In Majuro

So much has happened since I last wrote.  It has been a whirlwind, and the internet connection at the apartment is non-existent.  So, we got here on Saturday.  We settled into the apartment.  It is a two bedroom apartment. Nicely furnished.  One bedroom has two twin beds. The other has a queen sized bed.  There is a wrap around couch in the family room.  Newly updated throughout.  Full kitchen with stove and oven, no microwave, dishwasher, or garbage disposal.  There is AC and fans in each room.  Very comfortable space.  One pot, one pan.  We have added a strainer, a spatula, a spoon, a broom, and a dustpan.  Nice comfy bath towels.  Intermittent room cleaning.  It is about a 15 minute taxi ride from the downtown area and the internet connection is awful, except between 6am-7am on the weekends.  There is a laundry mat in the parking lot and a grocery store too. Beware of expiration dates!  There is a bigger, nicer grocery store closer to downtown where things aren't as expired.

We settled in and met the birth family and our baby on Saturday afternoon.  She is just so beautiful!  We got to keep her overnight and for much of the next day.  Birth mom came back on Sunday afternoon and took her home.

Monday morning, we all met at court.  Court went pretty smoothly.  There was an issue with birth mom not knowing her real age.  Turns out that she is 14 months older than she thought that she was.  After court, birth mom took our baby to go get passport photos while we signed paperwork. 

Two days later, we went to the Embassy and applied for our visa.  Now the wait began for our return trip home.  We have been exploring the island.  We rented a car and drove out to Laura Beach. The car rental cost $70 plus gas.  Laura Beach is pretty, but really not a swimming beach.  Only swimming beach that we've really located was Delap Beach Park.  We went there once and got SWARMED by local kids.  Made us a little nervous having our 4 and 6 year olds in the water where the kids were just trying to crawl all over them.  Neither is a strong swimmer and our 4 year old wears water wings.  The kids had fun but we have been reluctant to return.

We have seen the birth family several times.  Really nice people.  They came over on Father's Day and sang songs to Mike.  (=  It was really sweet.

The only real problem that we've had is that our new daughter appears to be deaf.  She was marked as having passed her newborn screening exam.  We noticed that she wasn't responding to sounds at all.  No startle to loud noises.  Didn't track sound.  We took her back to the hospital yesterday and had her retested.  She has almost 100% hearing loss (100% in one ear, 80% loss in the other).  We don't know if the first test was wrong, done incorrectly, or if she has some sort of rapidly progressive process causing her to go deaf.  Regardless, there is no further testing that they can do here.  We are now trying to get our visa expedited so that we can get home and have her tested appropriately.  She is beautiful, and perfect, and wonderful and we will do all we can to get her the best medical care possible.

This will probably be our last update as our visa processing time will not reflect actual times for others, based on our need to get home for medical reasons.  We hope to explore as much as we can between now and the end of this week.  After we get settled, I will write one last post with our recommended packing lists and things to see and do.

For those of you who are still on this road, it is challenging in so many ways, but is also a blessing as well.  We wish you all luck with the paper chase, the wait, etc.  If you are looking for an agency, I cannot say enough good things about Adopt International.  They have been very supportive throughout this whole process and really receptive to our concerns about our daughter's hearing.  Their local contacts and staff are wonderful as well. 

T minus 14 hours...

14 hours before we fly out on our greatest adventure to date for our little family.  Bags are packed, well, mostly.  Last minute shifting of things from one bag to another and back again.  Nervous, excited, nervous.  We are renting a two bedroom apartment while we are there.  It will give us space to spread out a bit since my mother will also be joining us for a week.  The apartment is $800/week which is better than the $140 a night for a bungalow quoted to us by RR.  Will be nice to be able to do some of our own cooking.  Packing some comfort foods like mac n cheese, peanut butter, etc. for our girls.  Will check back in when we get to Majuro!

