Wednesday, May 25 (the rest of the day).

We had no scheduled appointments today. Claudia had arranged a next meeting with Emi for Friday, to give us some time to be with Grace on our own.

Two tasks were left to potentially happen today. First was that Claudia might be able to collect the passports from the AG office for us, and would deliver them to us. The other is that Gordon might meet with us to prepare for the embassy appointment tomorrow.

The other family had already met a third family who did all of this stuff a couple weeks ago, and were going to go visit them today. They asked if we wanted to join in, and of course we did!

After a lazy morning, and breakfast in (Cheerios), we all piled into their car for the trip to the other hotel we've known people to stay at: the RRE. The Robert Reiner Enterprises hotel is a bit farther down the road from the hotel than the MIR (Marshall Islands Resort) where we're staying. It was the RRE that I tried to suggest to Claire that we stay, because they have bungalows, which, while a little small (from what we'd heard) were nice and offered a little room away from other rooms.

They were a lovely couple. I can't imagine too many people going through this process that wouldn't have to be a lovely couple. It takes a fortitude and particular spirit, I think, and the process itself offers a few checks and balances to keep people who are two far off base from even getting through to the point of traveling.

Anyway, they're about two weeks further in the process than we are, and said that really the embassy visit is no big deal, and then after all of the action that happens in the first week, it's like they forget you're there any more. I imagine that the focus is on couples, such as ourselves, who are in the middle of it. I am also hopeful that while a lull is expected as no families are currently near enough to traveling to arrive in the next week or so, that any silence they're feeling will be alleviated.

We spent a few hours with them and their two adopted boys; one previously from Guatemala, and one on this trip. We wandered down the walkway a piece to where there were steps down into the water. There the “beach” was all giant rocks. The older kids swam with the second other adoptive father for a while while the rest of us hid from the sun at one of the picnic tables at the top of the steps.

After swimming we retired to the Tide Table restaurant at the hotel. As we walked toward the restaurant from their bungalow Claudia called and said she had our passports. Claire explained where we were and agreed to meet outside the hotel for the exchange. I went in to get a little cool air and make sure they could set up such a big group; counting the kids we had eleven.

Lunch was pretty good. Claire got their wahoo sandwich, and I got island fried chicken. The chicken was differently cut than one would expect in the U.S., but was tasty. Seemed pan-fried, not deep-fried. Also, the leg in the bunch was about as huge as I'd expect off a turkey! It was tasty, even if different looking. We also split a piece of pumpkin pecan pie.

Almost as good as the food and company was that the big TV over the bar had the Tigers/Rays game on, so a little baseball and the music made it almost like home. The other guys mentioned that they thought the sports to not be realtime; they cited hockey and basketball games as, evidently, those seasons are done. I suggested perhaps they were rebroadcasting or delaying the baseball, too, but it didn't really matter. It's just fun to catch any game when one is on, especially when they're not normally available.

Grace slept through the entire swimming adventure, but was kind of awake and peaceful for the restaurant.

We returned to our hotel after a fun day away. Grace was awake and cooing for the longest time yet. She chugged down a lot of formula, but other than seeming groggy, she wasn't at all sleepy. After a little while, the other family stopped by and collected Claire for a quick grocery shop. She came back with a few more staples, including a huge pile of Ramen noodles.

We discussed what to do about Grace's sputtering in the night. It seems the reduction in humidity in the hotel room causes her to become congested, and after a bit she snots up and sputters. We pick her up and help her move the snot around, an after a spell she settles down. Only in the hotel room and restaurants does this seem to happen. She gets a little congested and raspy breathing.

Because of this, we turned the air conditioner off, and sat for a while with the patio doors open, to allow the humidity to come into the room. We also fussed with the perch in the pack-n-play a bit to give her a little incline, thinking maybe that would help. After way longer than normal, she finally fell asleep.

After about an hour, she still sputtered awake. She settled down, took another bottle, cleared her head by sitting on the deck for a while, and went back to sleep again. A couple hours later, she sputtered awake once more. Claire had her and I lay back down and fell asleep until morning.