Gotta love Renee's smile ... with her 2 front teeth missing, along with a couple down the bottom. I had asked her a couple of weeks ago when she was wiggling them not to pull them out as I was wanting to take some photos of all the children altogether after the holidays, only to find that with the help of Josh she had both front teeth out within a week of each other! Oh joy.
I've got some more photos to put up soon, from our session at the gardens in Christchurch.Now our continued blog from when we were on the beautiful island of Palawan ...
A couple of weeks before we went to the Philippines, I had a friend, Julie from USA, who I’ve met in the adoption circles who was adopting from the same orphanage as us. She was a wealth of information about what to expect, what the orphanage was like, what the director was like, etc – thanks Julie!! (While we were waiting for the news that we could travel, we also shared our frustrations with each other, as to how could something so seemingly easy (a child getting a passport, medical & visa), take so long – nearly 6 months!!) Anyway …
We arrived at the orphanage, just a few minutes up the road from where we were staying. We had said to Debbie (director) that our social worker in NZ strongly advised that we just visit on the Friday and then take Brandi with us on the Saturday. When we first arrived Brandi came running across the lawn when she saw the van & I presume she was thinking it was just Debbie (orphanage director) arriving. Jared and I had already talked about how Brandi would be shy & she was obviously attached to the caregivers at the orphanage – Julie had taken photos for us when she was there & said that she hadn’t seen Brandi smile for the whole time she was there. The director had also said to Julie that we’d have a ‘fun’ time when it came to taking Brandi with us, which Julie had passed onto us … so that was really good to know as we knew a little bit more of what to expect. When Brandi saw Jared & I she turned around, by now crying loudly, and ran in the opposite direction (now that was what we were expecting). It was really weird to finally see Brandi (after all this time of only having a photo of her). I just wanted to pick her up and give her big cuddles straight away, but restrained myself, so as not to freak her out totally, and within half an hour Brandi was sitting on my knee (rather subdued) while we talked with the director. She is just so beautiful. All the older children arrived back at the orphanage for their lunch break a while after & Debbie said for them to go and say goodbye to Brandi as she was leaving that day. Jared & I looked at each other surprised as we hadn’t been expecting that, but just decided to go with what Debbie obviously had in mind. We then had lunch with Debbie & her husband at a local restaurant before heading back to the orphanage. When it came time to leave Debbie dropped us off at the hotel & by that time Brandi was fine. Debbie & her husband Sonny had offered to come & pick us up for the church service on Sunday morning, so we would be seeing them in a couple of days time again.
After arriving at the hotel we got ourselves settled in & spent time with Brandi. Brandi was just really quiet (don’t worry, she’s making up for it now- haha), & sat looking at books with us. Dinner time rolled around so we walked out to the street with the girls who had just finished work for the day at the hotel & asked them where they could suggest to eat nearby. We caught a trike (a unique experience!) & one of the hotel workers got a ride with us too. Now let me explain what a trike is … it’s a motorbike with a covered sidecart sort of thing attached (see some of the photos I’d posted earlier). So there was me, Jared & Brandi, the motorbike driver & the other girl just jumped on the back of the bike behind the driver. To get to the restaurant we had to go up a hill – Jared & I were really hoping that the motorbike wouldn’t flip over backwards because of all our weight. We had a lovely meal at the restaurant before heading back on the trike. By this time is was dark & we just asked a guy outside if there were any trikes around & a few seconds later one goes past & he whistled loudly and the trike driver came back to pick us up. We found that people generally were really helpful & friendly (especially on the island) which is really good because we were pretty clueless & just working things out as we went along. Going back down the hill again on the trike was interesting as the guy took his hand off the throttle to cruise down the hill, which meant the headlight went out … which meant we couldn’t see where we were going!! I was also very conscious of how the roads were made on the island – basically just big slabs of concrete, but the edges weren’t flush with the edge of the road – there was a drop of about 10cm in a lot of places so wouldn’t be pleasant if you accidentally went off the edge … in a trike !!
