We are on our way home!

We received our papers on Tuesday and caught the Wednesday flight out of the Marshall Islands. We are in Hawaii now about to go to the airport to fly home tonight.  Should be in Houston about 8:00 am on Thursday. We can't wait to get home. Aaron did great on the plane ride last night, so let's pray he does great on our long flight home. We are completely sleep deprived again but we are almost home and that is keeping us going. Aaron was happy to be in the USA too :)

Our paperwork is hopefully on its way!

Just got an email saying our paperwork is processed and on its way for delivery this afternoon. Hopefully it gets here soon. We have loved being here but we are ready to come home. Thanks to everyone for your prayers for us while we are here. Please continue to pray for everything to arrive here smoothly for our departure :)

Scott and Sarah are Texas bound

Scott and Sarah are on the plane getting ready to take off for Texas. We are still here hanging out waiting for our papers. The sickness bug is starting to hit all the families over here. I guess being in close quarters we are more likely to get something. Here's a picture of Aaron sorta smiling while he is sleeping. He sleeps during the day and is up all night. We are trying not to break the habit too much because when we get home maybe he will be right on schedule. 

Answered Prayer!! We took the little guy back to the doctor today and she said his lungs sounded much better and she didn't hear the murmur/rattling anymore. Hopefully that means the pneumonia is gone or nearly gone. Thanks to everyone for praying for him. It's tough to have a sick newborn in a foreign country. On another note, his sickness did not seem to affect his appetite. He gained almost a pound in less than 5 days. Sarah gained a pound all of last year. We are going to have a big guy on our hands!!

Scott and Sarah are leaving to come back home in about an hour.  Hopefully our paperwork gets processed soon so we can come home too.  But at least Aaron is feeling better so it makes us feel better about being here.

Nothing exciting going on.

I'm sure that heading made you want to read this post but haven't done too much exciting in the last couple of days.  Recovering from sun burn, watching the Packers and taking care of Aaron.  Kim has a cold now.  She must have picked it up sitting in the pediatrician's office.   The crew went and  had pizza last night while I took care of Aaron.  The pizza was really good.  Then today they went to a park that was supposed to be having a fund raiser for dogs, but nothing was going on.  They are having a big fishing tournament and so we are going to go down to the dock and watch them bring in the fish tonight to see who wins.  Now we're all just relaxing.  Sarah and I will be leaving in 2 days.  Wish the the whole group was going to be able to come too.    We've had a good trip, but I really can't wait to get home.

Need some prayers

Took Aaron back to the hospital today.  They did a chest X ray.  Confirmed he has pneumonia.  Put him on a different couple of medicines.  Follow up appointment scheduled for Monday.  Praying the little guy gets healthy soon. 

Eneko Island

Took a boat ride out to Eneko Island today along with the other adopting families.  Nice beach.  Obvious thought of the day:  In the middle of the pacific ocean, surrounded by water, use SPF 100.  Ouch.  Just a little burn.    Otherwise a great time. 

Trip to the clam farm

Huge clam. 

 
 

Marshallese dinner and sunset

Fish and a coconut dumpling combo.  Was told this was good.

More pics- Aaron's Grandma (bobo)

Aaron's grandma works at the hotel we are staying at. 
Was a nice surprise.

Sarah and Aaron

Sarah and Aaron

Ready for church

Sunday Church Service

Sunday School

Church this morning at a neat place connected to our hotel.  The preacher is from the Philippines.  Looked like most of the people there were probably from there too.  A great time.  Very friendly.   All in English.  Sarah went to sunday school.  At the end of church they have food (noodles) and some very delicious cake.  We decided to give the school supplies to the kids at the church.  It was neat to see how excited they were to get crayons and notebooks....Kids here are all really well behaved.   Looking forward to going back there again. 



