our first week home

everything is going very well. we've had a very busy week and we're taking a lot of photos. the past week has been full of friends stopping by to meet esme. stay tuned...
-m.

airport welcome home

Thanks to everyone who made it to the airport so early, it was very cool!
-m.

home sweet home!

is anyone even still reading?

esme & I have been home for just about 6 days now and we are all doing great. we have had a really busy and exciting week filled with seeing family and friends. the welcome at the airport was the best - our families and friends were there to greet us and meet ms esme immediately. she did absolutely amazing on the flights and was so awake and happy when we landed. she loved being passed around and meeting everyone.

more details & photos soon. we also plan continue to update the blog on the happenings in the howd household.

anyone that we haven't seen yet, feel free to stop by any time. we know that a lot of people are being kind and wanting to wait until we're "settled in" but we are in - and happy to see anyone at any point.

-K.

coming home!

kate and esme will be heading to the airport in a few hours. they are scheduled to arrive in minneapolis tuesday morning at 6:00 am. our 6 week adventure is coming to a close, and the real adventure begins!
matt

happy 40s

a couple of weeks ago matt's brother, mark, turned 40. this week my sister, beth, turned 40 as well. april & may are busy months in our families. my goal at this point is to make it home before any other family events! :) by the sounds of esme's paperwork i think that could be doable.

we are hoping that we make monday's flight. it seems like her papers should be delivered to the embassy that morning. if so, i will get to the embassy to pick them up and hit that evenings flight. there is a slight chance that they won't be at the embassy monday, in which case i would have to take the wednesday flight (there are only 3 flights a week off the island). i literally won't know until monday if we are leaving that day or not. but we are happy to be here this weekend to see people before we go, do some final shopping and visit a couple of places i have been meaning to see before i go. so we're excited for our last weekend in RMI.


happy belated birthday uncle mark and auntie biz biz from Ezzy:

navy battleship. & misc updates...

we've had another fun week. we've spent a lot of time with the other family that is here, michelle & darrell (& their teenage son, evan and new baby sam). darrell flew out last night so esme and i went to the airport to see him off. it's always sad to see someone leave. michelle, evan and sam will be here while their papers take the same route ours did. they are a couple of weeks behind us and then will be home. they are a great family and have become good friends. i can't wait to see sam & esme grow together.

i've spent some time with others that i have met as well (not adopting). i've had lunches and dinners with people and now can't believe we're down to just days. it will be weird to leave since i've created some great friendships here. of course however i want nothing more than to get home. but i'm really enjoying the end of my trip and really looking forward to my last weekend here.

this week the taiwanese navy were in RMI. two huge battleships were docked for a couple of days and we were able to tour one. also the day before there was an event that included a basketball game between the taiwanese & RMI, a marching band show, and a martial arts show. a few of us went together and ended up watching all of it. it was really fun and esme did great. i guess she's ready for memorial weekend.

esme is certainly growing - cheeks, thighs & arms are really filling out and she's definitely longer. i haven't had a chance to get her weighed. i was at the post office yesterday getting a mail box set up for her birth mom and i almost asked the guy if i could put esme on the mail scale. i didn't think he'd go for it, and i'm quite sure ezzy wouldn't be too cool with it either. but it was tempting.

oh, and yesterday was one month since our court date!


i should point out that my child does not sit in that bouncy chair thingy all day. she actually will only do a short time in it. i feel like every photo i post she's in it but it's the only way for me to take shots of her. the last few days she has just discovered her thumb. she's been looking for it for a while and i think she was quite please with herself for finding it. up until then she would put her first to her mouth and lick, but her thumb was always inside her fist.

one last thing.... thank you so much for everyone that has emailed or posted comments. i haven't been able to respond to everyone but i have been able to read them and it's helped me so much while i'm here. i'm not ignoring you if you haven't heard back from me - i just have to load the emails and read them offline, then try to get back on to reply so sometimes it takes me a while.

but please still send me messages even though i can't always get back to you, i can't say enough how much it means. it's the highlight of my mornings to read the comments & my emails.

mommas

happy mothers day to all the moms

i of course want to say happy mothers day to my mom. who Esme is named after (her middle name). i have the best mom and am so lucky to have her support, especially through our adoption process. she knows first hand what thats like. she's also an awesome grandmother and we've been fortune enough to skype so she (& my dad) have been able to see and talk to Ezzy. i love you sooo much momma!

then, esme wants to say a special happy day to her grandmothers....

she has 3 awesome grandmas who are anxiously waiting to get their hands on her! grandma dee, grandma judy & grandma savanna - have a great day, we'll be home soon.

we had a nice mom's day here. i obviously wish i were with both my kids today and can't wait to see my max!!!.

i spent the day with the other family currently here adopting their son, Sam. they are really sweet and we have a ton of laughs together. i think at this point of being on the island we just entertain ourselves and each other with things that probably in real life wouldn't be as funny. or, maybe they would be. michelle is one funny chick. i'm so happy to have them here with me.

last night i spent time with a really large group of extended family of Esme's. they are all really great people and are so happy to have us adopting Ezzy. i love the relationship we've been able to create with her birth family. i know from my own experience how cool it is and special.


