Back in the USA!

Hello from Hawaii on Monday morning June 29th! We had a good finish to our stay in RMI spending our last day (also Monday June 29th!) returning the rental car, picking up Boston's VISA packet from the US Embassy (and getting yelled at by a guard for taking a picture of the outside of the embassy!), having lunch with our new American friends there, saying goodbyes to friends made at the hotel and the restaurant we ate at most often, and packing. The next two photos are of Jacob and Boston's birth families who travelled to the airport to see us off and the Joneses and Harveys who also came for the fun (and for the heads up for what happens there - for their own departures in weeks to come!)

Here we are in front of the Amata Kabua airport in Majuro - visiting before checking in. The beautiful hand made necklaces we are wearing were gifts from the birth families and also our security guard friend at the hotel. Checking in for the flight was exciting, as the airlines wanted a document I had already packed in a suitcase that had already gone through security....and they wanted me to open Boston's VISA packet that the embassy had said not to open. Then their computer went down, and so our five boarding passes had to be prepared by hand. End result - the plane was loaded and waiting for us and another passenger or two....and people were in some of our seats - just a riot. It was similar to our last flight out of RMI in 2003....you walk across the tarmack in the dark to the waiting plane - and people are calling to you from a fence outside the airport....birth families, friends - and we just waved back as we climbed the steps to the plane.

Boston did well on the flight - his first time on an airplane! He cried hard for probably 5-10 minutes after the flight attendant told Peter to buckle him into his seat. As soon as Peter picked him back up and held him - Boston fell asleep and slept the entire 5 hours until we were off the plane in Hawaii. Below are two pictures of our newest USA citizen, plus a tired Peter, Hannah and Jacob as we waited for the rest of the passengers to be processed before Boston's immigrant VISA was processed. Boston also had his first escalator and elevator rides in the airport this morning after immigration. This morning as he looked out the 11th floor hotel room window - we realized he's never seen mountains, tall buildings, cars going fast, etc. In fact as we walked off the plane this morning to the customs/border area - two Marshallese women in front of us were stopped in their tracks. They had never been on an escalator before (we figured out) and were standing there not sure what to do, as the line of people formed behind them. The pilots were behind the ladies and told them to just "jump"!


Well, I need to next get on the phone with United to sort out our flights the rest of the way home. We have been in Hawaii about 8 hours and spent about 2 hours in the airport processing and getting to the hotel. Jacob is still sleeping, but the rest of us slept about 4 - 5 hours. Once we find out when we are leaving here later today - we'll see what else we can do while in Hawaii for the day.

The time change will be messing us up for awhile. We left RMI on the evening of Monday June 29th, and flew through the night and arrived in Honolulu at 2:30am on the morning of Monday June 29th! It's going to be our day that is two days long!

I'll post again when we get home and settled. Bye for now - so great to be back in the states! Love, Lois

Sunday June 28, 2009 - day #31 away from home

Hey Everyone! This will be my last post from the Marshall Islands!

We had a good morning at church (the picture of J & H above is from outside church with the breeze off the water cooling us off), and then enjoyed a Chinese buffet lunch with Gordon and his family, along with two other families from their church. The restaurant gave us the VIP room. It had a beautiful view of the water and palm trees, and it was nice that Boston could run around the room and not get into too much trouble! Peter said he hadn't eaten this much at a meal since probably Christmas! And, this was the sixth restaurant we had eaten at while on RMI - - a change from the three restaurants we ate at in 2003! The picture below of me and Boston is from lunch today!

When I said goodbye to Gordon and family today - I got all choked up. It really surprised me, because being in RMI is hard some days and I have been ready to go home for awhile. But their kindness and hospitality have just made this trip even more enjoyable for us. We anticipate Jacob and Hannah will have some mixed emotions when we leave tomorrow as well.

After lunch, we headed over to Jacob's birth family's home to say goodbye to his birth grandmother. Both Jacob and Boston's birth families have said they might come to the airport tomorrow night, but the grandmother is not up to it physically. I did not bring any goodies to pass out to the kids at this neighborhood - because I knew it was going to be a brief visit and I am out of suckers, tootsie rolls and gum. As we were sitting and the kids were kind of gathering around me - I realized my mistake. So I dug in my purse and passed out every Tic Tac left in the container!!