On getting back to the hotel we didn’t know whether we were going to get much sleep (just to add to our already ‘sleep deprived’ state). We got Brandi ready for bed, lay her down, stroked her head & sang to her … and wow, she was asleep within a few minutes. Too easy. So Jared & I went to sleep soon after, not sure how Brandi would sleep – but to our relief she was brilliant – slept right through the night – yay! She woke up in the morning still really quiet, but not upset. We had a quiet morning at the hotel & then headed out just before lunch to go to the city centre (that’s the photo with all the trikes on the road in front of NCCC, Palawan). We got checked by security guards before being able to go in. We had lunch in the small food court, before having a look around the department store. It was really funny as we only saw one other ‘white’ person there –(and counting Debbie & Sonny we saw a grand total of 3 other white people the whole time we were on the island). I guess you could say we stood out just a little bit – not to mention the small point of carrying around a beautiful little Filipino girl! We did feel like attaching a sign saying ‘we are not kidnappers!!’. We also found that people aren’t shy, so people would just ask ‘is she your baby?’. We also got comments like ‘she doesn’t look like you’ – hello!! Comments like that just made me laugh & I’d say ‘don’t you think she looks like her father??’ haha.
After lunch we went for a walk down by the bay. Brandi & I were melting by that stage. I was carrying her in a hipcarrier, along with my camera (the sort I had to have hanging around my neck). And Jared had the video camera out. I wasn’t keen on taking all the expensive equipment around with us, but on the other hand I wanted to get the photos & video footage for Brandi, along with our children. But we didn’t have any problems. We then realized we had to go back to the mall to go to the supermarket so after walking for a while we caught another trike. We had just arrived at the mall when I spied an internet café. I was stoked as I’d hadn’t had any access to a computer to email home, so in we went, only to find there was a power cut. There was that idea out the window. So back to the mall & into the supermarket to buy some food – bread, butter & jam, chips & water … and of course lollies for Jared. Funnily enough when we were at the supermarket we bumped into one of the hotel workers – it was funny to see someone we ‘knew’ (so to speak).
We got back to the hotel & within about 20 minutes it was like there had been a switch flicked and Brandi started talking and smiling and then laughing. That was really cool as that was the first time we got to see her smile. And it didn’t take long for us to see the cheeky side of her. Brandi took a liking to the big wooden lizard they had on the wall in our room so liked to point that out every time she walked past it. And she loved looking through her books. We also had some Fisher & Price little toy people which she enjoyed taking out of the bag & putting back into the bag … and taking out & then putting back in again ….
We discovered that the hotel had a restaurant out the back – they would have had it on the website, but I’d had information overload by that stage that I couldn’t remember details like that. That was great as it meant we didn’t have to catch the trike to the restaurant up the hill again. And once again we had another night where Brandi fell asleep easily & slept right through.
We arrived at the orphanage, just a few minutes up the road from where we were staying. We had said to Debbie (director) that our social worker in NZ strongly advised that we just visit on the Friday and then take Brandi with us on the Saturday. When we first arrived Brandi came running across the lawn when she saw the van & I presume she was thinking it was just Debbie (orphanage director) arriving. Jared and I had already talked about how Brandi would be shy & she was obviously attached to the caregivers at the orphanage – Julie had taken photos for us when she was there & said that she hadn’t seen Brandi smile for the whole time she was there. The director had also said to Julie that we’d have a ‘fun’ time when it came to taking Brandi with us, which Julie had passed onto us … so that was really good to know as we knew a little bit more of what to expect. When Brandi saw Jared & I she turned around, by now crying loudly, and ran in the opposite direction (now that was what we were expecting). It was really weird to finally see Brandi (after all this time of only having a photo of her). I just wanted to pick her up and give her big cuddles straight away, but restrained myself, so as not to freak her out totally, and within half an hour Brandi was sitting on my knee (rather subdued) while we talked with the director. She is just so beautiful. All the older children arrived back at the orphanage for their lunch break a while after & Debbie said for them to go and say goodbye to Brandi as she was leaving that day. Jared & I looked at each other surprised as we hadn’t been expecting that, but just decided to go with what Debbie obviously had in mind. We then had lunch with Debbie & her husband at a local restaurant before heading back to the orphanage. When it came time to leave Debbie dropped us off at the hotel & by that time Brandi was fine. Debbie & her husband Sonny had offered to come & pick us up for the church service on Sunday morning, so we would be seeing them in a couple of days time again.