we are in the home stretch of our time here. i'm waiting to hear on Esme's papers and if they've left Manila yet. if they have i may be even able to catch the friday flight from here (totally unrealistic, wishful thinking but could be possible). more likely i'll be on the monday flight which puts me home next tuesday! worst case scenario i'd be on the wednesday flight.

i'll do a separate post with an update once i know where in the pacific our papers are!

again, i hope everyone had a special moms day.

we are thinking of you and missing you

what's on your mind?

hey all, kate has been in RMI for a month now and starting to get homesick. hopefully she will be coming home soon. please leave a comment on our blog, shoot her an email or Skyp*e with her. she'd love to hear from you and it's a great way to stay connected to home. she is doing a fantastic job by herself! esme (and max) won the lottery with kate for a mother.

anxiously waiting for my girls : )
matty

finals.

our son maxwell is in finals this week and then will be done with his freshman year at S C S U already. who can believe that??!!

please send max your good vibes as he goes into these last two days of assignments due & final exams. matt will go up to move max out of the dorms on friday. i'm beyond bummed that i'm not there for him as well. to not be there for move out day is really hard for me. i know, i know, i'll be home soon and it's great timing for the four of us to have the summer together. but just right now that doesn't make it easier that i'm not there for him this week.

have a great last couple of days maxer - as always, i'm so proud of you! i miss you & love you soo much bud and ezzy & I will be home to see you soon.

i of course miss all 3 of my boys. here's two of them... (yes, that is the baby bjo*rn. someone had to practice with it!)

you gotta love Skype

we skyp*e just about every day when i get home. i miss my girls : )

6 and 2.

6 years ago may 4th was a really really rainy sunday. my sister, beth, was 29 weeks pregnant. i got a phone call that afternoon from my friend jeannie who was just with beth and told me that beth was dilating (obviously unexpectedly) and that she was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital (about an hour & 15 minutes from her home and an hour from ours - so basically the middle of us). matt drove (um, let's just say fast) and we made it to the hospital as the ambulance was pulling up to the ER. beth's husband was out of town (because, really who thinks your wife would suddenly be in labor 11 weeks early?

as we met with the doctors and realized that there was no stopping what was happening we quickly prepped for a delivery that night. it was a really scary time but we just held hands and didn't have much time to think. cohen russell kellogg was born that night and was about 2 1/2 lbs. we knew right away by his cries that he was heathy. honestly, it literally never once occurred to me that things wouldn't be ok with cohey.

for some reason, through all the scary parts, beth and i seemed to have found a million things funny. i stayed overnight with her in her room and the next day where sometimes we laughed so hard neither of us could move or breathe. it obviously had to be our way with coping with something so serious.

the next few weeks we all spent a lot of time in the nicu as cohen got stronger and eventually ready to come home. during those weeks in the nicu we stayed at a nearby hotel a lot. then i went to stay with beth to help out when cohen first came home. again, with the laughter. it's weird to say that during that time, beth and i have so many great memories together. and cohen just continued to do so well no one, even the dr's, could even believe it.

today cohey is a healthy, strong, funny, caring, growing SIX year old! i can't believe it. he's pretty excited about his new cousin and he, like everyone, wants ezzy home now!

may 4th also happens to be esme's 2 month bday. this was yesterday here but like everything i'm counting it twice for USA & RMI time just because.

happy birthday sweet cohen. i miss you so much and can't wait to get home to see you.


retro cohen

here he is, 1st day home. he had reached 4 lbs! (biz, email me a "now" photo and i'll include in the post)

dinner & a dingy

matt & i met a great couple, elizabeth & matt, one of our first days here. they are yachties and have been for the past 10 years. they live a really cool life. they have sailed the world on their yacht, at times staying for a longer period of time in one place - but always still living on their boat. that's what they've been doing here. making this area their home for a while. matt & i had so much fun with them, and would see them almost each day at tide ta ble restaurant (at our hotel).

a couple of nights ago, elizabeth & matt invited me to dinner at their home. matt picked ezzy & me up in their dingy and we drove out to their yacht for the most amazing meal. elizabeth is a chef so everything was incredible. in fact the whole night was. the only thing that could have made it better was to have my matt here too. we covered about every topic of conversation you could think of, and even some you never would.

i don't have the photos from the night yet, but you're here for someone else anyway.

here's esme watching some videos. our tv options are extremely limited. thankfully we are never home so it doesn't matter. otherwise murder, she wrote and "all new" episodes of crossing jordon could get old quickly. esme loves herself some music videos and it seems she loves justin tim*ber*lake too.

constitution day

each year on may 1st, RMI celebrates their constitution day. the day started with a parade of students from each of the many schools, followed by several speakers from many different countries at a ceremony held in front of the government building. then the best part of all was the music & dancing. there were literally hours of shows put on, on stage in front of the water. it's always really fun to watch all the kids sing & dance (something that is done all the time here) and we love the music. it's such an important part of their culture.

this year was the 30th anniversary of their constitution. we ended the night by watching a fireworks show over the water (lit off of a large yacht out in the lagoon). it was so beautiful and all the marshallese kids yelled "yeaaaaa" each time one went off.