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?)...

The jet lag hasn't been too bad but we're both ready to turn in around 6:00 pm (1:00 am CDT) and we've been waking up around 4:00 am (11:00 am CDT). I expect it'll soon be irrelevant once we have Grace full time as she'll set her own schedule and we will have to grab sleep whenever we can. Fortunately, we have about a 4 week wait here in the Marshals to adjust and also there are two of us. I have a feeling I'll develop an even greater appreciation for those who are home with their newborns either as single parents or while the other parent returns to work. Sheesh – how do you guys do it?!?

Sunday morning went by pretty fast... a little breakfast, a little paperwork, a movie or two on TV, and another walk down the road. We stopped into the Formosa market – everything from flip flops (got me a new pair) to groceries. We knew that Claudia would be bringing Emi and Grace by about the “same time as yesteray”... so, 2:00ish? Around 3:00 there was a knock on the door, a quick hello, and then we were on our own with Grace :)

We were able to spend about 3-4 hours with her before Claudia and Emi returned to get her. You know one of the first things I did was whip open her sleeper to find out what size clothes and diapers she's in! I may be in for a surprise as she was wearing a 6-9 month sized sleeper! It was quite big but I don't have any ability to scale infant sizes up or down so I thought maybe she'll be okay in the 0-3 month sizes we brought. Most of the infants we've seen here are bundled up pretty good. I couldn't believe how much! Grace had on the aforementioned sleeper and a little onsie on under that. She was also dropped off with a blanket – a mid-weight fleece blanket. The onsie, size 3-6 month fit almost right but it seems to be a little stretchy so I'm still hopeful that our 0-3s will fit for a while.

A bottle and a diaper change later, we put her down next to us and she napped. The size 1 diapers we brought fit great but it might have been better to bring the 8 ounce bottles instead of the 4 ounces ones. She's eating about 3-4 ounces now but seems to get hungry almost right away so we might end up giving her two in a row to fill her up. During our visit there were, of course, many photos taken and a few videos as well. I haven't figured out how to upload the videos yet but I'll try to work it out. In one of them she's fixated on Jeff as he talks to her about how humid it is outside... doesn't matter the topic, she just loves to listen to our voices!

So, about the humidity. Jeff tells me we're here during the beginning of the rainy season. It certainly has done that. A number of times a day there's a downpour – and nobody seems to mind. A group of school children were at the pool (had to be around 30-40 of them) all day long and the swimming and play didn't even pause when the rains came. The kids here are very friendly and will say hello to you whenever you walk by. We found it funny that when they're in the pool they don't bother to change into any kind of swimwear. Whether they don't have any or if the more modest dress of the islands prevails (skirts/bermudas for girls and bermudas for boys), they just jump in wearing whatever they're wearing. A number of girls were swimming in calf-length dresses – must make them strong swimmers as that weight would pull me to the bottom of the pool!

Monday brought more errands... Claudia came by to shuttle us and the other family as well as the birth moms and babies to the doctor for the pre-adoption physicals. We spent some time as each of the babies were weighed, measured and examined. I'd been told to expect a very light exam that may not even include undressing the babies but Dr. Pinano did a pretty good once-over and pronounced both kids healthy! One thing we are on the lookout for with either Grace or us is the presence of scabbies... look it up... it's icky. But, on the islands it's very common and there's a high chance one or all of us will get it. We were able to get prescriptions for the cream that treats it before we left home so we'll be prepared if a case pops up. So far, so good!

I think I told a few of you that I wasn't sure of her size even though we had measurements at birth and just after 4 weeks old. I didn't think it possible for her to grow as much as they said but either she did or there was some error along the way. Here are the stats:

• At Birth: 6 lbs. 12 oz., 18 inches long
• At 4-5 wks: 8 lbs. 8 oz., 21.5 inches long
• At 8 wks: 10 lbs. 8 oz., 23.75 inches long!!!