Then by 3pm we were back to the hotel for the rest of the day. Peter took the kids swimming and I got a lot of packing done. We were going to have a bring-your-own-dinner gathering in the Harvey's hotel room here, but as we were leaving - Boston's birth mother came to our door, along with Denise one of her nieces. We invited them in and cancelled with the Harveys. Denise was helpful in translating for us and we did learn more about Boston's life before we met him. Also, learned another interesting cultural thing. When we host people in our hotel room - we always offer for them to sit on the beds...but they never do - they always sit on the floor. There is one chair in our room and three double beds - so we have plenty of bed-sitting space and not enough floor space for all of us to sit. Denise explained tonight that it is a Marshallese custom to never sit on someone's bed. I told her we don't usually sit on other people's beds at home either - but in the hotel room there isn't much other choice! I love seeing how Boston is grabbing to include Jacob in the picture below with his birth mother Emcilla. Yes, those are suitcases stacked up in the background!

Well, it is time to publish this post and head upstairs to bed. We are in pretty good shape for getting on the hotel shuttle at 5pm tomorrow to head to the airport here. But then we were remembering the day we left the island back in October 2003....it was one surprise after another, visitors, etc. I'm sure tomorrow will be very interesting. Thank you for following our journey here - and our welcoming Boston to the family! I will post again sometime in Hawaii. Our flight leaves for Hawaii at 8pm tomorrow night 6/29. We fly about 5 hours and arrive in Hawaii in the middle of the night there, but during the early morning hours of the same day that we left RMI. We lost a day on the way here, but we will pick it up again when our Monday June 29th is actually two days long!

Below is a picture of Jacob and Boston at book time before bed last night! Jacob is smiling as you can tell by his eyes - and Boston is grabbing his cheek and saying "cheese". Sweet dreams everyone. I know I'm dreaming of sleeping in our own bed in just a few days!! Love, Lois

Saturday - our 5th one in Majuro

Hi on Saturday evening June 27, 2009! Before I forget - I need to tell you two things. That odd tide change we saw at Laura Beach this week is something that happens here once a month. Peter learned this from one of the security guards here at MIR. And, the other day while taking this picture below with Hannah - we saw a nice car with the license plate 00001 at the entrance to the hotel. I figured it must be someone important to have such a special license. Sure enough, we learned that it was the President of the country's car. We never saw him - just his car!

This morning I called DHL just to be sure our packet from Manila was here in Majuro. They couldn't find it - so we had a few moments wondering if we would really be here longer next week. We decided to go to the DHL office here and they did find that the package is here - waiting for delivery to the embassy Monday morning. What a relief!! Now I can really change our flights to Hawaii, reservations in Hawaii, and flights from Hawaii home.

Next we headed toward the airport, as a flight gets in from Hawaii on Saturday mornings - the same one we came in on 5 Saturdays ago! We thought it would be good for Boston to at least see an airplane before we get on one! We found a nice spot to watch the landing, just past the end of the run way. A small "Air Kirabati"plane landed while we were there and Boston loved that - but we found out that the Continental plane from Hawaii was 2 hours late - so we didn't wait. Both of our other USA families happened to drive by while we were waiting, and visited briefly. They were each travelling to Laura Beach today. Fun to be seeing friends along the way. The three pictures below were taken at the little lagoon along the ocean where we waited to watch the plane land. Jacob was climbing a palm tree:

Peter was placing Boston on one of the Palm Tree branches:

Hannah and Jacob were wading in the lagoon we found.

This afternoon was more swimming for the big kids - and in some rain again. Boston liked wandering around the pool area in the rain. An early dinner and back to the hotel for the evening. (at dinner, Boston had a horribly messy diaper...there are no changing areas in any bathrooms here, no counter space to even lay him down with something under him, and the floor was dirty and buggy. So I changed the diaper with him standing up in the ladies room. He was fine with it and we got it done!) We saw our first rainbow after dinner and it was beautiful. Back in 2003, we saw rainbows often - so we've been wanting to see some this time too. It was a fun way to end our day.

