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.
Grace has been taking it easy on us. Her typical schedule is to sleep for a couple of hours, eat, get changed, maybe stay up for anywhere up to an hour, then sleep again. I figured with such a majority of her time asleep that she'd carry the same schedule into the night but she's been especially kind. She'll usually be up for a bottle around 8 or 9 then go down for the “night”... around midnight she still wakes up with some coughing and congestion but after a quick pick up, she goes right back to sleep. Around 2-2:30 she'll be up again to eat and get a dry diaper, then back down right after. It seems to have worked out that I get the midnight and 2 am stints but Jeff has been covering things in the morning while I catch a few more winks. Of course it's difficult to sleep that well as we're still turning off the A/C to help with her cough... sort of making the entire room into one, big humidifier!
The day itself was pretty light... about mid-morning we took a short walk around the back side of the MIR when we heard our names called by our downstairs neighbors. They were letting us know they were taking Oliver to the local hospital to get his foot looked at. I think I mentioned before that scabbies is an extremely common occurrence on the islands and from what I've heard, around half of the kids being adopted have it. They recommend we bring the prescription medication with us just in case the local doctors are out. Well, we've been very lucky – quite possibly due to Grace's age and not having had time to be exposed – but Oliver had a mild case mostly on his feet. Poor kid! Thinking that they'd be more successful if they didn't have a 6-year-old in tow, we offered to hang out with Madi while they took care of things at the hospital.
So Madi and I had some fun making a bracelet and some earrings for her mom and then we roped Jeff into a game of cards... not exactly sure what game we were playing. The cards were odd shaped with princesses on the back and different things like magic wands and crowns on the front that you were supposed to match somehow. We didn't know the rules and neither did Madi but she just made them up and in the end, we tied... all three of us. Imagine the luck!
We were expecting Emi and Claudia to visit around 3:00ish so we decided to give Grace a bath. Madi was very interested in helping so the 3 of us squished into one the bathrooms and dunked the kid in the sink for a bit. Grace was much better at taking a bath than I was at giving one but I figure this is one think were she's had a bit more experience than I have. Overall, the baby got clean and didn't cry. I consider that a success! Madi left shortly after when her parents came back and Jeff and I relaxed until our 3:00 visit.
Around 3:00 Claudia called to say they'd be a bit later than they originally thought. There was a forum being held for International Family Day that she and some of the birth moms were attending. They arrived around 3:45 and we chatted for a while. Of course the first thing Emi did was reach for Grace and once she had her, held her close and snuggled her lots. Claudia had a quick errand to run and asked if it'd be okay if Emi stayed and rested for a half hour until she returned. It was fine by us but before she left I wanted to give Emi the bracelet and earrings I made for her. As I handed them to Emi telling her this, she immediately removed a bracelet she was wearing and presented it to me. As it turns out, we have something more than Grace in common! Emi made the bracelet she was giving me and I later found out that the earrings her mom gave me after court were also made by her. She does beautiful work and is able to sell some of the jewelry she makes – it's her only source of income.
In addition to jewelry, many of the woman here make ornaments in the shape of stars, fish, hearts, etc. and also woven bowls and wall hangings that are very intricate. I plan to buy some to bring home with me so I'll post some photos when I do. Claudia then asked if it would be possible for me to send Emi a package or two of the earring “starter” part... not sure what to call it but the metal part that goes through your ear off of which you hang beads or whatever you're making. Here a single pair of starters is about $2... at home, a package of maybe 20 pair are around $1.50.
So after Claudia left, Jeff offered Emi a pillow as it seemed she wanted to rest her had on the couch and then went to type a bit on his computer. I hung out on the balcony watching the kids in the pool until Emi called me in and asked if I'd take her picture with Grace. Pictures are something else we use to communicate with – Emi loves being in them and seeing them – so I pulled out the laptop and showed her the ones we've already taken while we've been here. We've also taken some short videos and there are really cute one of her and her girls that she especially enjoyed seeing.
After a while Claudia returned and we chatted a bit more. I found out more information about Emi's family and learned that there are even more members of the immediate household than the CAA had listed on the paperwork. I asked if it'd be okay if we went to visit their home and was told yes, so we'll be setting that up for another time. In the meantime, it seems that Emi has never seen a movie. It just so happens that there is a Marshallese movie playing at our hotel over the weekend and Claudia asked if we would like to take Emi and her two daughters. We'd seen the posters all over the place and were thinking about going so we said sure and set a date for Saturday evening. Claudia and Emi then left saying “E-Lee-Choo”... of course that's not how it's spelled but it's how it sounds to me... means “tomorrow”. My Marshallese vocabulary is slowly increasing – I think I have maybe 5 words by now.
Jeff and I took off for dinner downstairs and shortly after we arrived, we received a call from Stacy and Greg. The other family from the RRE (Heather and Wyatt) were coming over to meet them for dinner and they wanted to know if we'd like to join them. Absolutely! Taxi's were hard to come by but they eventually made it and we had a great evening chatting about everything from Marshallese healthcare to fantasy football - It was a great end to the evening!
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