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.

Thursday we were expecting to see Emi at 10 am for another crack at making some handicrafts. I was up around 7:00 but just puttering around while Jeff slept until about 9:00. Jeff jumped into the shower and I ran a bath for Grace. We then swapped so I could shower and Jeff bathed the kid. We didn't leave any time for breakfast but we'd already planned another American-style cookout so we'd just wait until lunch.

Oliver went down for a nap just before 10 so Stacy texted to say she would be ½ hour late... which worked out fine as Emi didn't arrive until after 10:30. This time she brought Bertha and Steven with her. I wasn't sure at first that it was Steven as we'd only seen him for a few minutes when we visited the house. A little bit later Beto and Charles arrived as well. We laid out our plans for the day... girls handicrafting and boys grilling. They were kinda eager to help Jeff do guy stuff.

Didn't get started right away with the weaving which was probably a mistake. Made a necklace for Grace that matched the one Emi made for me... I braided and she attached the shell. The boys went to start things up at the little picnic-y area by the MIR beach and the girls got started on some earrings. Lot's of work – she's fast, we're slow.

We were summoned by the boys a little later and went to eat. The menu was hot dogs, baked beans, chips and s'mores. Everyone likes hot dogs and chips but the beans didn't get much interest. The s'mores, on the other hand, were a huge hit! We had slightly less than half a bag of charcoal and it was mostly used up by cooking the dogs and beans so when it came time to toast the marshmallows, we had to fake the flame by using a lot of lighter fluid... boys being boys loved that.

Emi went to get Destiny so she could join the cookout and we stayed out near the beach for a while. Emi, thinking it was past time we got back to work, ushered the girls inside. Stacy went to put Oliver down for a nap and then joined us a bit later for more weaving. It was getting to be kind of late and Stacy was done for the day. Emi asked if Destiny and Bertha could go swimming so Jeff, Beto and Charles took the girls to the pool. And we kept weaving. I was really reaching the end of the amount of time I could spend sitting on the floor as well as braiding and wrapping somewhat sticky fronds of the coconut tree. Fortunately, Emi decided she wanted to see what kind of earrings we could make for her oldest daughter, Mary. She ended up beading about 6 or 7 pairs of earrings – enough to use up the remaining earring hooks I had with me.

The girls came back from swimming and changed into dry clothes they'd brought with them but Destiny's shirt was wet and she wasn't liking it one bit... more likely she was a bit over tired so Emi took her home to change into all dry clothes and then they came back. We started packing up everything when she returned. Jeff and I weren't planning to even head downstairs for food ourselves but Emi asked if we were going... we felt it was the least we could do as good hosts so we all went downstairs for dinner again. This time I think the boys were more comfortable ordering – it was only Beto and Charles (Steven had gone home). Charles, the one who I don't think liked the wings, tried his luck with a bowl of ramen instead. It all seemed to work out.

Bubu was working so she came by to chat for a while. After everyone ate, they started heading out... the boys left first after a very sincere “thank you” and then Emi and the girls decided it was time to go as well. That left us a little time to talk to bubu about things. We gave her an update on the day and complimented how helpful the boys have been.

Got up to the room to post the past two days and saw that I received a couple emails with information about our visa. First, the U.S. Embassy in Manilla replied even though I apparently sent my inquiry to the wrong email address and didn't, at Gordon's request, follow up with the correct department. It was a quick one-liner saying our petition was approved on 6/22. That was only yesterday (Wednesday) on this side of the date line. I'm a little surprised it took so long to approve... sloooowwwww...

Anyway, the other email was from Gordon and he had fantastic news for Stacy and Oliver – a tracking number! Their package was sent via DHL on 6/22. It was about 10:30 when I got the email so I decided not to go wake Stacy up. But, by the time I post this I will have passed on the good news. Gordon specifically asked me to caution her not to get her hopes up that it'll be here in the next few days since it can take up to 2 weeks to get from Manilla to Majuro – the packages are considered a “discretionary package” when it's in Guam and Continental can decide not to put it on a plane if they're too full. I hope a package that is basically carrying a small stack of paper wouldn't be held back but you never know.

As for ours, he mentioned to not worry and that they sometimes are split up like this as they're processed. Because of the other email, I'm not worried about getting it but I wish I had information indicating when. I hope that they come within the same timeframe so we're on the same flight out of Majuro. I think Stacy could use an extra hand with her carry on baggage and a very, very active 5-month-old boy! He really likes to jump... and jump... and jump... you get the idea! Of course, it would mean we'd be leaving sooner too. Flights leave Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday here so a small delay would probably turn into two days or more.

On Friday I woke up before Jeff and knew he'd stayed up late so I let him sleep in. I was excited to tell Stacy about the emails I received so I grabbed the kid, left Jeff a note and went downstairs. Stacy and I headed off to breakfast and Jeff showed up about 15 minutes later. Stacy was really excited about the news and we've been checking the tracking number all day to find out where her documents are. Yes, I said “we”... I told her I've been cyber stalking her paperwork... she didn't mind ;)

While Jeff hung out in the room with Grace, Stacy and I went back to Elefa to settle up our bill from the weaving “class” we attended the previous Saturday. While there we bought a few last items and chatted with the owner, Lucia. She was boxing up some items to ship out and we got talking about how the USPS office was out of flat-rate boxes. I told her I'd hoped to sent the things we've bought home ahead of us but since we had no box, we weren't going to be able to do it. She said she had a few extra and called one of her daughters and had her bring a box in from the van! It'll probably $50 or more to ship it in a regular box (not flat-rate) but it'll be worth it.