3 days until we leave

I cannot believe that we are leaving in three days.  Two bags are packed and weigh in at 49.5 lbs.  We are trying to get every pound that we are allowed onto that airplane!  (=  Our girls are so excited to go meet "their" baby, as are we!

We went to the travel clinic a couple days ago to see what we might need in terms of infectious diseases.  I'm an ER physician, but there is not a lot of information on the Marshalls.  Even the experts had trouble finding information!  Last typhoid surveillance was dated 2005.  Here is what I learned:
--no malaria risk
--dengue is a risk; they had a big outbreak in 2011 (day biting mosquitoes)
--typhoid risk is very very low.  In 2005 they had 40 cases per 100,000 people.  Vaccination not recommended
--chikungunya is a big risk.  Spread by mosquitoes. 
--Hepatitis B is a risk if you are going to be in contact with blood or body fluids of somebody who has Hepatitis B.
--no Yellow Fever
--no Japanese Encephalitis Virus
--Hepatitis A is a risk, just like it is here in the U.S.  Vaccine preventable.  Spread through food and water.

So, big take home points were:
--mosquito control!  We bought mosquito repellent bands in three different varieties.  We also have Bite Not stickers which contain Vitamin B1 and reportedly mask your smell from mosquitos.  Also bought lemon eucalyptus oil and another deet free mosquito cream.  I didn't want to put deet on the kids and since we'd be holding our new baby a lot, I didn't want to accidentally transfer it to her.  Besides, I don't like deet on my skin!  
--stomach bugs.  The water is not drinkable. We have a portable water filtration device by Travl-L-Pure that we have hauled all over the world with us and so far, so good.  We will also be bringing powdered azithromycin for our two older girls in case of diarrhea, and ciprofloxacin for us grown-ups, as well as antidiarrheals and nausea meds.  Also bought lots of hand sanitizer, which is great for bacteria, but not good for viruses, but since we cannot wash our hands in the sink, will have to do for now.

Three more days of work before we jet off on our greatest adventure to date!  So excited to go meet our new baby girl!!!

Travel Informational Meeting

Oh boy, this is really starting to feel like it is really happening!  We had our travel meeting today with AI.  I have to admit, I'm getting pretty nervous.  Will the birth mom like us?  What if she takes one look at us and changes her mind?  What if the judge decides that we are not suitable adoptive parents?  We also discussed bonding issues with adopted children.  Our child is very very young so we don't anticipate any bonding issues, but what if there are?  We discussed appropriate attire for women as well as behavioral differences between Americans and Marshallese.  We have traveled extensively, but this is different on so many levels.  The people that we are meeting will be connected to us for as long as we live.  I just don't want to offend anybody.  Back to packing, just with a lot more nerves!

Gift Suggestions

As we're packing, we're also trying to purchase meaningful gifts for the birth mother and her family.  We know that there is not a single gift in the world that can truly thank her for her selfless sacrifice, so it is a hard thing to do.  Some ideas that were suggested, were things that I would not have thought of myself in a million years.  Yes, there are the typical gifts of candies, fancy soaps, a locket, that we fully intend to do.  What I wouldn't have thought of was Tylenol.  Just plain, over-the-counter, Tylenol. Apparently the hospital ran out of Children's Tylenol at one point in time this year!  Along with Tylenol, loperamide (anti-diarrheal) and Motrin were suggested.  Feels so strange to say, "thank you for your beautiful child.  Here's a bottle of Motrin!".  Picture frames.  Apparently, they are very hard to come by in the Marshalls.  Kit-kat bars.  Apparently, U.S. candy is a big hit over there!  I had purchased some fancy Sees Candies, after somebody suggested that, but turns out, the other little candies are an even bigger hit!  Just have to find room for everything.  We can bring 4 pieces of checked luggage.  Time to get creative!

Court date has been set!

We have a court date!  It is just a couple days after we arrive in Majuro.  Just working like crazy until we leave.  I moved all of my work shifts from the end of the month to the beginning.  I work almost every single day until we leave.  So much to do before we leave in 10 days!