26 September 09
Brandi has an interesting friendship with our cat. When she first came home Brandi would steer clear of Blackie & avoid her. She slowly figured out it was ok to pat her (gently) ... although Brandi would do the occasional swipe at her if she didn't think we were looking. If Blackie comes over to see Brandi (usually because I'm sitting near her) Brandi's like 'Muuuum!!!' & looks to me for reassurance. Yesterday Brandi had the blocks out (see background of photo :) , making a 'block train' when I saw Brandi having a rare moment with Blackie.
Today we've been up to the school holiday program. Courtney is too old to participate now- and too young to be an official leader, but she was able to be a 'leaders helper' which she enjoyed. We still have another 4 mornings to go. Josh & Renee really enjoyed it - especially the parts where they get lollies for things (good behaviour, answering questions, remembering their memory verse of the day etc). Brandi was really good and sat on my knee most of the morning watching the children singing, and then looking at the children doing craft. Brandi knew one of the songs - "One Way, Jesus' which she had learnt at the orphanage, so once she overcame her shyness she did a bit of singing too. Brandi handled being with a lot of people really well, and when my Uncle & cousin walked through the door at the holiday program she gave them a smile & a wave.
* I've also been meaning to add to the brief blog I posted while I was in Manila, so keep an eye out for that at some stage soon *
As for photos, well we have had rain for the past few days, so haven't been outside much. Brandi keeps wanting to go out & play & I have to tell her that unlike the Philippines it is very cold outside!! Hopefully after the school holidays we will make it to the public gardens in Christchurch so I can take some photos of all the children together.

15 September 09
Here is Brandi at home. She has a beautiful smile & doesn't mind posing for her photo to be taken :)

She enjoys pushing the doll around in the pram. Somehow the ball ended up in the pram too & so it got a ride along with the baby doll.

Josh teaching Brandi the technicalities of swing ball ...
Courtney & Brandi. Courtney has been so helpful since Brandi came home. She has made some meals when I haven't been able to because I've been busy with Brandi - a couple of afternoons Brandi has needed to be held & wouldn't let me put her down - and if I even thought about putting her down then we would have very loud crying! I have learnt to try and get meals prepared earlier in the day when Brandi is happy - doesn't always work mind you, depending on how organised I am!!

First Day Home 12 Sept 09

Brandi was so excited to be home and play with the children! While we had been away Brandi had gone to sleep so easily - no tears at all, just lie her down sing to her & stoke her head & within minutes she was sound asleep. Well once we got home things changed - the first night she cried plenty before finally falling asleep. The next night was the same (about an 1 1/2 hours on-and-off), but by the 3rd night she was finally settling down & only cried for a couple of minutes. I don't think she wanted to miss out on anything else that was happening (knowing there was a brother & 2 sisters now & she might be missing out on something!!).
12 Sept 09
Heres a photo of Courtney, Brandi, Josh & Renee on their first morning all together Gran & Grandad travelled 6 hours to come and look after the children for the 8 days that we were away (along with having to be up before 4am to drop us off at the airport when we left - thanks Dad) & picking us up when we arrived back. The children had a great time with them & did lots of fun things. Thanks Mum and Dad for taking such wonderful care of our little darlings :)

Gran's first hold of Brandi

Grandad & Brandi

Gran & Grandad gave Brandi a cute teddy bear - probably one of the first presents she has actually got to unwrap, as all the presents we had sent her had to go through our agency & then ICAB, so we figured they would have had to unwrap them to check whats inside, thus the reason we didn't wrap anything for her.

A Lesson Learnt

I forgot to mention in my previous posts about one night when we were staying in Palawan at the hotel. I think it was the 2nd night that we had Brandi with us. Here we were all sound asleep when suddenly there was a very loud bang - my first thought was that a fuse had blown, but then I realised what it was ...and just as I realised I saw Jared leaping from the bed, kung foo moves at the ready (he's been watching too many Bruce Lee movies), ready to attack ... wait for it ... a popped balloon!! After having seen so many security guards with guns everywhere (including at the hotel) I guess he thought someone was shooting at us! The nice thing to see was that he hadn't subconciously shoved me out of bed to deal with it - haha. And the other good thing was that Jared was the one that had blown up the balloon, so I had nothing to do with it :)

Home Again

11 September - Finally back home to New Zealand. Here is the family with a "Welcome Home" banner for Brandi that Courtney, Josh & Renee had made. In this photo: Josh, Grandad, Renee, Jared, Brandi, Courtney & Gran. My parents were wonderful and looked after the children while we were away for the week. The children had a great time with them!! When we first arrived at the airport the children just couldn't believe that Brandi was actually here since they'd been waiting (and praying) for so long (we'd started the adoption process in November 2006). Brandi was a bit shy for a start, but it didn't take her long to start smiling and laughing.
Jared, with big sister Renee (the first time Renee has actually got to be big sister) & Brandi (with Courtney down the bottom corner of the photo :)

We got home to our house & my friend Tracy had baked this wonderful "Welcome Home" cake - thanks Trace ...Brandi had her 3rd birthday a week before we picked her up, so we sang (a late) Happy Birthday to her ...
Our little Brandi finally home!! (Thanks Tracy for the cake - it tasted delicious - you're a great cook!! )