Lucia mentioned that she belongs to a women's group that does all kinds of community service work in the RMI and they were having their 27^th anniversary party later that night. She said there would be food and Marshallese dancing and invited us to attend! It was starting late – around 7:00 – and we were a little skeptical about how the kids would do and, frankly, how long we would hold up but it sounded like fun and we accepted. She asked her daughter to reserve a table for us and told us to be there at 7:00.

We headed back to the hotel and after not eating since breakfast (it was around 5:00 pm by then), we nearly dragged Jeff downstairs for cheese burgers. And, they finally had the fried banana sundae! Yum... but very filling. By the time we were done with dinner, Stacy and I knew we wouldn't make it through an evening of festivities. As we walked up to the room where the celebration was being held (same room in our hotel where the movie was shown), we also realized we were mostly likely severely underdressed. It was almost 7:15 but Lucia's daughter was not there yet. We asked one of the women if she would give her our thanks and let her know that we'd would have loved to attend but we and the kids were just too worn out from a long day.

I ended up back in the room where we tried to watch a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory but Grace was a bit fussy and it took some time to put her down for the night. The good news is she ended up sleeping almost 8 hours straight! Thanks sweetie, I needed that!

Saturday brought breakfast around 9:30 and the plan after that was to head up to the RRE where the Youth-to-Youth group was hosting an event. At the event, they were selling paintings done by some of the students and we hoped to find something we liked and buy it. It was raining so hard that we, again, decided that Jeff and Grace would stay in the room while Stacy, Oliver and I ventured out. Taxis are everywhere but on a rainy day like this, they're almost all full – trying to find one to fit 3 American-sized adults, two babies and two baby bags would have left us standing out in the rain more often than not.

We toyed with the idea of renting another car and called around to find one but it seems that they're all booked. I had a short email exchange with Gordon about leaving some stuff behind for future families and asked him if it'd be possible to re-rent his second car for an additional few days. Haven't heard back from him and it's well past closing time in Hawaii so I don't expect we'll close that deal. No matter as we got most of our stuff done today without it.

We also tried to reach Maddy to see if she could help us firm up plans with Emi and the other birth mom for a girls lunch on Sunday. We invited her too – in part, to meet her and in part to translate for us. We called and texted but no reply.

Stacy, Oliver and I went to the RRE to look at the student art show. We first stopped upstairs at the Tide Table for information where we ran into the Svirzdins (the Embassy guy and his family). A little bit of small talk was exchanged... how are you, how's it going, etc. and Stacy told them about her package being on it's way. They seemed very excited for her but I couldn't help feeling there was still some tension when the official Embassy stuff was mentioned. I certainly wasn't going to say anything about our paperwork since, you know, it was a Saturday and I might get yelled at for asking Andrew to do something on his off day. I'm still a bit ticked and am not going to give them any more ammunition.

We went across the parking lot to the market where the art show was being held and were approached by a caucasion woman who asked Stacy if this was her “new child”... It seemed like an odd question until she mentioned she adopted 3 years ago and was back for a visit. She, her husband and their 3 year old just flew in this morning from Chicago. We exchanged stories about the adoption process and the differences between now and then. I gave her my cell number in case they wanted to get in touch over the next few days and after maybe 45 minutes of chat, they took their boy to try and go get some rest.

While at the show, we found a great picture book. The text is all in Marshallese but the pictures are wonderful. We also found another Marshallese movie shot here with English sub-titles and a CD that will teach us some Marshallese phrases and, we think, tell us more about the culture. What we didn't find was artwork... at least nothing in our price range. Some of the lower-end student work was around $100 but the ones I wanted were upwards of $500. Not only that but they were on stretched canvas which would make it especially difficult to get back to the states with us.

We jumped into another cab to go find the handicraft supply store. It had moved from where we were told to another location next to the best BBQ place so we cabbed it there. The store has mostly other stuff but we did find a bundle of the coconut fronds that form the base of the weaving. I also bought a couple little sun dresses for Destiny and Bertha and picked up takeout BBQ for all of us. Finally back at the hotel and ate until I was stuffed.

This evening we finally heard from Maddy who agreed to lunch and said she'll confirm plans for tomorrow with the birth moms. I expect she'll have a difficult time getting a hold of Jenia as she is attending a Kemem tonight out back so Stacy will check with her then. Emi may not be reachable if her mom is working at the restaurant but I'm going to run down shortly to check in and let her know Maddy will be calling otherwise I expect a visit at 11:00 when she'd done with work. Everyone here stays up so late and I think I'm about ready to pass out at, oh, 8:11. Sad, but true.

The Kemem Stacy was invited to is for Oliver's cousin and it's being held by the pool out back at the MIR. We should be able to watch some of the event from our balcony but they have large tents covering much of it. Can't wait to hear about how it went.

Tonight will be some DVD TV and early to bed. It's been a long day.