ok, so that was sad, but we're doing great.

matt flew out monday and we had a great send off. we had a really nice breakfast at our fav local restaurant (had our favorite "islanders delight" meal). we ran around to do final errands, then got him packed up. we were both weepy all day. of course we're going to miss each other, but the biggest part (i hate to say this for everyone at home) is how quickly esme has been changing - matt's bummed knowing that he'll miss the next few weeks of changes. it will pass quickly and he will be busy back at work and most importantly spending time with maxwell. esme & I have been just fine. missing matt of course, but doing really really great being just the two of us. still loving the island life we have! so no worries about us here. we have it really good and are busy non stop. so no boredom here at all.

matt had a great send off at the airport. our attorney and his wife have become dear friends, so they were there with us, as well as new friends that are here adopting too - a really nice family with a boyfriend for esme. of course esme's birth family was also there for the send off. they love matt!!

we are so thankful that we had the amount of time here together that we did. we got to see & do a lot and we were able to get in a good routine with esme. so she and i do really well. she sleeps pretty well and i am now a pro at feeding her, feeding myself & typing with one hand at once and keeping us both fairly clean during the process.

she & i are quite the sight in the mornings when i have her in one hand, her blanket, the bjorn (usually just carrying it for later use) and my diaper bag with waaay too much crap in it (my camera, video camera, laptop, cords) in the other as we head up to the restaurant for our morning papaya & coffee. we sit there and talk to everyone often for 2 or more hours as we hope the internet works for at least a few minutes. and again with the feeding ourselves & one handed typing thing. (i know my parents are laughing right now reading this, picturing me exactly) :)

my treat today was that i went ahead and showered. keep in mind this has nothing to do with the fact that i have a new baby. she's actually pretty accommodating to let me get ready if i chose to. it has everything to do with the fact that i've taken this laid back island lifestyle perhaps a little too serious. did you know that greasy hair in a pony tail if done right actually can appear to be intentional? although my friends here may be thinking otherwise and just being nice.

ezzy continues to be just a doll. each night i've been feeding & rocking her on my deck. we will have to reinact this environment for her to sleep at home i think. with the warm breeze through the noise of the palm trees and an island band playing in the background it is going to be difficult. i'm pretty certain it's going to take more than the dang ocean sound machine to recreate.

happy birthday deanna

i was hoping to post this yesterday, but we got busy.

i wanted to say a big happy birthday (yesterday) to my aunt deanna. we have celebrated quite a few of our birthdays together that usually included a lot of wine and a huge dessert - it really never mattered to us if it was March or May or if we actually hit the April timing. either way we considered a month either way birthday time! it's been harder to be in california the last few years for our bdays (and who would have believed we'd be THIS far away this year, and can't even call.) but i had a drink for you yesterday and made a toast to you in my mind.

i hope you had a great bday deanna. i love you & miss you lots!.


esme and i are doing really well. matt is back home, so we miss him of course. i am a little slower at the blog posts and getting the photos dowloaded etc. but will do so later today. promise.

-K

reaching us.

we are having problems with our Tilt email. if you've sent an email in the past couple of days to that address we probably haven't received it.

you can reach us at our gmail address. if you don't have that address and want to get in touch, leave a comment here and we'll send it to you.

we have loved hearing from everyone both through your emails & comments. it makes us feel connected, even in the middle of the south pacific!! so keep staying in touch.

we miss everyone.

K&M.

a little supervised tummy time

analina and esme

analina is a 6 year old who was adopted by our new friends cathy and tom. tom is retiring from the marines and is stationed in okanowa, so their process for leaving the island is a little different. (they don't need to be here 6 weeks) they left wednesday and we already miss them. analina is a super sweet girl and very smart, they are a very special family to us and will be lifelong friends plus a great connection for esme.

daddy & his little gal.

we had another great past couple of days. our friends have left and more families come in this weekend. last night we went to dinner with our attorney gordon and his wife and baby boy. then today just the three of us ventured out. we went to some great shops that sell local "crafts". we're trying to soak up every minute before matt has to leave. it will be a hard day when that comes, but one of us has to go back to work. we haven't figured out how to live long term without an income yet. it will be good timing so he can go back to move max out of the dorms and home with us for the summer. we are missing max big time.
-K

esme gets the shots, mommy feels the pain

we went to the hospital to get esme's second round of immunizations. they included 2 oral and 3 injections, one in each leg and a third in her little arm. it was not fun for any of us. thursday mornings are baby walk-in appointments. There were about 20 moms, 25 kids and 1 dad (me). apparently men do not go to doctor appts, with their children, if they did they would be seen as controlled by their women. kate and i have a more balanced relationship : )
-M

esme's home for her first 5 weeks

the birth family lives about a block away from our hotel. esme's brother and sister are enjoying an afternoon nap on the cool floor.

our little cutie patootie (sp)

gordon and the coconut

It's crazy how much juice each one has inside. It's also incredibly refreshing when it's hot, which is pretty much always.

meet some of esme's birth family

We had some of esme's birth family over last saturday for a picnic. Her sisters and cousins performed a traditional dance for us. (bottom photo) It was so freakin' cute! Her sisters are the two on the left of the top photo. They really are a great family. Esme's aunt Ruthie gave us a bunch of Marshallese music. Ruthie speaks english pretty well and Brenda (birth mom) can understand most of what we say as well as read english. The little boy in the middle is esme's brother. -M

a boat ride to an outer island

We met a family who owns one of the outer islands and they invited us out for the afternoon. They go every sunday,, bring food to cook and play in the ocean. They've built a bunch of these awesome little cabanas. The island is complete with pigs and chickens walking around. The dog chases the pigs away if they get too close.

a roadtrip to the beach and more

We are having a good time, yesterday we drove an hour+ to the southern point of the island (laura beach). With hundreds of miles of coast there are very few beaches. It was very cool except the water which was very warm. We've also met a lot of good people. A doctor friend of our lawyer had us over to her apartment and made us indian food. They are both from India so naturally we ate with our fingers. Kate used a fork, she was a little grossed out. Everyone we meet is extremely nice. We're having Esme's birth family over for lunch tomorrow, I think there are about 10 people coming over. We've also been invited to picnic on another island this Sunday by a local family we just met. -M

a few shots around majuro

I've spent some time exploring the island trying to capture slices of life in RMI. It's a strange combination of real beauty and occasionally heartbreaking sadness. -M

esme and her hiccups

more cuteness from RMI

Hey all, we still have spotty internet service and no cell phones. when we do have service it's not very fast at all. hopefully we get our technology working smooth on this end. miss you...

-M

we are a family of four! five with wellsy.

we are having a great time and are loving RMI!. today was a really busy day. we left our place at 8am and didn't get back until 4pm doing non-stop adoption related business (doctor, court, passport, celebration lunch, birth certificate office, and more....) then our attorney has been to our place a couple of times this evening for other follow-ups. tomorrow is our embassy appointment where we'll get her papers completed to get her a visa.

we have a lot of details we can't wait to share but we know why you're all here so we'll get some photos up now and tell you more later. she is such a sweetie. she weighed in at 9 lbs this morning, 22" long!

as of approx Noon RMI time the judge finalized our adoption and declared us the parents of Esme' Dee Helyne Howd. by the way, the judge grew up in edina. (for the non-minnesotans reading, edina is about 2 minutes from our house).

ok, here comes the cuteness.....