Community of Hope in Majuro

Kids getting school supplies







Trip to the library

Now we can enjoy ourselves

Meeting at the US Embassy today so that they can submit all of our paperwork to Manilla.  First time we've ever been to an embassy.   All went well.  Only glitch was that the passport agency put one of the other babies pictures on our passport so they had to fix that in a hurry.  Oh, and our taxi on the way home had a flat and it was feeding time.  Aaron in a hot vehicle hungry is not fun. 
That's the last of our requirements.  Now its time to relax, enjoy the island and hope that our paperwork gets processed fairly quickly so we can get our little guy home. 
Excited to find a beach, do some shopping, check out the restaurants and get out of the hotel. 

Day at the hospital

Took Aaron to the doctor today.  He has been congested and his cry sounds funny.  He was diagnosed with bronchitis.   Learned he recently had pneumonia and spent 10 days in the hospital.  Praying all will be ok.  Little guy still has a great appetite.  We're not used to a child that eats everything you put in front of him. 

We might run out of formula

Another night with Aaron.  Sarah gets to have a slumber party with grandma.  A good thing cause our little guy wants to eat every 2 hours.  He might weigh more than Sarah by the time we get him home. 
Goals for today:  1. Passport, 2.  laundry, 3. ENT visit, 4. Meet with the lawyer to get things in order for our embassy interview tomorrow.

Having a great time.  Can't wait to get all the formal stuff done so we can do some sight seeing and really enjoy the island. 

A few pictures from the day.

Court Room

Alome and big smile from Aaron

Our extended family at the celebration dinner

Gordon

ITS OFFICIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are a family of 4.

We are excited to announce the addition of Aaron Michael Joja to our family! 

The court experience went well.  Kim had to do more than I on the witness stand.  She was nervous, but did great!  Having a celebration dinner tonight with another adoptive family and our new extended Marshallese family.

What a day ...

We had a very busy day. We went to the doctor and had his check up, got his passport photos and met with our lawyer.   Our court hearing is set for tomorrow at 2:00 PM August 26th, 9:00 pm Houston time on Monday the 25th. Please pray that everything runs smoothly and the process is easy. We are a little nervous about everything. We got to spend quite a bit of time with Aaron and each hour gets better and better. He's having some trouble with his throat so hopefully we can figure that out, otherwise he seems like a pretty healthy little guy. We are going to try and get some sleep before the big day. I think we have some Benadryl :)

Rough first night with the little guy.  Not much sleep.  Kim's a great mom and they seem to be bonding.  Eating well. Doctors visit today.  He has something going on with his throat that we are keeping an eye on.  Count down to court is 24 hours!   

Go Cowboys!

Well this is the first thing that I grabbed to dress him in. Uncle Kory will be very happy. 

Our landing strip

Well the pilots have to be pretty perfect with the landing. There's a lot of water on each side and the runway is not long. He did a great job and we had a smooth landing. 

Landing in the Marshall Islands

Our first meeting

What a day!  Got to meet the him today.  Sarah kept kissing him.  Plan to see him again tomorrow.

Wow it's early!

Sarah can sleep anywhere.  The rest of us having a little difficulty with the time change.  Ready to meet Aaron!

A little time in Hawaii

Off to the airport

Well it fits. Kind of. Sarah was saying a little prayer that  all the stuff makes it :)

300 lbs of stuff for 30 days.  I hope they have luggage carts there. 

And so the packing begins.....

The packing has begun. We have to get all this in 3 suitcases and 3 carry-ons. We haven't even added our clothes yet. Not sure how it's all going to fit.

Where are the Marshall Islands?

A common question we get is:  Where are the Marshall Islands. Here you go.

1 Week and Counting

We have our court date, we have our tickets, and we have a place to stay.  In 1 week we will be on our way to the Marshall Islands to meet our son!!  We are so excited and can't wait to meet him.  Hopefully we will be able to update this blog on a regular basis once we are there.  We appreciate all your prayers and support in this adoption.  We can't wait to introduce Aaron Michael to you all soon.