After arriving at the hotel we got ourselves settled in & spent time with Brandi. Brandi was just really quiet (don’t worry, she’s making up for it now- haha), & sat looking at books with us. Dinner time rolled around so we walked out to the street with the girls who had just finished work for the day at the hotel & asked them where they could suggest to eat nearby. We caught a trike (a unique experience!) & one of the hotel workers got a ride with us too. Now let me explain what a trike is … it’s a motorbike with a covered sidecart sort of thing attached (see some of the photos I’d posted earlier). So there was me, Jared & Brandi, the motorbike driver & the other girl just jumped on the back of the bike behind the driver. To get to the restaurant we had to go up a hill – Jared & I were really hoping that the motorbike wouldn’t flip over backwards because of all our weight. We had a lovely meal at the restaurant before heading back on the trike. By this time is was dark & we just asked a guy outside if there were any trikes around & a few seconds later one goes past & he whistled loudly and the trike driver came back to pick us up. We found that people generally were really helpful & friendly (especially on the island) which is really good because we were pretty clueless & just working things out as we went along. Going back down the hill again on the trike was interesting as the guy took his hand off the throttle to cruise down the hill, which meant the headlight went out … which meant we couldn’t see where we were going!! I was also very conscious of how the roads were made on the island – basically just big slabs of concrete, but the edges weren’t flush with the edge of the road – there was a drop of about 10cm in a lot of places so wouldn’t be pleasant if you accidentally went off the edge … in a trike !!
On getting back to the hotel we didn’t know whether we were going to get much sleep (just to add to our already ‘sleep deprived’ state). We got Brandi ready for bed, lay her down, stroked her head & sang to her … and wow, she was asleep within a few minutes. Too easy. So Jared & I went to sleep soon after, not sure how Brandi would sleep – but to our relief she was brilliant – slept right through the night – yay! She woke up in the morning still really quiet, but not upset. We had a quiet morning at the hotel & then headed out just before lunch to go to the city centre (that’s the photo with all the trikes on the road in front of NCCC, Palawan). We got checked by security guards before being able to go in. We had lunch in the small food court, before having a look around the department store. It was really funny as we only saw one other ‘white’ person there –(and counting Debbie & Sonny we saw a grand total of 3 other white people the whole time we were on the island). I guess you could say we stood out just a little bit – not to mention the small point of carrying around a beautiful little Filipino girl! We did feel like attaching a sign saying ‘we are not kidnappers!!’. We also found that people aren’t shy, so people would just ask ‘is she your baby?’. We also got comments like ‘she doesn’t look like you’ – hello!! Comments like that just made me laugh & I’d say ‘don’t you think she looks like her father??’ haha.
After lunch we went for a walk down by the bay. Brandi & I were melting by that stage. I was carrying her in a hipcarrier, along with my camera (the sort I had to have hanging around my neck). And Jared had the video camera out. I wasn’t keen on taking all the expensive equipment around with us, but on the other hand I wanted to get the photos & video footage for Brandi, along with our children. But we didn’t have any problems. We then realized we had to go back to the mall to go to the supermarket so after walking for a while we caught another trike. We had just arrived at the mall when I spied an internet café. I was stoked as I’d hadn’t had any access to a computer to email home, so in we went, only to find there was a power cut. There was that idea out the window. So back to the mall & into the supermarket to buy some food – bread, butter & jam, chips & water … and of course lollies for Jared. Funnily enough when we were at the supermarket we bumped into one of the hotel workers – it was funny to see someone we ‘knew’ (so to speak).
We got back to the hotel & within about 20 minutes it was like there had been a switch flicked and Brandi started talking and smiling and then laughing. That was really cool as that was the first time we got to see her smile. And it didn’t take long for us to see the cheeky side of her. Brandi took a liking to the big wooden lizard they had on the wall in our room so liked to point that out every time she walked past it. And she loved looking through her books. We also had some Fisher & Price little toy people which she enjoyed taking out of the bag & putting back into the bag … and taking out & then putting back in again ….
We discovered that the hotel had a restaurant out the back – they would have had it on the website, but I’d had information overload by that stage that I couldn’t remember details like that. That was great as it meant we didn’t have to catch the trike to the restaurant up the hill again. And once again we had another night where Brandi fell asleep easily & slept right through.
To be continued (again) ...
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