Tuesday, May 24.

Today is the big day. Well one of the big milestone days.

Today we go to court to complete the adoption. Complete in the eyes of the world, except for U.S. immigrations. That starts on Thursday, but needs today to happen before that can begin.

Court is scheduled for 10AM. As is usual, we were both up and awake before 7AM. Claire made some coffee, and we tittered around the hotel room for a bit. Breakfast was half-discussed, but never acted upon. Showers and dressing and double-checking that we had everything followed.

I tried to iron my travel-wrinkled clothes, but noticed that someone before us had tried to iron a tire or make a sandwich with the iron; there's a big, black, tarry goo spot on the iron. I didn't want it on my shirt, so I chose another that hid the wrinkles a little better. Just as we were about to away to the lobby, our previously offered ride knocked on the door. The other family, staying in the room one floor down, had rented a car yesterday, and offered to drag us with as they were going to the same places at about the same time as we were, especially this morning.

We packed into the sweet ride they'd acquired, and set off for the courthouse. Other adopting dad noted the car had 400K miles; I'm not sure if he was serious, but I had noticed that one of the taxis had more than 300K, too, so I have little doubt he exaggerated too much. I'm not sure the car was prepared for four full-sized Americans, and one school girl. I joked as we scraped over a speed bump that the car probably had the original factory-installed struts.

Except for a little bottom-bumping, the car made it to court without a hitch. We were a little early, but had been warned that one of the few things not on “island time” was court. Flights out are another, but we haven't got to worry about that for a while.

We took a few snapshots outside the courthouse. It's an unassuming building, standing on 10-foot tall stilts. They did that in Fiji and Belize, too, claiming that the airflow and shade beneath helped keep the temperature inside a little lower. It also gave room for a bunch of guys and dogs to gather and hang out in the shade. They watched nonplussed as we struck our poses and took our snaps.

We meandered up the stairs and were met by a fella asking if we were there for the adoptions. We were, so he directed us to the other big door in the hallway, and said to wait in the courtroom. We did. It was hot outside, but there was a bit of a breeze. The air conditioning was strong in the hallway. There was neither breeze or air conditioning in the courtroom. We were shielded from the sun, which was handy, but it was still toasty warm.

After a while Claudia and some of the birth families arrived. Everyone was cheerful and Emi was all smiles, as usual. We milled around and were greeted by Gordon, who went over the proceedings once again, and introduced us to the clerk and interpreter. We settled into the gallery seating, and waited for the judge. We had timed it perfectly as the “all rise” command was given almost the instant everyone had sat.

The judge is also an expatriate, originally hailing from our neighboring suburb, and later (as it came out in conversation) from Wisconsin. His white hair and mustache reminde me of an actor, not Tom Skerritt, who, at least in the scene I'm remembering, played a naval officer, who in the moment I'm remembering was arresting a more pivotal character, with a little bit of the sneer of justice from supporting actors...maybe Outbreak? I'll look him up later; it only bothers me a little bit...time is irrelevant when creating posts: it was Dale Dye, from Outbreak.

The other family went first, as planned. Their birthmother was brought to the stand first. I suspect the judge prefers English, as Gordon would ask the question, the translator would translate, the birthmother would answer in Marshallese, and the translator would translate again. Gordon, at least, speaks Marshallese well (as far as I can tell and have been told), so I can only suspect this was for the benefit of the court and the adopting parents. After she acknowledged she'd understood and signed the forms and confirmed she wasn't coerced or promised anything except a good home for her son, she was excused.

The other adopting mother was asked onto the stand next, and Gordon asked the questions, pretty much like he had gone over in the prep. The judge asked a question or two, and was satisfied. He did joke that he was a little disappointed because she lacked the thick New England accent he had been expecting of someone who had lived in Maine her whole life. What struck me as a little odd was that none of this was translated for the Marshallese-speaking in the room. Their birthmother, and perhaps her family, speak English pretty good, we've heard, so maybe that was part of the consideration.

The other adopting father was next, and Gordon asked him the questions as prepared. The judge admitted relief as the adopting father does have the thick accent we expect from the region. He was asked a few more questions, and the judge was satisfied and excused him. A judgement of adoption was granted, and all of the formal and legal declarations were made, and congratulations given.

We were up next, and the proceedings went pretty much the same, except, of course, with our cast of characters. Emi doesn't speak English, but again there was no translation. I thought I saw her mother say a few things while I was on the stand, so perhaps she was sharing some highlights along the way.

