Embassy and Laura Beach

Today we were supposed to go to the US Embassy at 3pm to get our Visa packet put together to be sent to Manilla. DHL sends shipments from RMI on Tue/Thur/Fri and the cut off to make the plane is 1pm the day prior. I am not sure why such an early cut off. So if we had a 3pm apt we would have missed the Thur shipment and our docs would not have been sent til Sat. So our attorney had our passports rushed this am and was able to get us into the Embassy with about an 8 minute warning. So Al was at our attorney Gordon’s office putting documents together for the Embassy and I got a call that I had to get 4 kids to the Embassy in 8 minutes since they found out last minute we would have our passports and could make the Embassy’s only open time slot in the am. So I must have looked like a crazy woman running out trying to catch a taxi while trying to put shoes on Emmitt on the curb with a baby in my arms. But we got there about 3 minutes late and the people at the Embassy were very nice about it. So our docs will make the Thursday shipment..any time savings for processing helps!

So that freed up our afternoon and the kids have wanted to get out of the hotel- it has been raining the last few days and today was beautiful. So we rented a car for the day and went to Laura Beach. What a view- probably the prettiest I have ever seen. We spend the whole afternoon picnicking at the beach and looking for shells and swimming. We have way to many shells in our hotel room already and we have only been here one week. Hazel would not let me put her in the water- If I tried she would life her legs straight out to avoid it. We also stopped a park/monument the Japanese built for the lives lost in the South Pacific during WWII.

We then came home, cleaned up and went to RRE for dinner. Emmitt really likes going there cuz the other family here is always there and he says their almost 4 year old daughter McKenna is his girlfriend. Kids had spaghetti, cheeseburgers and fried chicken. Real island food!

We have our rental car until noon tomorrow so we plan on exploring the island in the morning. Then I am venturing out to do laundry at a laundry mat. The machine is broken at the hotel and I did one load in the tub…that ain’t happening again!

Pics are not uploading good tonight, So I will try more tomorrow.

Family of 6!

Well it's official, we are a family of 6. Court went well today and with in about 45 minutes the judge ruled that Hazel's adoption was in accordance to the RMI adoption laws. Below is a picture after court with our family. Hazel's birth mother is next to me seated and her grandma is behind (hard to see) and some aunties. Hazels soon to be 4 year old sister is next to me. She has really taken to our family and is a very sweet girl.

Birthday boy and his birthday present. 9 years ago we had our 1st born and with him lots of medical craziness. Now we have our final child and we still are having just as much craziness :0 Nolan made the comment today he would like to come back for his birthday in a few years for another brother. Oh boy. We told him the house is full!!

Hazel was in a trance looking at a teddy bear the kids brought for her.

Our family and the other family who is here adopting all went for a celebration dinner tonight with the birth families and our adoption coordinator and lawyer. We got to meet 4 of Hazel's 6 siblings. We hope to meet the missing 2 boys when we go visit the birth family in their home. We brought a large sheet cake for Nolan's birthday and the cake was a real treat to all the kids. Hazel's grandma (bubu) made us all beautiful handcrafted Marshallese jewelery. She presented Nolan with is while he had his cake and it was very touching.

Below are the boys with the necklaces made by Hazel's grandma. They are woven with palm tree leaves, very intricate..and sea shells.

Here is everything she made us. The necklaces are for the boys, the earrings for me and Gretta and the flowers for our hair. I like the hair flowers- in Hawaii you get flowers but they die in a day...Marshallese flowers are made from died Palm so they never get bad. I am excited to have these to pass on to Hazel someday.

We came home after the dinner and just hung out. It was already 8pm. She is a very social baby and we just hung out with her doing some tummy time. She loves all the toys we showed her. Gretta is in love. She had a rough day but seems to be happy and just fell asleep after a bottle next to her new buddy Emmitt.

July 8th

I can't sleep. So I thought I would try uploading pics. Apparently 6am is a good time, must be low internet traffic. I have a couple pics to show you all.

The 1st Pic is the 1st time I got to hold Hazel, her sister and grandma in our room.

I know people were wondering what our room would be like. We have 2 joined rooms. The next pics show the room we hang in the most. It has a king size bed where all 3 kids line up to sleep- it has plenty of room for all three. It has a couch and also a 19inch tv. Supprisingly no one has asked why the tv is so small! There is a dresser for the kids clothes and a desk which we turned into our kitchen. We have a hot plate to cook on. We try to only eat out one meal a day. Breakfast is in our room and also either lunch or dinner. I can cook some great PB&J sandwiches or summer sausage sandwiches and mac in here. There is a fridge and then a big 5 gallon water jug that has been lasting us about 3 days it seems. Our other room has the same set up but the bed is a queen and it has a loveseat. So that is Al & me and Hazels room- with the smaller bed/couch we have room for a pack and play the agency gave us to use for Hazel. We also have a tv, fridge and a microwave/coffee pot. The desk is a makeshift changing table.

We have two bathrooms. One is a real bathroom and the other is a kitchen/laundry facility. Al and I have been living together for 14 years and I think for the 1st time ever we did dishes by hand togther in a bathroom. But then we decide it sucked and that it should be Nolan and Grettas job :)

Al is Mr Handy and did not like the broken safety lock on the kids patio sliding door so he fixed that the 1st da. He also fixed the shower handle. I think he should talk to the owner and be a handy man, lord knows they need one :) He thinks he can fix the pool skimmer too :)It kills him to see things broke that take all of 5 minutes to fix.

Next pic is Hazel getting her pic and getting that crazy hair slicked down. Then the final pic is Al holding her and she was trying to find Gretta. We think she likes her blonde hair.

