Day 47: Wednesday, 7/6

(Note: this post was originally from 7/6/11 but was just found sitting in my draft folder. Better late than never, right?)

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.

The End of Summer

Hello again, friends. Summer has passed in a blink and the first days of Fall are here. I've taken the week off of work with no particular plan in mind... so far it's been a day of yard work and a day of puttering around the house and completing small tasks. One of those was assembling some boxes to send to Grace's birth mom and sisters in the Marshall Islands.

2 Years Old... give or take

I can hardly believe it's been almost 2 years since we returned from the RMI with our daughter, Grace. An amazing, fun, sometimes crazy and sometimes very routine 2 years! I find myself a bit nostalgic for a couple of reasons. Of course, Adoption Day is 2 weeks away - but if that weren't enough, dear friends of ours have just arrived on island and will be adopting their second daughter on Monday. And the pictures... oh, the pictures... just make me want to jump on a plane and fly back - today - right now.

First Roadtrip!

I really don't think I could make any acceptable excuse for not posting an update as we caravan our way across Wisconsin headed towards our first Midwest Pacific Islanders' Reunion on our first real roadtrip... just too much time to kill while the hubby drives and the kid sleeps!

Yes, she's sleeping and, hopefully, will be for the next couple hours. We met up with another family from our area who are also driving down. A third family is on their way by plane. In all reality, probably the right way to go but then we wouldn't have this experience to relive - good or bad, right? So expect a few updates throughout the weekend.

To catch you up on things, our little baby is now almost 16 months old! She'll be moving up to the toddler room at daycare starting Monday - sniff, sniff. They focus on teaching them to do things on their own. I'm not sure I'm ready... Oh, wait, this isn't about me, is it? Well, Grace is certainly ready so I guess it's time. We toured the toddler rooms on Thursday and met her new teacher, Emily. Everything seems to be in order so Monday we start. I was told to expect Grace will be returned to us covered in food and random art supplies and not to dress her in anthing, uh, nice. I want to know what I'm supposed to do with all of her cute clothes now... weekends around my house are going to turn into a fashion show with multiple wardrobe changes just so she'll get some wear out of all those outfits!

Ah, that's better. I just reclined the seat a bit... and yes, it is a big deal. Until recently Grace, being only 23 pounds and 29inches, was still in her infant carrier. The contraption could only be installed behind the passenger seat - my seat - and required that I be closer to the dash than I tend to like. As for reclining, forget it. We finally made the switch to the convertable car seat but, per AAP recommendations, we installed it rear facing. What a royal pain in the butt to get her in and out. After a week of bumped heads, twisted straps and all around discomfort for both of us, we flipped it forward. While she doesn't exceed the weight or height limits for rear facing, her feet were travelling up the back seat even with her knees bent. Not sure how any kids can safely use these seats facing backwards since Grace is only in the 15th percentile for height.

So, what else have we been up to...

For us, mostly working. We get out once in a while to grab dinner or BBQ with friends. We attended another Kemem at the beginning of July and have another one in September! We go to a lot of Twins games of course but it's getting harder to bring Grace. She's been walking since her first birthday so by this point she'd rather be walking around than sitting on our laps. I think a babysitter is going to be a neccesary expense for most of the games going forward.

Speaking of Kemems, for Grace's we asked guests to consider donating to the WorldTeach organization. We ended up raising just over $500 and decided to use the funds to sponsor a project co-lead by WorldTeach and The Unbound Bookmaker. They are trying to publish 30 new children's books written by Marshallese students. They'll be in both English and Marshallese. The first book is finished and available on Amazon.com - search for "The Very Important Book About The Marshall,Islands". If that wasn't cool enough, our donation is enough to sponsor an entire book so they wanted to recognise Grace by dedicating it to her. I can't wait to see it - what a great gift our friends and family have given not only the students in the RMI but also to Grace!

Grace has been snowing off her rather extensive vocabulary of 6 words: uh-oh, daddy, ball, baseball (you knew it was going to be in the first handful of words, didn't you?), dog, and hi. She's a champion waver and kiss blower. Despite the small vocabulary, she understands more and more each day which helps when you want her to pick up her blocks or throw the ball or not eat the dog's food. She's also using some sign language: eat, milk, more, and all done. They tell me she's also signing "like" and "thank you" at daycare... I don't believe it though.

Well, we're cruising through WI at a pretty good clip. The kid is stirring which means she'll probably be up soon. I'll post more on the reunion and include some photos. Right now I'm going to try to upload a few recent pics. If they don't appear in this post, then I have failed and will have to wait until I'm back at a computer.

RMI Visit

Hello again - it's been a while. I figured it was time to get back online and chat with you all. First, I want to say hello to anyone new to the blog. I'm amazed that there are so many reading... so many of you I don't know. People tell me that my blog is one of the first that google returns in a search. I don't know if it's true or not but it seems people are finding me. Motivation for more frequent updates - if someone's listening, I'll keep talking :)

Some of you have posted comments on my blog and want to correspond via email. While I'm more than happy to do this, I'm less excited about posting my personal email address here. If you're okay doing so, by all means, I will reply. If you'd rather not publish your email address, find me on Facebook and send me a message - make sure you tell me it's about RMI adoption and give me your email. We'll get in touch eventually!

So on to the rest...

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!