Today's busy day

I am hearing rumbles of discontent from our family that lives farther away. I promise to get better at my blogging to keep you up to date on all our family fun.

Yesterday we had some visitors and that made our day fun. First a friend of mine and her daughter stopped by with a meal (really there were 3 meals and lots of desserts, but who's counting) Thanks B. Family! They stayed for about a half hour and we had fun catching up. They also brought some pretty cool Barbie stuff and more nail polish, but with remover this time because they knew I wouldn't have any. Then my sister and her family came by. They brought us some yummy veggies from their garden. All 5 cousins played nicely on the playset in the backyard while we chatted, it was fun to watch them all running around. Come 7pm it was time for showers and bed and boy was Shella May tired. Overall we had another good day, she was a little quieter than usual due to all the new people, but still had fun I think.

Today was even busier if possible. It started this morning with dropping the boys off at school. They have Monday Morning Meeting so we went in today to see what was going on. There were a lot of students, but Shella May just stayed near daddy and was safe. I got a chance to chat with my friends also, which was great. Thanks to everyone for not overwhelming her today at MMM. Right after school began we went to the doctor's office. We had requested an interpreter because I made the appointment before we left and didn't know her level of English. I think she would have been fine, but it was nice to have someone explaining some of the things he was doing. The only thing that came up as a concern is that she has a sore on her arm that she has been picking. It is infected so he prescribed some liquid antibiotics and a cream to put on her arm. He also said that she is small, but isn't too worried because he thinks she will grow and gain weight quickly. She is 45 inches tall, the 5th percentile and weighs 35 pounds, the .45 percentile. We have added a can of Pediasure to her diet every day to help with weight gain and vitamins.

After her doctor appointment our social worker came over for our first visit. She asked some questions and talked to us a bit about Shella May and our trip and our bonding. The entire time she was here, Shella May sat far from us and just played with her Barbies. For some reason she was really shy at that point, maybe because we were talking about her. We had a few hours after she left until we had to go get the boys from school. Ryan chose to mow the lawn, okay maybe was forced to do it, and we cleaned up the backyard toys.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We got the boys and then it was all fun and games again. She laughs so hard when they are home and even talks and yells. Tonight one of the things they were doing was blowing bubbles. They were having a competition about the biggest bubble that you could catch. She was going around the yard yelling "mine is big, mine is big" until I looked at her and smiled and then she got shy again. She plays hard when the boys are home, they make up all kinds of games and just run around in the backyard for hours only taking a quick break for dinner.

We are all doing fine here, everyone seems to be adjusting well. We of course are aware that this could be just a honeymoon, but we are enjoying every minute of it. Our friends are taking good care of us and her. My girlfriends have been bringing us dinners every night, thanks ladies, they are all delicious meals. We have been showered with gifts for Shella May and money to buy things for her (which will be uniforms since she will start school soon). We appreciate everything you have all done for us and we really feel fortunate to have such caring family and friends. Thank you so much (thank you cards are in the mail when I get caught up on things:)

A lazy Saturday

We haven't done much in the past couple of days, but that is good I guess. We have had no trouble with Shella May sleeping or eating. One night she even slept 14 hours, trying to get over jet lag I'm sure. She is still quiet,but we hear her talk and laugh a lot when she is hanging out with Liam. Watching the dance practice.
This morning a friend invited us to go watch Filipino dance practice. Our friends' children dance in the local dance troupe and there is a big performance in Sept. If any of our MN friends want more information about Pamana, please email me. At first Shella May was really nervous about the new place and all of the people, plus she was freezing because she was wearing a little dress and it was cold. Our friends gave her some great gifts that probably helped her feel more at ease. They gave her some new Barbie clothes and a Barbie car! She was really excited about that because she has really wanted some new clothes. As practice went on she warmed up figuratively and literally. My friend spoke to her in Tagalog and all the kids wanted to meet her and talk to her. She was smiling as she watched the dancing and we told her that she could dance when she gets a little bigger. Ryan needs to watch out because he told our friends that he would dance the year after her husband T. starts dancing. That will be a sight to see,haha.

Playing with the new cool toy.

