Birth Family Home Visit

So our little Hazel lived at her great uncles house until we got her. Her uncle, her grandma, her mom and 5 of her 6 siblings live there. I am unsure if there are more people there- but that was all that was there went to visit today.

Even though the house was very modest and small, they kept it clean. My heart broke as I thought of Hazel's siblings living there and the tough life they all lead.


Here she is with her grandma, brother Noka and sister Bianca who every one calls Grace.

Here Hazel is with her birth mom. It is the first time we have seen her look at her or hold her and she seemed genuinely happy to see her.

This pic has in the back row her uncle (whos name I have to get!), grandma, brother Jimmy in the back.
Brother Noka, neighbor boy (not sure how he got in there but brother David was missing- so have to get a pic of him!), sister Crystal holding Hazel, little Grace and mom. One brother Smithy is living on another Atoll and David was very shy- we have to get a pic of him. Crystal is going into 4th grade like Nolan.

We spoke a little bit with her uncle in english- he has a son that live in Oregon and he just got back from visiting him- the 1st time he has gone in 10 years. So he speaks a little english. He said his American grandkids do not speak Marshallese. He had a camera and took pics of us just like we took pics of them! We learned that they come from Jeh Island in Ailinglaplap atoll.

All of the kids are in school except for Grace- she lives on Jeh island with grandma and there is no school. They go to public school which is free, the only things they have to buy each year is a uniform and supplies- which is stretch for this family. I set up a time on Monday to take the kids to go get fitted for uniforms and to take them school supply shopping. We told that that education is very important to us and we will help them out with that each year.

We gave each kid a couple outfits, shoes, toothbrushes and art supplies. The boys each got baseball gloves and balls. Girls got hair clips/bands/brushes, lip glosses, jewlery, nailpolish and rainbow looms. Mom and Grandma got shoes, clothes, jewlery, a Wisconsin Picture book, lotion, Johnsonville Grilling set and a couple other little things.

We came home after the visit and have been resting. Emmitt, Al and Hazel are all napping. So Nolan, Gretta and I snuck out and went for banana splits. They were out of bananas so we just got them with out the bananas :) The other family here adopting is coming over at 5:30 and we are heading to Monicas for Chinese food and then coming back here for a beer and for the kids to play.

Tomorrow we are moving to Robert Reimers hotel. The hotel is a little nicer but the rooms are much smaller so we prefered to stay here. Al and the boys will help us get settled there before they leave on Monday. We were going to move there on Sunday but Emmitt is just so in love with that hotel's restaurant and bar area that we thought we would give him a few days there..but that means a crowded room for a few nights. Right now the boys leave on Monday and the thought is us gals will follow on Friday- which is MUCH sooner than expected. Maddy our adoption coordinator told us today we are a new speedy record!