Well thats it for today. Tons of stuff to do. Kids want to swim this am. Then we will do lunch in the room, court at 2. Then we have to go get updated birth certificates today. Celebration dinner/Nolan birthday party tonight. We then take the updated birth certificate and adoption decree tomorrow am to get a RMI passport for her. Then we meet with the US Embassy at 3 on Wed to get the documents together for her visa. That then gets shipped to Manilla and we just sit and wait.

We miss our doggy...two more weeks until the boys are home with him.

Pics of Hazel

Ok. here are some pics. The 1st two are the day we arrived and met Baby Lynn soon to be Hazel Lynn. Gretta just loved her. When Al would hold her she would look around the room for Gretta. She was giving her smiles too!

This pic is in our room, her grandma is holding her and sister is behind her. Nice hair huh?

These are today at the doc and and then getting her pic taken for her visa/passport. There were 3 women around her giggling trying to slick down her hair for the pics.

Our 1st Few Days in Majuro

Hello! We have internet finally...but I am unable to upload pics to the blog today! Not sure why but I will try again tonight.

We have had a busy few days. We left Hawaii on the 4th and arrived in Majuro 5 hours later, but it was the 5th here. So we are now a day head of you all.

The 1st day here was bacsically checking into the hotel, getting a big 5 gallon water jug and other little things for our room and unpacking. We got a call that Hazel and her grandma would be here at 2 for us to meet her. She is a little peanut with crazy hair. She took to Gretta right away and would crank her head around the room to see her.

Grandma has come from another Atoll to care for Hazel. Grandma seems very sweet, she is raising Hazels 4 year old sister and brought her with so we have gotten to play a bit with her.

The 2nd day we just hung out. Walked the beach area by our hotel and the kids collected some shells. We took a taxi to the other hotel here to eat at that restaurant.

Today we took Hazel for a pre adoption physical and to get her passport pics. Then we went to lunch at the Flame Tree Restaurant across the street- they had really yummy pizza!

The pool here gets filled with ocean water and treated. It just got refilled today, so we are axiously awaiting the reopening- hope to spend the afternoon in the pool! That is if it stops raining- we brought in bad weather- it has been raining almost since we got here with little stops for an hour or two on and off. We run out and play in the sun when it stops raining. The rain is good here...from talking to people they are glad to see it rain as that is their water supply.

Tomorrow is court at 2 and then a celebration dinner with the family. It is also Nolan's 9th birthday and I was able to order a cake at the grocery store to bring to the celebration dinner. I will try to log on tonight and see if I can upload any pics of our crazy haired girl.

I do have some funnies from the island. Apparently Milwaukee's Best Beer is popular here. There are signs for it everywhere. We explained to our lawyer today that is really not the best Milwaukee has to offer. Reading the newspaper is funny- it will say there was an accident on the road. There is only one road so they don't have to name it.

Al is obsessed with trying to get a Do it Best Majuro t-shirt. He was over there today wanting to get one but they were out. He also likes the shirts he has been seeing that just say "Cold Pop".

Our room is right above the pool/bar. Not our choice but the best layout that was open. A band played Saturday night and we played "Name that Toon in Marshallese" while laying in bed...I just had the giggles. We got to hear Whats Going On by 4 Non Blondes (Al figured that one out), I Can't Fight this Feeling Anymore by Foreigner (Denise got this one) and even Hotel California, all in Marshallese. What a hoot.

Luau

I am trying to update with pics but the free internet here is slow...

Here are a few travel pics. Kids playing games in the airport and hanging at the hotel. Some pool pics and luau pics. To say Gretta loved the luau would be an understatement.

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Aloha

Aloha from Waikiki Beach Hawaii!

We left on Tuesday and flew direct from Chicago. Of course we had to run into something to slow us down on the way! Powerful storms went through Wisconsin and Illinios Monday night and Ohare airport was a mess. Flights were cancelled or delayed Monday night. The rivers surrounding Ohare flooded the streets leading into Ohare. The hiway we were on was freakishly backed up and there was a foot of standing water in an area that the city was trying to pump out, but until it was pumped they were only allowing 1 car at a time to go through. We left really early hoping to get there, check in and try to get seats together since we could not while booking. By the time we got there we just had time to go check in, go through security and about 20 minutes until they boarded. Al and Nolan go to sit together at least and me, Gretta and Emmitt. Actually some was supposed to sit between me and one kid, so I strategicly placed Emmitt there and the guy didn't mind trading seats with him at all. :) We all boarded the plane and then they had a 45 minute mechanical delay, so I go to spend 10 hours on board with a 3 year old. The kids were freakishly well behaved and no one had to be given any sleep enhancers.


We got to the aiport, got the rental car and checked in our hotel yesterday. By the time we were cheked in it was 5pm which is 10pm in Wisconsin. But the kids were all excited and wanted to go get something to eat and check out the hotel. They all stayed up to 8pm here which shocked me, since that is 2am at home and they got up at 3:30am for the flight.

Emmitt got up several times last night to go potty. Al had put our mini van keys (home not rental) on the desk in our room while he slept. Not sure why he had them out...but anywhoo we could not find them this am. Emmitt confessed he likes flushing stuff down the toilet and he flushed them last night. So my wonderful sister in law Sam is taking our extra keys from our house, making a copy and express mailing it to the Marshall Islands to the Central Adoption Authority so Al has a set of keys to drive the car home on the 21st. I can not beleive Emmitt.

We all slept into 6 am today, so we all do not feel jet lagged. Odd. We spent the day at the pool, had lunch at the pool and hung at the beach too. We are now back at our room and all are napping besides me to catch up a bit on sleep. We are going to the Paradise Cove Luau tonight.

Tomorrow we hope to visit Pearl Harbor, Emmitt wants to mini golf and we all want to spend lots of time at the pool/beach. I can't believe 2 days until we meet our last child!!!!