After watching the dancing for a few hours we went to a garage sale. A friend of mine that has a daughter in Liam's class had a garage sale and saved out a lot of clothes for us. I let Shella May look at every piece and decide if she wanted it or not. She chose to have most of it, but there were a few non-pink pieces that she said no to. My friend also had some bedding in there for her also. We found a few princess books and a doll also to put in our basket, but the best catch of the day was a little Barbie "computer". I figured we couldn't go wrong because it was Barbie, pink and has buttons to push. We put some batteries in it when we got home and she carries it everywhere. It is a good learning tool also because you practice your letters and numbers with it.

After we got home Grandma and Grandpa came by for their daily visit. They like to visit everyday for a little bit to gradually get her used to them. We have been keeping visitors to a minimum to not overwhelm her with people and questions. Thanks to all of our family and friends that are patiently waiting to meet her.

Our Trip Home

We left Manila on Wed. morning at 5am to head to the airport. We had a fairy godmother in Manila that I will write about later that took us to the airport. We didn't have any trouble going through the many lines and security checks in the airport, in fact for some reason we were called out to bypass some lines. Our biggest problem was that she got car sick again on the way to the airport. Of course we were getting to be experts at this and it didn't make a big mess this time. For those traveling in the future, there are a lot of checkpoints in the airport, but they weren't too difficult. Just have your paperwork ready and wait patiently and you'll be fine. We did a little shopping in the airport since we didn't have much time to shop in Manila. Our first flight was to Japan and it was only 4 hours long. Shella May slept the entire time, that was great. While we were in Japan for the 2 hour lay over we got a bite to eat and did more shopping. We had to buy her a new t-shirt since her dress got a little dirty when she got sick earlier. On the airplane

Our next flight was only 10 and a half hours and she slept most of that one also. We really lucked out on the sleeping. The only bad thing there is that she sprawled out so much we were kind of uncomfortable, but who is going to wake up a sleeping child just for comfort?

Grandpa came to pick us up at the airport and we headed home. We started with a tour of our house and she was really shy. She didn't like Daisy much because she was so hyper to see Ryan home and she was barking and everything(Daisy, not Shella May). We fed her a little lunch and we just sat around and she stayed right next to us. Then the boys came home from school. At first she didn't know what to think of them, but then they all went outside to play and she was right there with them. She was laughing and smiling the entire time. They were in and out of the house playing and running around. Every once in a while she would run to her room and check it out. She really stayed right next to Liam at all times, Lance was a little jealous. She ate a great dinner and then the kids played some more. Everyone went to bed nicely at 8 o'clock and we just rested a bit before going to bed. Who ever says they want more than 24 hours in a day is crazy, we woke up at 4am and went to bed at 10pm in a different time zone, so we were up for over 30 hours.
She went to sleep in her own room, we thought we would try it at least. She did wake up crying at 1am and we went to her and brought her into our bed. She just was fidgety and didn't fall asleep again. I woke up at 4am and she was gone. I went in her room and she was just playing with her Barbies. I had her come down and fed her a little, then we read some books. Liam woke up at 5am and came in her room to play. I told them both to go back to sleep, but they just played. She went through her "drawer". As people gave me little girl toys and things I just put them in a drawer in her room. She thought it was great to go through the drawer and organize it and look at everything.
We took the boys to school this morning, Lance did not want to go. Then we just ate some breakfast and have been playing. We did a few puzzles and played a few things. She seems very happy and she even talked to Liam a bit yesterday. She is using her words more to answer our questions, but she is still really quiet. We are wondering if this is just the calm before the storm or what is going to happen next. For right now we are just enjoying her company and her good nature.

We're home

We're home, I'll blog later.

