There are places I remember

This has been a great experience living and breathing the Marshallese culture of our daughter. Prior to arriving in Majuro, I studied Majol language for about 8 months. The Marshallese people would smile and sometimes in surprise that I spoke chirik majol ( little Marshallese). Most importantly, I was able to communicate some with the birth mom and family who spoke chirik pele ( little English).


It is bittersweet that we will be going home soon. Bitter that I will be leaving new friends and family and taking our daughter from her place of birth. Sweet that we will be home with family and friends and Baby B will be in her new home.

Birth family visit

It has been 10 days since we last saw the birth mother. We planned this span of time to facilitate Baby B's attachment to us- and it has been very successful. Baby B is very attached to us. If Baby B was way younger and maybe less that 12 months, we would have spent more time with the birth mom and family. Although she is too young to understand, I still talked with her about our visit today.

Maddy picked us up and we went to Payless to buy groceries for the birth mom and her family.

 

Here is where Baby B was born- in a health center and not hospital

We drove to Laura to the birth family's home. Initially, Baby B wasn't sure what to do- she looked at me, I smiled and then handed her to her birth mom. Baby B would look at me and smile while she was with family. She played mostly played with her brother and cousins. The birth mom tried to hold her a few times and all BabyB wanted to do was play but eventually Bina allowed her birth mom to hold her. Baby B ran to her Bubu and to her aunt. The birth family commented on how much weight she gained and that she looked "fat." I thought to myself- her physical in Feb showed that she weighed 19 lb at 15months and her physical in July showed that she was 19 lbs at 19 months- she now looks like a toddler should !! Maddy clarified that it was a Marshallese compliment and that she looked healthy. The birth family also gave me earrings and a flower for my hair.

Here are a few more pics from our visit. Interesting how I was showing Baby B the pictures from today and she seemed to recognize who was in the pictures. She started to whimper and cry. We switched to our beach pictures. Baby B, I promise you that in the future we will together look at these pictures, share your story and your tears.

Baby B, her cousin and brother on the far right

Birth mom and BuBu in background

Baby B's aunt and cousin

Paper status update

Baby B's papers are still in Guam and " could not get on the flight to Majuro- too much cargo." The papers have been ready for transport since Monday, August 2 and "too much cargo" on the August 2 flight and the flight on August 4. We are having the US embassy call Fedex and Continental to get the papers on the August 6th flight. ARGHHHHHH.

In anticipation of leaving on August 6th,  I packed up Baby B and my "Majuro" clothes to give to the birth family. We packed the towels, plates, utensils, toys, extra soap, toilet paper etc in the extra suitcase to give to the birth family.  Our birth family received this today as well as the groceries.

Great sale in the store!!

60% off all outdated items

A bit of history

We did some sight seeing and toured the RMI museum and the Bikini Atoll Town Hall. I'll spare you the history lesson but there was some big no no nuclear testing in the Bikini Atoll in the 50's.

Bikini Atoll

RMI musuem

Here are a pic of the steps to the museum. There are no elevators here on the island. Carried Baby B and the stroller

Baby B, the curator and me in the museum. She signed this book for a future gotcha day gift.

Picture at the bus stop

Status update

There was too much cargo load from Guam to RMI so our papers got kicked off the Monday flight. Hopefully, they will arrive on the 7pm Wednesday, August 4 flight. If all goes well, Friday is the day we head home !!!!

Next stop, Long Island, MH

YAY!!!!! Our papers have been processed in Manila last Friday, and Fedexed over the weekend. It is right now in Guam and the next stop is us. There are Monday-Wed-Friday flights from Guam to RMI. Guam is 2 hours behind us so there is a chance it will arrive today or Wednesday. There is a late Wednesday flight to HI and we may be on it.

Say a prayer, keep your fingers crossed - we wanna come home!!

More pictures of Enonmite Atoll

Baby B and I hung out in the crystal clear blue water all day. Like her Mommy and Daddy, Baby B loves the beach and water.

Enonmite Atoll

One petrol gas company had a monopoly of gas import on RMI. Gas was $5.20 a gallon. Another family added some competition and drove down the price of gas to $4.70 a gallon. We got invited to hang out with this family on Enonmite Atoll. There were also a few governmental officials on this trip.

An atoll is smaller than an island and can not be "called an island" because of it's size.

We took this barge to the atoll and back to Majuro.

When not in the water, we hung out in this cabana.

This house is the only one we saw on this atoll. This family is the caretakers of the atoll.