After court, everyone milled around and congratulations were shared. Emi sat a little away, cradling Grace for what looked like she believed to be the last time. Of course we have no such intentions, but I do understand the formality of the situation brought about the reality of it, too. I wanted to somehow empathize and say the right thing, but both language barriers and my inability to not sound patronizing held me to just grinning and nodding back at her when she would look at me and smile.

She eventually brought Grace over and handed her to Claire. Emi cooed to Grace for a while, gave Claire and Grace a big hug, and joined her mother and Claudia as they left.

Grace slept through the whole thing. She'd been sleeping when they arrived, slept through the passing around as the various characters took the stand, and slept through the ride back to the hotel after.

We paused outside the courthouse and took a few more photos. We confirmed with Claudia where we were going to be going for dinner, which was across the street from the courthouse, and that we would meet at her office at 2PM to allow the court time to complete and deliver the adoption decrees so we could get the birth certificate amended.

We returned to the hotel, seven strong this time. Their little boy and our little girl sleeping the whole way. We split up to our separate rooms, an agreed to meet later for some ice cream at the restaurant.

After a quick change of clothes and diapers, we headed down for some lunch. I had the beef stew again, and Claire chose the chili bean soup. Grace fussed a little, so Claire took her for a quick diaper change. She had a bottle and napped again. Really, that's all she does. She'll stir for a little, maybe need a diaper changed, decide to eat, and then nap. She fusses a little when she's ready to transition, but just a little. We transition, she's happy, and then she sleeps. Surely that won't last too long.

As we finished our soups, the other family arrived. We all ordered ice cream, and then re-ordered as they discovered they didn't have the promised and generally chosen chocolate chip flavor. The poor fella was a little flustered, and although everyone said vanilla would do instead, he brought four (not five) scoops of chocolate-sauce covered vanilla. Everyone chuckled and accepted the goof, the other mother saying she only wanted a little taste anyway.

We finished the melting cream treat, and set out for our mission. The moms made quick errands back to the rooms to grab last minute things, while the dads and their school girl took a sweep through the sandy beach behind the hotel. We'd been told, and could only see from our rooms, that the beach behind was really rocky and not inviting. For the most part that is true, but there is a couple-hundred feet of cleared beach on the south end of the hotel property. There was some kind of party going on there, so we skirted the edges and meandered on the rocky parts I had seen from our balcony while their school girl looked for shells. We circled back just in time to meet the moms coming down the stairs near the car.

We met Claudia at the little CAA offices. It's a cramped little room, maybe fifteen feet to a side, with a couple desks and a sofa, and a stack of toys in the corner. Each desk has a not-too-old looking PC on it. I wonder if they have the same kind of per-minute Internet we have, and that we had found out Gordon used, too. Claudia gave us the arm-sweep tour, and we left to go to the records office, three doors down. We huddled and chatted behind her has she bantered in Marshallese with the clerk there. Every once in a while one of them would tell us in English what they were doing, or what we needed to do.

We noticed the work was done from stacks of boxes and that they used a typewriter for creating the documents. I noted that I'd read that the last typewriter manufacturer had just closed their doors because the industry was not sustainable. There had been only one manufacturer for a while, but even without competition, not enough were sold worldwide to stay in business. Typewriters, therefore, have gone the way of the buggy-whip; they're one-off specialty items, no longer mass-produced.

While we processed the forms, Claudia informed us that the place we had been expecting to have dinner wasn't open; the owners were off-island on a few week vacation. She'd secured another location, and would show us where that was on the way to the next stop.

We got our copies, after she (fairly) quickly corrected the misspelt “Marcy” for the birth date on Grace's amended certificate. We then followed Claudia to the office of the Attorney General to request passports for the new family members. Fresh copies of amended birth certificates in hand, we filled out the certificate requests for our new kids. They should be done later today or tomorrow; Claudia said she'd collect them and deliver them before we go to the embassy, as we'll need them for the visa application.

It seems an awkward and nearly unnecessary complication. Since the kids were born to Marshallese parents, in the Marshall Islands, of course, they're naturally citizens of the RMI (Republic of the Marshall Islands). Now adopted, they'll become citizens of the U.S., but not until they reach American turf. Once we get through customs, as I understand it, they're American citizens. In order to get there, though, we need to get a passport from their country, and a visa from ours to allow them entry. In order to acquire a passport, we had to fill out a form, which in part included her permanent address, which is in the U.S., with her parents...