Day 2

Today was an interesting day. We started the day with breakfast, which went fine. Then we took a little walk up our street and took some pictures. We came back to our hotel area and walked around the pool and took some pictures. You can tell in the pictures what came next. She was even quieter than usual, which is really quiet. We were standing near the pool and she dropped her little pink doggie we gave her the first day (thanks Ann) that she carries everywhere. She looked really sad and we told her that it is okay to be sad and miss her friends. Then she started crying and we carried her back to our room. Well, we had over two hours of crying at the top of her lungs (she does have a voice). It was hard because we could not comfort her, we just stayed next too her and talked to her, sang to her (don't worry, me not Ryan), held her and rubbed her. We even tried the video thing (thanks for the suggestion Tammy) but it didn't really work. Finally her body gave out and she fell asleep. She slept for about and hour and we were nervous of what she would feel like when she woke up. She woke up slowly and she grabbed Ryan's fingers. She wasn't happy, but she wasn't as sad. We ordered some rice and I spoon fed her and gave her some juice. After that she was totally attached to Ryan even more than usual. She doesn't push me away, she just prefers being by him. I am actually glad that the crying session happened, although I felt so bad for her. I was a little worried when she just came with us and didn't care that we were leaving the other day.

She is a smart girl and she figured out yesterday that this is forever.

The rest of the afternoon she just played with Ryan. In the evening our friends Emily and Jon came over, greatest people ever!! We chatted for a bit and then went to dinner at our hotel restuarant. We had just started eating, one bite of rice down I think, and Shella May puked all over her plate. I carried her back to our room and let Ryan eat a bit. We ordered her a fruit plate for our room. I brought her back and got her in her pj's and fed her some fruit. I made her eat slowly and just relax. She kind of played with me (to amuse me I think) and kept looking out the window at Ryan.The rest of the evening we took turns eating and talking to our friends in the restaurant, while the other person stayed in the room with Shella May. We don't know what triggered it and she seemed fine right after.

The worst thing about today was I realized I'm not enough of a girlie-girl to even do her hair.

Some random pictures below...

Meeting Mommy & Greeting the Boys

A couple greeting quick videos from our day yesterday.

Also, about her name. At dinner last night we asked her what name she wanted to go by, Marie or Shella May (pronounced Sheila) ~ She told us she would like to go by "Shella May". So we are going with that for now.

Shella May running to meet us for the first time...

Shella May saying hi to Lance and Liam...

She's home

We were picked up at 9am and then we went to the orphanage and met Shella May. We talked to the director for several hours and then went to lunch. We had a tour of the property and got to meet all her friends and her aunties. We took some pictures of different things and asked her if she wanted some pictures. She has only spoken a few words so we don't know much yet about her or what she thinks. We have barely gotten a yes or no out of her when we ask a question. Usually she answers yes with an eyebrow lift. Here are a few pictures with more to come later.

Daddy meeting Shella May for the first time

Mommy and Shella May walking at the orphanage

Shella May showing us her bed. She was able to take her blanket with us.

One of Shella May's friends at the orphanage

More of Shella May's friends at the orphanage

Visiting Downtown Puerto Princesa

Tonight our new Peace Corps Volunteer friend came over and took us for a tour of downtown Puerto. We took a trike there, boy did that almost make me lose my cookies. Think smog, bumpy roads, no road rules and chaos in a small space and you almost have it. I sat with my back to traffic because I don't think I could have handled the stress of it on top of everything.

We went to the bay walk and looked at the boats and went by the wharf. I can't even describe all the sights we saw. I wish I had a better camera and better timing of taking pictures because there is so much to absorb. All we bought downtown was some bottled water, we came back to our hotel to eat dinner. Our friends had to go a different direction than our hotel, so they put us in a trike and told our driver where to go. Ryan helped navigate the end part of the trip.

We are now off to eat and then going to sleep. It seems quiet right now and we are so tired, but we have some roosters that live in our backyard so we may not get to sleep in much. When we wake up it's time to go to the orphanage! We are pretty excited to meet her and find out everything about her.

These are actually moving down the street. People just cut out and go where ever, but it seems organized in its own chaotic way. The trikes are just a motorcycle with a couple of seats attached.


Walking around the city. I wish I had a better camera so you could see the condition of the house. They seem to be in a constant state of construction here also.

Just some city sites. We were in an area that there wasn't much traffic, so I took some "typical" pictures. This is the back of Jon our new Peace Corps friend.

