made it part way....

we landed in honolulu yesterday afternoon at 3pm. I ended up never going to bed tuesday night, and matt got only a couple hour catnap. we just had so many things to finish up. we were pretty excited to be in first class for the long flight from msp to hawaii. we started our adventure with mai tai's as soon as we sat down.

typical for me, i never did fall asleep on the flight. once we landed we got to our hotel around 5pm honolulu time, 10pm to us. so we decided we'd lay down for a just a little while and grab a dinner later. but we slept until the next morning... a much needed night of sleep after many days of very little.

we're staying on waikiki beach, so today we walked a lot. walked the beach, did some shopping, and had some great meals. we're calling it a night soon, to be ready for the cab showing up at 4:30AM to get us to the airport for our last part of our trip. this will be a big weekend. we should meet Esme tomorrow* or sunday. (*the flight from honolulu to RMI is only 5 hours, but crosses the dateline so our friday will be a short one. it will be saturday when we arrive).

court is set for monday morning at 11:00am (which will be easter sunday at home-6:00pmCST) where she will legal become ours. we hope to get online that day to give an update and post photos.

-K

and we're off....

just 2 weeks after receiving our referral and with less than one weeks notice, we are on our way to RMI! we leave tomorrow morning for honolulu where we'll spend two nights, then leave on friday (apr 11th) at 7:00am to maj*uro. our court date is set for monday april 13th.

perfect timing for a baby shower....

This was such the perfect day. My mom & sister started planning this shower a few weeks ago, total coincidence that just 3 days prior we learned about our new baby. It would have been a fun day anyway, but getting to celebrate our referral w/ everyone...we couldn't have timed it any better. I'm a lucky girl.

-K

and finally.....

I was just about to leave for work when our phone rang. Kate came running down stairs. She knew by the caller ID it was a phone call we had been waiting for for 2 1/2 years. What a crazy, exciting and wonderful morning. We only have a portion of the baby information, but we do know she is young and tiny. We should get most of the info throughout the next few days and travel could be in the next 2-3 weeks. We need to wait to hear when our court date is scheduled. And of course we begin the phone calls....Our families will soon know : )

-M

the never ending dresser saga

So after looking for the perfect dresser/changing table everywhere, we found something pretty close at I*kea. I say pretty close because it's a few inches too tall for Kate to change the baby. It also looks very yellow in the room, not white. No problem I'll carefully saw off 4 inches and paint it a bright white! Done and done. Wait a minute, the paints not taking that well to the illprepped surface. Not to worrry, I'll strip the paint and start over : ) Wait, the edging seams to be plastic and is slowly melting CRAP! I'm going to have to replace all the edging with a wood veneer. Now that goes well and after several a new paint job, we have a beautiful new matching dresser/changing table that we all can use. PERFECT!

-M

painting our baby's room

After moving Max into the dorms, we've had a little time on our hands... so after numerous layouts and virtual mock-ups, we settled on the baby's room design. We chose two pinks with an orange to paint with the brown that was already there (the former office). A lot of measurements and marking of the walls but it was all done in a weekend. Of course after the first coat, it was time for a girls night out. I did my part and left for the night while Matty finished it. He preferred it that way anyway, a Creative Director never needs someone else around to direct his masterpiece.

putting together our new crib

So, we've put one into a dorm it's time to think where the next one will stay. We are being told we are getting close on the list of waiting families. Definitely toward the top. We never wanted to complete a room prior to being sure we were really really close. It's time for us to at least start thinking about a baby room. The timing was right since we moved Max to move some rooms around to get the best use of space in our home. We ordered the crib and it came in quicker than planned. So it motivated us to move the rooms and begin pulling our space together. A crib is in our house. Seriously.

maxwell moves into the dorm at SCSU

What a day. Filled with such pride and happiness for Max and of course surreal that we're already at this time in life. Move in day was fun and his dorm is a great set up. Of course it's so odd being back in St Cloud only this time moving my son in. Wasn't I just there? Well, ya, that was a few years ago.

getting our dossiers ready for overnight shipping

So here we go again..... At this point we feel like professional paper gatherers. We are total pro's at pulling together a massive dossier and can do so in record time. After a long summer of hoping and crossing our fingers for Vietnam and USA to find a resolution and renew the M O U agreement, it became clear to us around August that not only was this not going to happen, but that we would not receive a referral in time for the expiration. With not too many great adoption options for us (several year wait, too old for some, most have closed, etc etc) we needed to dig deep. Honestly how we even stumbled on our new program is still amazing to me. We researched this program and made some quick decisions.

Vietnam came to a close and we were obviously beyond sad. The emotions, time, and money spent was almost overwhelming to even think about at times. We didn't want to stay bummed too long since that wouldn't get us any where. More motivated than ever, we signed on to the Mars*hall Islan ds program and began yet another dossier. This could happen in 6 months or even less we are being told. But let's face it, we've been here before. So, we move forward with positive attitudes. But at the same time realists. Onward.....