I understand that embassies are treated diplomatically as the country they serve, so it would seem to me that a visit to the embassy could be seen as that critical crossing point, and that while we're there perhaps we could just collect a U.S. passport for our new citizen. Part of our appointment is for the embassy to confirm and validate the adoption. Unfortunately, they then have to send it off to another embassy where the right kind of staff is available to adjudicate the request and actually issue a visa—this is the start of our three-to-five week wait.

It makes me wonder, then, if we'll have to be somehow segregated with non-nationals visiting the embassy. It looked to be a few rooms large when we were there before. Surely there's more than we saw, but nothing like the queue of petitioners or workers as you might see in the movies. That's not until Thursday, though, and that's probably a little too soon to bring about such a policy change.

We returned to the hotel to again clean up (have I mentioned it's hot and humid here?) and rest before the celebratory dinner. Grace woke up and cooed with us for a while as we waited. I quickly scanned our few channels, but did not find any baseball to get her started, but the end of Star Wars was on; the last of the prequel series...I forget the subtitles; let's call it “the making of Vader.” She dozed off and slept more instead of getting into half of the movie. That's fair; it's a hard series of movies to jump into the middle of one of them if you're unfamiliar with the backstory, or not a sci-fi fan to begin with.

Again, just as we were about to walk out, there was a gentle knock on our door. The other family's school girl had come to fetch us. We quickly gathered the last of our things an bolted out the door.

Dinner was interesting. I guess I wasn't sure what to expect, so it wasn't like it was unexpected. They had us in kind of an L-shaped room. One family took one table, and the other family took another. Claudia sat with us to help translate. She asked what we wanted to have for dinner. I suggested we could take the opportunity to try some local fare, so we asked her to pick something locals would ordinarily eat. We suggested, to be sure it was known to be acceptable, that anyone could order whatever they wanted; I was thinking perhaps they'd be tired of traditional fare and might opt for cheeseburgers or some such. Instead our table got a slew of traditional local dishes.

I've never had fish that looked like fish, you know. Even as a kid when we'd pull fish right out of the lake we'd clean and skin them before eating them. I guess the closest lately is when we get skin-on salmon for the grill. They brought us a couple of reef fish dishes that looked like they just dropped the fish in a fryer or on the grill before putting them on the plate. We were assured they'd been cleaned, and were instructed to just pull at the meat to eat it. It was tasty, but unusual.

Also provided was a selection of vegetables. There was pumpkin cooked in coconut milk, “ma,” which they told us is a kind of breadfruit, and coconut meat. They were all pretty tasty. I'd had the ma before with the dishes in the restaurant at the hotel; it's kind of like eating a potato. Pumpkin is a favorite at our house, especially in-season at the end of the summer; slice one in half, clean off the seeds and strings, coat with butter, powder with brown sugar, heat on grill until soft throughout...tastes like pie. The coconut was the fan favorite, I think. Claudia kept saying it was the other stuff in the coconut, but I'm not sure what she's meant. Whenever I've cut a coconut in half, there's a rind and the white meaty bits. Whatever it was, it was tasty.

We tried to learn everyone's names, but given the cacophony of everyone's banter in small groups, it was hard. We were introduced to Emi's sister, who's name was hard to catch, but who's nickname was “Baby.” Also there were Emi's two other daughters, and Baby's two daughters. The other birthmother we'd met before was also there. Claudia also brought her daughter, 'though she was happiest running around looking at everyone.

I tried asking Claudia a few questions about the food and the language and the island just to get some conversation started, but my efforts were generally met with short answers. Perhaps Claudia was too busy worrying about the other girls. I wasn't sure what was appropriate to ask Emi, especially in a loud and less private setting.

One of Emi's daughters, Destiny, was a younger spitting-image of her mother. She was all smiles and found it amusing when we smiled and waved and reached out to her with “jazz hands” or whatever. Her other daughter, Bertha ('though the “rth” is pronounced much more softly, and with some rolling of the tongue), was shy the whole time. She would watch an stare at us, but when we smiled or wave or whatever, she'd duck beneath the table or behind mom.

Grace, as it seems always happens when we're outside or where it is very warm, slept the entire time.

When dinner was done, we took a few more photos. We chatted a little bit with Gordon, who'd been at the other table, and meandered out of the place. Emi gave us big hugs a we left. As we were getting in the car, she and Destiny ran out to give Grace one more peek, leaving Bertha sobbing in the doorway, afraid to follow.

We returned to the hotel, and settled in for a much needed night of sleep.