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!