There were several fishing boats in the bay. This one looks so different in person also. The kids just play where ever. Here they are fishing. We saw a bunch just jumping off a little pallette playing some sort of game they made up. We saw a lot of kids just playing, which was just fun to see. The boys shown below were playing and riding around in a "miniature" trike for fun.

Arrival in Puerto Princesa

Wow what a day!! Or couple of days, I have lost track of everything and feel like we are spinning out of control. Luckily Ryan is a person that has it all together this time and our hotel is wonderful!! We landed in Manila this morning at 1am. Customs went great and we took a shuttle over to the other airport. We got in line before the counter even opened and were waiting in the terminal at 2am. We sat there for just over 5 hours. We read, walked around and talked. We haven't slept in forever because last night's flight was very turbulant. We haven't eaten either, but enough of me complaining.

Well, we landed in Puerto Princesa at 9:30am and we had to do the outside jetway thing, which was cool because I've never done that. They had a military band playing for us as we got off the plane also. It was very crowded and hot getting our lugguge, but orderly and we still have all our pieces (we were hoping nothing would get lost changing so many planes). Our hotel Jeepney was there waiting for us and the two men that drove it. When we came out of the airport we were bombarded with people that were giving us flyers for things in town and there were a ton of hotel people holding signs looking for their guests. I walked up to our the guy holding our name and he grabbed our bags and led us away. We drove for about 15 minutes through town to get here, wow it was so incredible to see the people and the businesses. We want to go back and look and take pictures. It is something we have only seen on tv and it is so different for us. We finally got to our hotel (by the way it is hot here!) We stink, we are hungry and tired. They met us at the front desk with a form to fill out and 2 drinks to get our day started. I started to slam it down because I was thirsty and it was good, then I noticed that I was getting drunk,haha. I stopped drinking it because I would like to stay awake the rest of the day.

Here's the good part. We got our computer set up right away and skyped the boys. It was good to talk to them and see them. We miss you guys!! Next phone call was ICAB. We didn't even know our social worker's name when we called, but the lady that answered the phone took all our information. She said our social worker was at the conference and we should call back on Monday. Well, we are leaving on Monday for Manila. We were told by our adoption agency to call ICAB to find out when they scheduled our meeting with Shella May. We decided we needed to take some action here, so we called her orphanage. We talked with the orphanage director's husband and he was really nice. He said that ICAB called them last week asking if we were here. Once again lack of communication. When Ryan told him that we were in town, he said they would run right over today to get us. We asked him if tomorrow would be okay because we are tired, hungry, stinky. So they are coming tomorrow at 9am to get us!!!

And Ryan asked what her name is....they call her Marie. Don't know exactly why. A woman that adopted from our orphanage last year put a video of all the kids on line. At the end the kids say their names, Shella is too shy to say hers and someone says "Marie" for her. That is her! So tomorrow will be a big day!

We just ordered room service, well the guy brought our food to us. We have now eaten and Ryan is working on the showering part. He said that if I smelled that bad, he must be awful. Thanks, Hon, for telling me I smell bad. Here are a few pictures of our hotel.

The bed in our room

Outside our room

The restaurant in the center of the hotel grounds

The pool

The "Arrival" Drink

Trike we passed on the way to the hotel

Ryan sitting in the Jeepney that picked us up at the airport.

He had to crouch down so his head didn't hit the ceiling

The military band that greeted our flight's arrival in Puerto Princesa

The moveable ramp used to let us off the airplane

Tokyo- a fortunate delay

Well we are sitting in Tokyo. I hated the 12 hour flight as much as Jenny did, however I did not get sick, which is great for me. It was so crowded and I felt the guy in front of me was in my lap. They advertised on their TVs that every seat has its own tv screen, but our flight did not. I watched all the movies and my neck will never be the same again. Ryan slept a few hours, I got less than one hour sleep.
We are now delayed in Tokyo, which we don't think is so bad. Our flight will now get in at 1am in Manila and then our next flight leaves at 8am. This will break up our airport sitting a bit. We are just hanging out watching planes and now surfing the web. It's hard to believe we left Japan 11 years ago this month. It was fun to walk into the airport and see so much that is familiar. We will buy some goodies for the kids when we come back through (that's you boys). Well, just wanted everyone to know we are safe and sound and feel at home here. We are excited to go to Puerto tomorrow, I hope I don't sleep through the trip:) Forgive me if anything is spelled wrong or the grammar is bad, I'm not usually up for 24 hours straight.

