The good news at this point for us is that adoptions for all LSSMN families are progressing as normal - the hold does not affect us. I received an email from our LSSMN adoption worker even before I heard about the JOH hold letting us know about it and that our adoption is not at risk. I was pretty impressed and thankful that our adoption worker proactively sent the reassuring email. We've been well taken care of by LSSMN.

Please keep the families that are being affected by the JOH hold in your thoughts. I hope the situation resolves quickly.

Good night everyone :)

The Update That Wasn't

I find myself with some free time this afternoon so I'm hanging out at the Oakdale Caribou waiting for my mom. Seems like a good time for an update. Now if I only had something to say!

Nothing has happened in the last week - at least not that we know about anyway. I assume the folks at the USCIS are busy running our fingerprints and making the determination that we aren't trying to unlawfully bring a foreign minor into the US. And that the nice people who work for the CAA in the Marshall Islands are figuring out that yes, in fact we would make outstanding parents...

This seems to be the longest stretch of wait time we've had since entering the RMI program where we haven't had anything official to do. An entire week... I think we can manage. Compared to most adoptions, I know ours is moving incredibly fast.

We have a travel meeting at the agency this weekend where we'll get to meet families who have already returned from the RMI. The hope is we'll get the skinny on what to pack, how to make flexible travel arrangements, the best places to stay/eat/shop while there, etc. Mostly I'm looking to connect with parents who have done what we're going to be doing.

Tomorrow morning we go to the Travel Clinic for shots, pills, prescriptions and advice. There isn't anything we are required to have but I'm sure they'll find some reason to stick us with needles.

Time for our appointment. That's all for now!

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Appointment Notices

The forms aren't that interesting but I wanted to test my blogger app and upload something. These are the official appointment notices to have our fingerprints taken at the local USCIS office. Check that step off the list!

Updated report... the photo doesn't upload with the message. Anyone know how to fix this? I'm updating through the web instead to add the same, uninteresting picture :)

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Falling Into Place

I know some of you are anxiously awaiting news on whether or not we got in... for those who don't know, we were trying to get an earlier appointment at the USCIS local office or find out if they allow walk-ins. It's really difficult to contact one of the local offices directly - no phone numbers or email addresses - so we decided we'd just show up when the doors opened this morning and hope they let us in. Fortunately, we live in an area where the office is relatively close so it was a short drive to St. Paul. Some people need have to drive hours to reach the nearest one.

Well, things just seem to be falling into place. I'm happy to report that they DID let us do our fingerprinting today! The prints are immediately shared electronically with the national office so I assume the I-600A will now keep moving through the system next week. In all liklihood, we cut 3 weeks off the wait time for our immigration approval! We still have to wait for the referral from the RMI but I'm convinced (read: strongly hoping) that the time we saved by going this morning will get us to the RMI sooner.

Again - if you have any specific questions, please feel free to add them as comments! This, as you know, is a private blog open only to my family, friends and co-workers. If you're thinking it, someone else probably is too!

It Arrived - Now What?

I'd mentioned before that the Dossier seems to be flying around the world on its way to the RMI... well, it's officially arrived! I'm so excited that it moved as quickly as it did but there's still a process that has to run it's course. No one has posted any questions for me so I may just blather on about what we expect to happen next since that seems to be the thing most people are asking me in person.

The disclaimer... I just want to reiterate that any timelines we experience or expectations we have about the process are ours alone. Other couples might have longer/shorter wait times or have requirements different from ours.

Okay - what happens next and how long is it going to take? Probably the thing most people are asking. There are two items in process right now:

1. The Dossier (arrived in the RMI on 2/2)
   
   The Central Adoption Authority (CAA) will review our information and determine whether or not they think we're a good fit for their program. I cannot underscore what a huge step this is! Unlike most open adoptions in the US where a birth mom (or family) choose the adoptive family, the CAA does this in the RMI. If the CAA likes what they see, they will match us with a child in their program. They will send a referral to our agency (LSS) who will look it over to make sure they agree on the match, and then make the formal referral to us. The timeline for this is unpredictable - it depends on too many variables to be able to accurately predict a date. That said, we're hoping it's not more than a month.
   
   We then have a few days to review the information. During this time we'll have the U of M international adoption clinic review any medical information we're given and make their recommendations. If we accept the referral, I think there are some documents to sign and return to the CAA. At this point, we wait until item #2 is complete.
2. I-600A
   
   The United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) has received our application and has scheduled our appointment for fingerprinting. I've requested an earlier appointment but expect that it won't be granted and that we'll have to wait until the 2/24. After that, the USCIS will continue processing our application and eventually send us an approval letter.
   
   The entire USCIS process start to finish can take anywhere from 4-12 weeks. We're currently a little over 2 weeks into that timeline. If the appointment remains on the 24th, that'll add another 4 weeks making a total of 6 weeks. I'm hopeful that we'll have our approval within 8 weeks but you never know.

After the 2 items above are done, the RMI will set a court date - not sure how long it takes for them to do that. Once we're notified of that court date, we should have between 2-4 weeks before we travel.

For those of you who just want a simple answer to the question, "How long before you travel?", my best guess if everything falls into place is around 8 weeks. It's unlikely to take less time, but could happen. It's entirely possible things will take longer. This is the waiting game people... and since we've shared this news with you, you get to join us for the fun :-)

...and, Tracking the I-600A

Well folks... seems you get two posts in one day!

