bali - part 1

Asher took his first (of many) airplane ride last week when we went to Bali. I was pretty nervous leading up to the trip, but my perfect baby came through again and showed us that he is a great little traveler.
We made it to the airport where Asher was an instant celebrity. While we were waiting in line to buy his ticket I heard an someone making funny noises. I turned around to see an old man entertaining Asher with a piece of paper and some Javanese baby talk.
In honor of Asher's first flight he worse his "First Flight" shirt that our favorite blog reader, Heidi, sent to him.

Excuse the milk on the shirt. Asher started yelling once we got to the airport because he was hungry so I was forced to overcome my fear of feeding him in public.

The celebrity treatment continued when we got to board the plane early. Since it was the middle of a hot, hot day we had an escort with an umbrella to make sure my very white baby didn't get any sun.

Roger and Bethany walked behind us taking pictures. It felt like the papparazzi were following us.

Here are a few more pictures of Asher's first airplane experience.

Garuda, the airline of choice in The Islands.

Asher taking a bite of his fist as we board the plane.

Asher insisted on the window seat.

Asher fell asleep as soon as we boarded the plane and slept until we landed in Bali. Evidently it the take-off and landing didn't bother his ears.

I'm glad we had a good first time flying. Hopefully he will be just as good on December 13 when we fly back to America.

Only 10,000 miles and 24 days until we get home!

preview

We are back from our trip to Bali. We had a great time at the beach with Asher and ate a lot of good food. Asher did great flying, going to the beach, going out to eat and sleeping in a different bed. He's such a good baby!
There are many pictures and stories to come, but for now here is a video of Asher on the beach smiling.



Asher (and his sunburned parents) will be back in America in 28 days!

almost there

Many of you know that since Asher was born in Indonesia there is a lot of paperwork that we have to complete before we can return to the States in December.
Here's a brief synopsis of what has to happen in order for him to make it home for Christmas.

Step One:
We had to get a birth certificate from the hospital. Really it's just a piece of paper with all of the basic information on it signed by the famous Dr. Pujo.

Asher is much more interested in his toys than his birth certificate.

This was easy to get. We filled out one piece of paper at the hospital and sent a text message to Dr. Pujo reminding him to sign it the next time he went to the hospital.
Total Time for Step One: 6 days.

Step Two:
We have to have an official birth certificate from the Indonesian government. This is a fancier piece of paper with a lot less information on it, but it does come with a very official looking seal.

Look at that nice, shiny, official seal.

In order to get this our immigration agent had to have our passports, marriage certificates, our birth certificates, work papers, visas, immigration books and the birth certificate from the hospital. Our immigration agent took all of this to some government office and waited and waited for them to give us the birth certificate. We are pretty sure some money changed hands during this part of the process because the birth certificate was issued on October 9, but was not given to us until November 5.

Total Time for Step Two: 6 weeks of worrying.

Step Three:
The boy needs a passport, social security number and a consular report of birth abroad. We took everything we have mentioned so far, plus the official birth certificate and went to the Consulate. Roger filled out three forms we paid the US Government a good chunk of money and they let Asher become an official American.

We reassured Asher that everybody has a bad passport photo at some point, he just got an early start.

Total Time for Step Three: 5 days (including paperwork being sent to Washington DC and passport being sent back to Indonesia).

So, as of today (Monday) we have heard from the American consulate that Asher's passport is done and can be picked up on Wednesday (Tuesday is Veterans Days. We didn't know, we haven't been to America in a while.).

There is only one step remaining and that is to get Asher a visa and an exit permit. Fortunately this should only take a few days, unfortunately this involves us taking a 2 month old to Immigration to be photographed and fingerprinted and to the police station to be registered as a foreigner.

Bureaucracy and Corruption at its finest!

While we are waiting for everything to finish processing we are heading to Bali for a little big of sun and a lot of eating. Check back next week for pictures from Asher's first trip to the beach. Until then I will leave you with this picture of Asher talking to Mimi on skype.

Mimi come get me! I want to go to America!

indo-ween

Halloween was a success! Our costumes were a hit and we had a great time eating pizza and fudge and carving pumpkins. To see pictures of the entire evening you can look here or here.

Now for an explanation of our costumes and some highlights from the party.

First, we have Roger the Driver.


Many people here have drivers and this is the typical uniform that they wear. He also grew a mustache for the occasion.

Next, we have Courtney's costume. She was a nanny.


Just like a driver, most families here have a nanny that they dress up and take to the mall with them. This is the standard nanny uniform, found in a variety of colors (blue, pink, green and plain old white) and seen everywhere on weekends.

And finally for the cutest member of the family, Asher. He was an Indonesian baby.


He is wearing a hat and booties despite the 100 degree heat. Also, he is wearing a slightly tacky outfit with pants pulled up to his armpits. We couldn't be 100% authentic with his outfit because he wears a diaper and we didn't want him peeing on us all night (Indonesian babies usually don't wear diapers).

Here we are all together, one happy Indonesian family (that's really ready to go back to America!).


As for the rest of the party participants...

We have Lindsey the work out girl (yes, that is what people wear to the gym here) and Bethany the pregnant missionary (complete with uni-brow and bangs).

It was a great Halloween and a great party!

happy halloween

Happy Halloween

from Asher and the Gang

Asher is loving his Halloween onesie from Aunt Beth and he is very excited about his Halloween costume. Check back tomorrow to see The World's Cutest Baby (and his family) in The World's Best Halloween Costumes.

we voted. did you?

Today Roger and I exercised our constitutional right to vote. Our absentee ballots finally came in the mail, so we got out our blue or black pens and filled in the boxes and hopefully voted for the next President of the United States.
We've been getting robo-calls like crazy (how did they ever find us here?!?) and after much debate the Hamptons picked their man.

The Hamptons picking their man.

Asher likes to act like he's an American, too.

For many months most Indonesians believed the race for the White House to be between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. I am happy to report that they have now realized that Hilary is out of the race. Unfortunately they now think Barack is running against Sarah Palin. I didn't have the heart to correct them again.

Our friends were here tonight when we were filling out our ballots and they informed us that they supported Obama. Besides the fact that Obama once lived in Jakarta (he's practically an Indonesian!) most people here support Obama because he is "a good Muslim and a family man."
They dislike Palin because she spent 1.5 billion (Rupiah) on new clothes and she's never been to Indonesia.

Now that our ballots are completed we will take them to FedEx and overnight them to Kentucky. FedEx will actually do this for free. We are anxiously awaiting next Wednesday morning when we will finally learn who the new President will be.

One Month Old

Asher is now one month old. We can't believe how fast this month has gone by. At his last doctor's appointment he weighed about 9.5 lbs and he has definitely gotten taller, too. He is outgrowing some of his newborn clothes and starting to look even cuter in the 0-3 months clothes. He is a very content baby, he doesn't cry very much and he likes to sleep at night. In fact, last night he slept from 10 pm to 5 am. Roger and I were very excited!
Here are some pictures from Asher's first month.