Another task that needed completing was that darn passport photo! Yesterday they could not get Grace to wake up for it. While we had her awake we headed over to the Tourist Trap. It took me and Emi holding her – literally up against the wall in front of a white background – Claudia and Jeff trying to get her attention and have her look up and forward and the lady with the camera... it was comical! If I'd had another hand I'd taken a video of that. Poor kid – she just wanted to lay down and we had her plastered up against a wall! We finally got a shot that'll work and a good story to go along with it :)

Yesterday we'd discovered that one of the forms in our pre-travel packet needed to be notarized and hadn't been. I should have looked more closely but I thought there was only one form, not two. So we called Gordon (our lawyer) to see if the U.S. would accept a Marshallese notary and he said he'd check. The following day, Dr. Pinano said it needed to be a U.S. Notary but that the U.S. Embassy would be able to help. Gordon made a phone call and set up and appointment for us at 4:00 to meet with Andrew to get our paper signed.

While we waited, Claudia asked if it'd be okay if we took Grace for a while... why, yes, of course it would! It was around 11:00 and we were hungry so we headed down to the restaurant (I think it's called Enra Restaurant) in the MIR. Not having the carrier with us and no infant seat, Jeff plopped Grace down on the chair between us and there she slept for a while. Just as our food arrived, Grace started fussing. I headed up to the room to grab a bottle and check the diaper... so I also grabbed the baby bag and carrier. I put Grace in it – I assume this is the first time for her (for me too, come to think of it) – and she fell asleep immediately. I gathered the rest of the gear and headed back down to the restaurant. Jeff was done eating so he took Grace and I finished my lunch... nice tag-team.

We wanted to run to the store and pick up some plates/bowls/utensils so we headed out with Grace to shop. Since she was sleeping so peacefully in Jeff's arms, we put the carrier away and he just held her. It's amazing to me that she's so comfortable being so bundled up outside! We'd thought that Emi might be dressing her warmly because we have the A/C on in our rooms but we now think she just likes it hot and humid. Sorry little one... Minnesota might be a bit of a shock! We took off down the road and picked up our supplies and then headed back to the hotel.

Around 2:00, Claudia and Emi arrived and much to our surprise, Claudia asked if she could leave Emi with us for a bit while she worked with the other family downstairs. Sure – not a problem. We'd just given Grace about 4 ounces of formula but she got fussy soon after Emi arrived and using some charades, she told us Grace was hungry and was it okay for her to nurse her... and was she ever hungry! Maybe it's the transition from nursing to formula or maybe she's just growing – you saw the stats above...

Before too long we had to leave. Claudia had explained to Emi that we needed to leave at 3:00 to get to the Embassy at 4:00 so we walked downstairs getting ready to go. One problem, we weren't sure if Emi understood that we were leaving without her and without Grace. We enlisted the help of one of the hotel staff and sorted it all out. We would have been happy to bring Grace with us but since we were going to the Embassy and Grace is not yet a U.S. Citizen, we didn't expect they'd let us bring her in. Emi and Grace returned home (they live with her parents just across from the hotel) and we left for our appointment.

After the Embassy we were to return to the hotel and expected that Gordon would be meeting with us soon thereafter. The form needed to get back to Dr. Pinano so he'd release the medical forms he had to sign so Claudia drove it over to him and collected our medical papers. We then received a call from Gordon that we'd be meeting him at his office at 7:00 pm. I didn't know how I was going to make it to 7:00 as I was starting to feel a bit off... headache, not hungry, cranky... Jeff knew the signs before I did and tried to tell me to eat something but I wasn't listening. I tend to do that when I don't feel well (sorry sweetie) but after I chomped into a pretty decent cheese burger in The Enra, I started to perk up... noticeably!

We made our way to Gordon's office and the other family was in the middle of their meeting. They graciously let us hang out while they finished and then it was our turn. Because we'd gone through half their prep, we knew many of the questions Gordon would be asking and flew through our prep. I feel much better about court tomorrow having gone through this with Gordon. He's very helpful and easy to talk to... I sort of forgot we weren't back in SLP. We chatted for a while after that and then he drove us back to our hotel.

Thanks to Kari and Jeff, we now have a pack-n-play to use when we bring Grace home today! They'd left it with Gordon for us to use while we're here. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Another who also deserves thanks... You've heard me mention many times that Claudia has been driving, translating, scheduling, etc. Normally the person who does this is Maddy but she's not in the RMI at the moment and Claudia is filling in. We appreciate her help so much and thank her for stepping in to take care of everything Maddy normally does – we would be foundering without her help and guidance.

It's time to shower and get ready for the day – court day. In addition, Grace is exactly 2 months old today :)