I just arrived home to find 4 letters from the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). I expected the first one - the I-797C, Notice of Action - saying, "Hey, we received your application and you're now in the queue." The second letter was just a receipt itemizing the fees we paid. Okay - so that's nice to have for our 2011 taxes.

What I didn't expect where the next two letters - the ones informing us our second round of fingerprints is scheduled for February 24th. Their language ("capture your biometrics") sounds cooler :) I figured these letters would be a week or two away but here they are!

We have to drive all the way over to St. Paul so they can capture our biometrics. Don't they know we're just across the river and would go tomorrow if they'd let us in!?! I'll ask our adoption social worker if it's possible to push it up a bit but I don't want to mess up the orderly process they seem to have going at the USCIS. So far they've done right by us and they best way to avoid trouble might just be to follow instructions and show up when told.

And in case anyone has any lingering doubts about us - we've now been fingerprinted and background checked by nearly everyone that matters... MN Dept of Human Services, FBI, USCIS/DHS. I guess we're missing Interpol...

Tracking the Dossier

FYI - If you've visited the site before, you'll notice a small change... I moved the Timeline to a separate page instead of making you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Home page. Check out the navigation bar at the top of the blog.

I've been trying not to obsess about tracking the Dossier that's on its way to the RMI and been pretty good so far. I saw that as of Friday, it'd made its way to Guam and since we were told it could be there for 1-2 weeks, I didn't much think about checking over the weekend or even today. So, imagine my surprise when I went to get the date (from Friday) to update the timeline and the tracking says that the Dossier is "out for delivery" in Majuro, RMI! I'm waiting until the tracking updates with a "delivered" message just to make sure it's not some trick-of-tracking foolishness practiced by DHL but maybe, just maybe, it's moving a bit faster than originally expected.

Don't have an update on the I-600A (the immigration paperwork) but I did add a countdown to the top of the Timeline... it basically shows the conservative 12-week estimate for that approval. It would sure be nice if things moved more quickly there too.

So - while we wait, anything specific y'all would like to hear about? Info on Majuro and the RMI? Info on adoption? Post a few comments so I know you're reading and let me know what you want to hear. HAHA - that might be your last opportunity to provide direction on my ramblings so you may want to take advantage of it.

Welcome Friends :)

I was going to wait to invite everyone to this blog until I'd written more - but like a naughty kid at Christmas, I couldn't resist opening the package early.  Welcome to our blog!

So many of you have asked how it's going and seem genuinely interested in hearing the newest but I know I forget something each time I tell the story. Certainly keep asking as it's always fun to talk about but for all the details or when you (or I) don't have time to relay the entire story, check here for all the info.

I promise to do my best to try to keep posts going... is that like "fixin' to get ready to..."?  Well, you know what I mean :)

Progress... then waiting...

A quick note to let you all know that we received word today that our Dossier has been sent to the RMI. We were given a tracking number - probably not a good sign for my productivity at work - and a warning that the paperwork makes a long stop in Guam so not to get worried if it appears to sit there for a while. They anticipate the journey to take between 1-2 weeks.

As I've mentioned to many of you before, we've also made contact with some of the other families in the program. One has just returned from the RMI with their daughter (so, SO adorable) and the other is waiting like us. Today, we were put in touch with one other family who travelled about a year ago (I think). Haven't actually spoken with them yet but I'm looking forward to it!

Will try to write more in the next couple of days...

Up and running... finally!

So, if you know me - and if you're reading this blog, you most likely do - you know that while I don't shy away from sharing my opinion, blogging is just not my thing. Nevertheless, I've been promising many of you that I'd start one to keep you updated on our progress in the Republic of the Marshall Islands Adoption Program and as a way to stay connected when we travel to the RMI... here goes :)

First, a few notes about our story before the RMI program...

Early in 2009, Jeff and I began talking about adopting and after a lot of thought, we decided to move forward. We contacted the adoption agency (LSS) in June and entered the Domestic Infant Open Adoption Program. By the end of July, we were home study approved and ready to adopt... just needed someone to pick us.

We decided to try for an adoption match by doing our own outreach - which means we decided not to go into the book which could have made things earlier but certainly more expensive. Instead, the idea is to network... reaching out to your friends, relatives, and coworkers and hoping that someone knows someone who knows someone (you get the idea) who might be making an adoption plan for their child. It's a great idea for some - and much less expensive - but for us, the non-social butterflies we are, we didn't really get anywhere with it.

Which brings us to the RMI program...

We first heard about the RMI program from our domestic adoption social worker. The Marshall Islands had only allowed adoptions in the US through one agency from around 2002 through 2009. In 2010 they began working with LSS on a temporary basis. While LSS and the RMI worked to establish a permanent program, they decided to offer a pilot program to 5 LSS families. We placed our names on a waiting list for when the program was approved and opened up for more families.

In November 2010, we received an email from the RMI adoption social worker asking if we'd be interested in joining the pilot program. Apparently one of the 5 families had to withdraw for personal reasons. While very sad for that family, it meant that we were off and running to push through our paperwork as fast as possible. We said yes and the paperwork began.

I've tried to reconstruct our timeline below and will continue to add to it as things progress. We're officially in a waiting period and until we hear more, I'll try to blog a bit about what we've learned so far, how we expect things to happen, and how we're preparing for our stay in the RMI.

More soon!