Beautiful Brandi ...The skyline in Manila Some of the houses in an area where poverty is evident - we took this photo when we were driving past. There was house after house like these ones, and then at the end of the long street there was a big roundabout, with a nice big colourful playground. The playground looked so out of place after seeing how poor the area was. While in Manila we stayed at MGH (Manila Group House) (also know as SIL or Wycliffe). It's set up for missionaries associated with Wycliffe who are passing through Manila & need somewhere to stay. At meal times it was really cool because we'd all sit at 2 big tables & the missionaries that were passing through were so nice & friendly & really interesting. And they are a wealth of information if you have any questions - from dentists to shopping!Here is our room ... (with Brandi sound asleep)The dining room which they are just in the process of renovating ...The swimming pool at MGH that we didn't even try out!We had to walk a couple of minutes up the street to catch a taxi. The street that MGH is on is like a big circle & it has police sitting in the office up the top of it (see photo below). At night they actually shut the gates to the street, so the taxi driver had to show identification for the police to open the gates & let us through. I'm not sure why its gated - didn't think to ask. Maybe because its a nicer area of town & the residents pay them? I was on the way to catch a taxi & this group saw me with my camera & asked for a photo (well the guys asked for a photo - I think the girls were a bit shy) - thus the poses from just the guys ...

On Tuesday 8th September we flew back to Manila from Palawan. It was still pouring with rain (as it had been when we were in Manila a few days prior). The nice thing about arriving in the rain is that we knew it would still be warm outside after we'd got off the plane, despite the rain. We had lunch at the domestic terminal before catching a taxi to MGH (Manila Group House / SIL / Wycliffe - it goes under several names ... photos of MGH still to come). We got the taxi driver to wait for us while we put our bags in our room, before hopping back into the taxi to go to the ICAB (Inter Country Adoption Board). Our taxi driver was a bit lost on the way there, but we had plenty of time, and we told him despite the fact that he was lost that he still knew more than us!! When we arrived he didn't want to charge us for the ride from MGH to ICAB - what a nice guy ... but we paid him anyway. We were at the adoption board for about an hour. They had made a welcome sign for us (see the photo) & gave Brandi a doll in traditional Filipino dress, along with a Philippines flag. And Sarah, finally a photo with Brandi wearing her dress - thanks so much for the beautiful *pink* dress you gave Brandi - great colour choice!!
Despite the rain, there were people walking around selling stuff (not sure what mind you) at intersections. They are very brave people to be walking around in the traffic, considering what the driving is like over there. And in the rain ...

We went to the Greenhills Mall, about 20 minutes away from where we were staying. Unfortunately most of the stall holders had cleared out for 3 days (apparently that happens once a month, and just happened to be the 3 days we were in Manila), but there were still some pearl stalls there....

After Greenhill Mall we decided to go to the "Mega Mall" - 348,000 sq m ... 750 shops & and an ice skating rink ... an average of 800,000 people every day ... 6 stories high (you'll be able to see 5 stories in the photo, and there is also a lower ground floor too). It was very cool to have a look around, but the prices were as expensive (and in a lot of cases more expensive) than back in NZ, so we mainly looked around. We did go to the supermarket there though.

We came across this very cool toy store ...


In Manila there are so many very large billboards advertising things. This is one of the ones that we went past (you can see how big it is when you see the cars at the bottom of the billboard going past) ... Jared was the photo taker for this one, as we zoomed past in our taxi ... and of course it was raining ...

More billboards, masses of wires, buildings, traffic ....

We went past a castle-like place (I'm guessing it was a house) ... it actually looked very out-of-place considering the other buildings surrounding it. Once again the photo was taken as we were zooming past ... we had blue skies by now, but the rain was still on the taxi window...

Here is a very cute lizard that we saw at our hotel in Puerto Princesa (sorry, this photo got a bit out of order) ... the lizard was about 15 cm long. There were also lots of very cute gecko's on the ceiling at the hotel too that made cute little noises when they saw each other. The geckos were just a bit small & fast for me to be taking photos of them ... & they only come out at night ...

Swimming time ... this was one of the first times Brandi had been swimming. We took 2 empty water bottles to the pool with us and she had a great time splashing about in the water, throwing the bottles & then chasing after them (well actually Jared & I were chasing them while we held her!).

One afternoon I went for a walk around the hotel grounds & came across a guy hacking away at a coconut. He offered me a drink, but I said he could drink the coconut milk & I'd just take the photos :) The restaurant out the back of the hotel

The hotel grounds ....

Can you see the amazing fan tree? I don't actually know what they are called, but they just look like a giant fan.

Out the back to the restaurant there were a couple of roosters tied up on long pieces of string. We presumed they weren't for eating ... but maybe fighting? Early one morning I got up and sat outside for a while & there were roosters crowing everywhere around ... on average one every 3 seconds. Thankfully our hotel walls were pretty sound-proof!

Monday 7th September 2009

HONDA BAY

We'd heard about Honda Bay & how you can go 'island hopping' - just catch a boat to one of the many islands, go snorkling - sounds great right. So we get to Honda Bay - first problem, remembering we now have a 3 year old with us, we see the boat ... hmmm could be ok if it was just Jared & myself going on it ....

2nd problem - I looked at the island way in the distance & said 'hmmm, thought that would be closer' ... by this time the one street on Honda Bay was looking pretty appealing ...

So instead of going on a boat, I just took photos of boats ...

And we got to go for a walk down the main street (well actually it was the only street) in Honda Bay... and I have to say they have great taste in music as they had Bon Jovi blaring from one of the radios (made me think of you, Sarah :)

The guards at the maritime building with their guns (don't worry, before I got a 'shot' of them, I asked first :)

Some cute little children ...

We came across this family who were taking the bark off the bamboo, getting it ready to use for building. I don't know if you can see, but the boy must have only been about 9 or 10 & the girl wasn't much older & they were using large knives to do the work (obviously no OSH in this country!!)

A curious family peeking out their gate ...

Just taking a wild guess here, but I don't think they have 'codes of compliance' here ...

Brandi & I at the restaurant at dinner time ...