Bye for now - Thanks for keeping up with our long journey here. Lots of days have been not-too-exciting, but the scenery is beautiful and we have enjoyed the time together. Love, Lois

Friday June 26, 2009

Hi on Friday night! Our papers should be on the plane that came to Majuro this evening. We hope to pick them up from the embassy on Monday and be on the Monday night 6/29 flight to Honolulu!

Peter and the boys went to the playground this morning while Hannah and I went to the Continental office to change our tickets for home. Then we visited Boston's birth family and took them to lunch. He had fun with us all together and it was great to see him with both families. He was sad when we dropped them off after lunch (11 people -4 adults and 7 kids - in our rental car on the way back to their home - because we asked a neighbor and her son to come along and help with translation!) but this was definitely his best transition all month. It had been 6 days since we'd seen his birth family. Here is Boston with one of his sisters and his birth mother at lunch.

This afternoon the big kids went swimming and accomplished some new things. For Jacob - it was swimming the dog paddle the whole length of the pool, from shallow to deep end. For Hannah - it was jumping into the pool and letting herself go underwater before standing up! Fun to see these things and know they learned them here! Here is a picture of Hannah from the pool, plus the view of the hotel from the pool, and the view of the lagoon from the pool today.

After Boston's nap - we were all down in the gazebo that you see in the picture above and visited with our new friends. We all had dinner together and here is a picture of the 3 older kids after dinner.

We had a good day and it's exciting that this will be our last weekend here! Bye for now - Love, Lois

Thursday night June 25, 2009

Hello! We learned this afternoon that our papers are in Guam now! It's exciting that they are moving across the Pacific Ocean to us!

Today was one of our hottest days here. We never see a temperature reading, so we just rate the days on how quickly glasses and cameras fog up, or how quickly we all get hot and sweaty once we leave the hotel room. Peter rated today as the hottest day so far! We took a trip to Payless this morning for supplies - maybe our last trip there before heading home. And we bought another pair of the 25 cent tennis shoes for Hannah. Yes, we found these cute Ked-type shoes there last week for 25 cents. Today we bought another pair in a bigger size for the future. Below is a picture of Boston and Hannah trying out a new bubble blowing set this morning on the lanai.

Peter and Boston stayed in the room for naps this afternoon and I took the kids to the pool. It started raining just after we got all sunscreened and were heading down the stairs. Oh well - the kids still had a great afternoon at the pool, I watched them from the shelter of the outdoor covered patio here. Then the Joneses and the Harveys joined us for a part of the afternoon there, and we had dinner together at the hotel. It was great to get to know these families better, and to talk about our experiences here. It has been a gift to have their company this week!

Below is a picture of us from the end of our dinner with the beautiful Marshallese artwork and woodwork in the background.

This is the Jones family from Virginia - with their 5 year old daughter (who enjoyed the pool with Jacob and Hannah this afternoon) and their new 10 week old daughter (who is a sweetie but only showed the back of her head for this picture!)

This is the Harvey family from Oregon, with their 11 month old daughter.

Here are Peter and Boston enjoying a little ice cream at the end of dinner! Boston has the big spoon ready to dig in.
Bye for now - Love, Lois

Wednesday night, Day #27 away from home

Good evening!

It’s Wednesday evening here….it was rainy most of the day here today and cooler than normal – maybe only 80 and humid. We got our DHL tracking number today from the embassy – and learned that our papers have now been to Hong Kong and Seoul Korea, since leaving Manila on Tuesday afternoon.

The video above is from this morning in the room. The kids are sitting on the inside edge of the sliding glass door, and trying to sing the Marshallese tune of "Happy Birthday". It isn't anyone's birthday here - just a silly way to start the day. Hannah isn't singing much because she still had her vitamin in her mouth to chew. Jacob is very excited during the video, as you'll see...but I thought you'd enjoy seeing these three and Boston singing and clapping, hugging the kids, etc.