Official Invite

We just got our email of official travel invite!! We were going to go anyway, but it is nice to know they are expecting us a little. We are all packed and all the notes are written. We are off to travel for 20+ hours now. Ryan bought out the natural food store yesterday to try to keep me from getting ill on the plane. And we're off.

And we're off!

Okay we don't have an "official" travel invite, but we are hoping it comes while we are flying for a few days. We are leaving tomorrow, stopping by Japan for a bit and then off to Manila. We won't stay in Manila long because we are off to meet our daughter. I can finally feel the excitement of seeing her and finally getting to know her. I can't concentrate on that too much right now though because then I feel tears coming on. Those of you who know me know that I seldom cry and when I do it is usually frustration more than joy. This time it will be tears of joy. Just thinking about it makes me tear up and I have a lot to do. We are going to finish packing tonight and then we are gone for a week or so. Another thing that is making me tear up is that we have to say good bye to the boys. I have never left them for more than 1 night before. I know they are in good hands, but it is going to be so hard to not see them everyday. We can't wait for the day that we have all our 3 children in one place. I'll try to blog as much as I can and I'll be sure to take pictures. See you when we get back!

Leaving???

We are hoping to leave on Tuesday to go to the Philippines, but that is sounding like more and more of a long shot. We found out on Friday that Shella May's visa was issued and sent to ICAB. This is a good thing because we thought this was the last step in the process, but we were wrong. We are a little confused right now because our process seems to be so different from other people's processes. Many people are "invited to travel" by ICAB as soon as their child's visa is approved. Shella May's was approved on Aug. 7th and issued on Aug. 14th. We still don't have an invitation to travel even after the issuing and our agency said don't expect to get one until at least late in the next week. We are not allowed to travel until we get the invitation. So once again our file could be sitting on some one's desk and nothing happens. We are beginning to lose our patience because we waited patiently for 5 weeks in April/May while our file was stuck between government agencies. Then it took us a month to clear up the problem. We also waited for 9 days after we thought she had a medical appointment to find out that it did not happen for some reason. We really feel there is some disconnect between all of the different entities that coordinate to make a file go through. We have one friend that got stuck in U.S. immigration for almost 2 months and no one even knew it or inquired about it. She finally found someone that could help her and it was resolved in one day. We have another friend that her child's file has been stuck on a doctor's desk since June 22nd and is waiting patiently for it to move. Ryan has decided that they really need a web developer to come in and make a checklist kind of program for the files. That way as someone does something it will post somewhere and someone can monitor the process and inquire when it takes too long. Maybe we could move to Manila and he could do that. Anyway, we don't mind waiting when it is necessary,but sometimes we feel we are waiting and nothing is moving and that is frustrating. Also, we don't understand the different travel invites, but that will be a mystery that will never be solved. So...are we leaving on Tuesday as we have planned?? We still don't know 100 %. When will we leave if we don't leave Tuesday?? We still don't know. Our agency can't even give us a time frame for when they might get the "travel invite" email. We would love to go some time in August, but only time will tell. In the meantime our clothes are packed and I have rewritten the list on how to care for the boys while we are gone 3 times, and Ryan's work continues to push back and rearrange projects they need him to work on.

The Girl Effect-An Interesting Concept Worth Considering

As we sit and wait to bring our little girl home, we think about how we can help the world around us. We can all make a difference.

The big day (night)- take 2

As I write our little girl should be sleeping in a hotel room in Manila. Her medical appointment is scheduled for Monday, Aug.3rd and her visa appointment for the 7th. We are so hoping that she has her medical appointment this time and more importantly that she passes it. We are also hoping to get some notice of the appointment before 10 days have gone by, that was very stressful last time, not knowing for so long. If all goes well, we are hoping to jump on a plane on Aug.18th. So, you have to cross your fingers for two things....that she has her appointment tomorrow and passes and that we find out sometime this week. Thank you for all your prayers and support.