The beginning of the firsts

 

Finally home and now it's three girls in one room!  There was lots of giggles and talking which was obvious the next day when Karl took them to Bella's horse back riding lessons.

 

This time there was no Dramamine or Sea Bands.  Guess what, no car sickness!  Karl thinks it is the driving and smells of gasoline that caused the sickness.  However, we still have some Ziploc bags in the vehicles just in case!

 

First American Ice Cream!  OK, the girls are use to having purple ice cream, it's cream mixed with a purple yam.  So when Anton was asking the girls in our Skype chats what was their favorite flavors, they looked confused and drew pictures of purple ice cream on cones.  Bella brought out the ice cream on the second night.  Karl and Anton were at Scouts, and I thought we should start easy, plain vanilla.  It was truly fun to watch them eat it.  They would take a small bite, smile, shiver as it went down, giggle, them take another bite.

 

After they finished, I had them snuggle up under the big blanket while I turned on the gas fireplace to get them warm.  That was a huge first also.  Christine practically jumped out of her skin but then wanted to know how, what, why, etc.

 

 

With so much excitement and still jet lagged, the girls fell asleep talking holding hands on one twin bed.  They slept like that all night.

 

 

So, Anton eager to have another chess player in the house, tried to get Criselda to play him.  We told him it was too soon and maybe checkers would be better.  Christine has a new love, the dogs!!!  She loves them!!!

 

 

This was their first reaction to Magic School Bus.  Christine is a sponge at soaking up things and like any possible future science person, wants to know how things work.  Watching Magic School Bus was a low key, nonthreatening way to get the message across.  Christine is more nervous about her English than Criselda, but she understands more than she says.

 

 

 First snow!

 

It only took one ball from big brother for the two to catch on!

 

After about an hour, they were all chilled and coming in to get warm and dry.

Bella introduced hot chocolate with left over candy canes.

Coming Home

                                          

 

 

 

It took about two hours to get through check-in, immigration, exit fees, and security three times!  Our flight out was at 8 am, so their deer in headlights look is quite a combination of several things; leaving everything they have known, first airplane flight, not enough sleep, Dramamine, long lines, pat downs, etc.  Christine is much more the adventure girl, so she really was focused on the airplane and some fear of motion sickness.  She was the heavy puker for the car ride from Rohoboth to Manila.  I used five Ziploc bags!  Criselda is more concerned with a fear of the unknown.  Being use to being one of the leaders at the orphanage, she was out of her comfort zone.  Criselda literally clung to me for comfort and clues on what to do next.  It was a decent flight, 5 hours to Japan in which the girls slept through most of it.  To everyone's delight we all kept our cookies inside our tummies too. 

 

So a little sleepy, but only an hour and half to get through security, find our gate, experience a bathroom with multiple options that the girls had never seen before.  Yes, the hole in the floor made them gasp the first time too, which I calmly pointed to the sign on the door for the "Western styled" potty saying that is why we were waiting in this line to go.

 

 

After studying the planes waiting for our flight to board, the girls had had enough of Japan but getting psyched up for a 13 hour flight is pretty hard to do.

 

 

Eventually we got to board and found our seats.  Being through one flight, Criselda was now a little less scared, but still sleepy with a fresh dose of Dramamine.

 

 

Christine got her monkey all ready for this flight too!  Yes, being the techie girls, she had the screens all figured out from the flight before, it didn't take her long to find all the Disney movies she had yet to see like Brave!

 

Yeah!  Finally on American soil!  We spent over two hours getting through the immigration lines in order to process our daughters' immigration packets and visas.  The nice lady asked the girls to cross over the line once she had them fully in the system.  She then exclaimed, "Welcome to the US!  You are now in the country!"  However, the girls were more concerned with finding the dogs that sniff the suitcases for contraband as we saw the video about them and their training for a full hour!

 

OK, Christine looks less than thrilled.  But would you be if you had been traveling for 27 hours if you include the time from the hotel to get to the first flight.  She was also FREEZING!  her little body had not experienced weather below 60 degrees and it was a whopping 45.

Hotel Moments in Manila

It took about an hour to convince Criselda to wear a swimsuit to the pool.  Shorts were not allowed in the pool at the hotel and she had only worn shorts to swim in.  For some reason I can not find my pictures right now of us all at the pool.  Once we finally got there and got in, we stayed about 30 minutes because the water was freezing!

 

Legos!!

 

We have about a period of time every day we call the giggle hour.  Either Christine alone or both will just giggle and laugh at seemingly nothing or silly things.

 

Oh the discovery of mayonnaise.  The girls hated mustard, but one taste of mayo and they have never looked back.  When in doubt, mayo is the condiment of choice, for burgers, fries, anything.  Maybe it's the eggs because they eat a lot of eggs.

 

Karl showed her one time how to play Angry Birds on his phone, she was hooked.  For a child who did not have much exposure to electronics, she became and techie in just a few days.  She had the camera and picture app on my phone figured out to do things I didn't know you could do.

 

This was their first buffet ever!  They were a bit overwhelmed at first, but I walked them through options and put small amounts on their plate of things that looked interesting to them.  Now, it was about 10:00 but the girls had thrown up anything in their tummies from our long drive into Manila and to ICAB.  Criselda discovered she LOVES bacon.  Christine would clear the area of all watermelon. 

At Rohoboth Children's home

Due to the requests of the staff and privacy of the children still awaiting families, we are not allowed to show pictures of the other children at the orphanage.  Some of the children are not available and the Philippines does not honor unsolicited requests of specific children in homes.

 

 

 

First moments when we arrived.  Criselda broke down in tears as soon as she saw Karl and I.  Christine was shy but preferred Karl.

 

Signing the official forms as Rohoboth to have custody of the girls.

 

 

Our first photo together as as a new family.

 

 

Karl and I hanging out as the girls took pictures all over the place.  The spot right outside the school room also had the best connection signal so I could keep Crista and Mary up to date while they had Anton and Isabella.  We just let Criselda and Christine have their time to start their mental separation with their friends as we prepared to leave the next day for Manila.



VIews around the Philippines as we travel to get our girls!

 

Jollibee is a local favorite similar to McDonald's but has much more chicken options.

 

This is the backside of a motorcycle transporting three people, its a motor bike with an attached cab like structure.  No seat belt laws on these.

 

The legendary Jeepney!  We saw one top loaded with coconuts and two guys trying to keep them from sliding with a net draped on top.  We were told they can hold 30-40 people.  These styled cabs started with a US military jeep, then it was manipulated in a "Monster Garage" way to create the most efficient way to travel through the cities even though we were told not to use them.

This is a typical furniture market store we passed.  I wanted to get a food market, but they were on the side streets we passed and not the main streets.

 



 

More motorcycles but these have a second level for more passengers.

 

 

View as we traveled out of Manila and into the rural area where our girls' orphanage is located.

 

Saw a lot of these homes, the main floor was like a make shift storefront for excess fruits and veggies with residents in the rest of the home.  One child was getting a bath on the "front porch" and another girl getting her hair fixed before school.

 

 

One of the churches we passed.