This morning I looked at the RMI guidebook for ideas of things to do today. We headed off to the Alele Museum, to see some examples of Marshallese canoes and learn some history. It took us a few drive bys to find the museum and when we went to go in – the sign on the door said “come back when we are open!” The hours were 9-12 and we were there at almost 10am…oh well. I laughed at the sign. We learned since that it took another about 5 tries to find the museum open, but that it was worth the trip. So, we'll probably try again! We have time.

After our museum try, Hannah spotted the tuna can rental car (which the Jones family is renting now) at EZ Price Mart, so we pulled in there and visited with them awhile. We promised them we were not stalking them – we were just bored! We thought about bowling, but the Majuro Bowl was not yet open.

Peter and the boys came back to the hotel and took a walk, and Hannah went with me to try and get my hair cut. The picture of Hannah above is of her almost curly hair in the rain and humidity today. Couldn’t get the haircut done with the time we had left, but we took some pictures downtown and found swim rings to replace ours which sprang leaks here.

I thought you would enjoy the picture of this chicken restaurant. Isn’t it a complete take off of Kentucky Fried Chicken?! The colors and everything! And instead of being the “colonel” in the picture, the chicken mascot is the “Marshall!” and it says that on his tie. The other pictures are of the bank and post office, to give you a sense of the downtown area.

At noon (yes, it was a long morning!) we went to visit Jacob’s birth family again. I practiced my 10 – 15 Marshallese words, and we all appreciated the Grandmother's new fan oscillating and making a breeze! We passed out gum to the 25 or so kids that were around playing there. Eomi and Danny gave us each a gift of jewelry . You can see Hannah and Jacob’s necklaces in the picture below – as they are sitting with Eomi and Danny, and their two little boys.
Back at the hotel, I stayed in the room so Boston could nap, and Peter took the kids swimming in the rain. Tonight we met up with the two other American families for dinner. It was a great time - even though with 6 adults and 6 kids not everyone was sitting at the table during all of the dinner! We are going to think of other ways to get together in the days ahead so the kids can play and we can visit. It was wonderful for us to be together with these other families - as we are all going through the same experiences.

Bye for now - thanks for keeping up on our adventure. Love, Lois

Tuesday - a day at the beach

Hello on Tuesday evening in RMI! This morning we took Boston back to the doctor for a recheck, since he had finished his antibiotics. Thank God that the pneumonia is gone! That was great news to start our day. Then we headed to Laura Beach for our 3rd visit there. The beach was completely different than the last two visits and we have to learn from the locals here how it happens. Peter thinks it might be called a lunar tide or something....an enormous part of the beach that was underwater before was now uncovered....coral, and all kinds of things were exposed. People from the area were walking way out and collecting shells and other treasures. It was more like a swimming pool in places, because Jacob and Peter were both jumping in from the shore/beach - so there was no wading into the water - it was more like sliding or jumping in, with the first step being 3 - 4 feet deep. It was a lot of fun - windy, sunny, and fascinating. As the water changed and the tide came in - we could see the coral farther out be covered by the water almost before our eyes, and the locals folks combing the coral had gone to shore. The fallen tree in the picture above was in the water last week and the trees behind the log are near where we parked. Jacob was jumping off of it into the water for fun. Today that tree was a long long way from the water's edge. It was such a surprise to us. Below are Jacob and Hannah enjoying their time in the clear and warm water.

And below is Boston in his big sun hat enjoying the time too!

And here is a long distance picture of the beach after the tide came in - the boys enjoying running on the sand.

We came back to the hotel, cleaned up and then Hannah and I went out to dinner by ourselves, and the guys stayed back in the room and ordered a pizza. We learned this afternoon that our papers are leaving Manila today by DHL. They will go to Guam and then here to RMI. When the papers arrive - we can be on the next flight out....any Monday, Wednesday or Friday night! It seems like we might be leaving here next Monday night then - we'll keep you posted!

A second family from the states arrived today to adopt their 11 month old daughter. It is nice to have these families here in the same hotel, and we look forward to spending some more time with them once they are done with their first few days of court, embassy, etc. Nice to be the veterans and on the home stretch here. Bye for now - I'm off to the 3rd floor, room 341 and join the rest of the family for a night of sleep! Love, Lois