September 16, 2012

After the excitement of meeting Francis, sleep was elusive again the night of September 15.  I was up bright and early on the 16^th, ready to see my son again.  Gregg and I went to the hotel lobby for the breakfast buffet and found our agency liaison already there, finishing his breakfast.  Gregg opted to stay with the more Americanized cereal and eggs, while I opted to try the local dishes.  This was our introduction to the soup of the day and the dried fish of the day for breakfast.  This was also when I started to pile my plate each morning with mango and melons and enjoy juices unlike any other.

Shortly after breakfast, the van arrived to bring us back to RSCC.  We were more familiar with the ride this time, but still the time dragged.  When we arrived, Francis came out right away, and this time he knew just who he was looking for – “Daddy!”  (Big hug.)  I had to ask for a hug and was given one, very begrudgingly.

This particular day, were just in time for playtime in the playroom.  We were invited to go on in to play and meet Francis’ friends.  They all loved sunglasses.  Our sunglasses were passed from boy to boy, and whoever had them on would come over to make silly faces for us and pose for the camera.  One little boy brought me his blocks and looked to me for help stacking them.  He was so sweet.  We met the boys that Francis was in school with and found that one of them would be going home to a family in Australia soon.  When playtime was over, the children went to eat lunch.  At that time, we joined Francis in the dining room for another lunch beautifully prepared by Mama La.

After lunchtime, it was time for more playground fun and for Francis to experiment with the digital camera and video camera, which he loved.  He showed us his sense of daring and love of anything on wheels as he took off after a motorcycle that came onto the RSCC campus.

Playground fun on Day 2.  Is Francis wearing 2 different outfits?  Why, yes, he is.  Our "Little Radiator" needed at least 2 changes of clothes in 3 hours due to the extreme heat and humidity.  And he was used to it!

 Finally, it was time to say goodbye.  The next day he would be ours forever and the wait would be over.  We went back to the hotel, exhausted and hopeful.

We needed to pack up all of our gifts and donations for the next day when we got back to the hotel.  My parents had spent their time exploring the local mall and picking up drinks and snacks we would need for our time in Legazpi.

For dinner, we had the buffet at the Venezia.  Simple and good local food.  When we were done, we passed out (or tried to).  The next day was Entrustment Day.  WE had waited for so long – and apparently, so had Francis.

To Be Continued…

September 15, 2012

September 15 was a Saturday and the day we had looked forward to for years.  This day, we would finally meet our son for the first time.  Things were done a bit unusually for us, and we will be forever grateful to the staff of the RSCC, ICAB, and our agency, who, at a desperate mother’s urging, made it possible for us to see Francis on Saturday and Sunday when the RSCC officials would not actually be available to do the entrustment until Monday.

Anyway, Gregg and I had a wake-up call set for 2:00 a.m. so we could leave for the airport at 3:00 to make our 6:00 flight.  Sleep?  What sleep?  Oh, Gregg slept, I think.  I sent e-mails from the bathroom.  I was too excited to sleep – I was meeting my son in a few hours, for heaven’s sake! 

The flight to Legazpi, which is 300 miles south of Manila, was smooth, and I enjoyed seeing more of the beautiful Philippines from an aerial view.  The flight may have been an hour, tops.  It was fast.  Suddenly, we were just so close.  It seemed to take longer to get our bags this time, but once we found them, we were then able to quickly locate the driver for the Venezia Hotel and get going.  We checked in at the hotel, unpacked for about 15 minutes, and then got a call – our visitor was in the lobby.  Deep breath.  This was it.

We recognized the visitor who was waiting for us in the lobby right away.  She was the caregiver we had seen with Francis in the pictures from when he went to Manila for his passport and visa.  She introduced herself as Mama La, and we came to find out she was one of Francis’ most beloved caregivers.

A van took us from the Hotel Venezia to RSCC Ligao City, which was about a 30-minute drive through some of the area’s eye-opening poverty.  While we drove, Mama La told us how excited Francis was for this day and that they had trouble getting him to sleep the night before due to his excitement.  (Sound familiar?)

We pulled up to the very beautifully-maintained RSCC campus and went inside.  By the time we changed our shoes, Francis had been brought into the lobby to meet us.  He was smaller than he looked in all of his pictures, and so quiet.  He didn’t say a word until Mama La asked him, “Do you know who this is?” --- “Daddy.”  And this?” --- “Mommy.”  My heart melted.  And from that moment on, he was Daddy’s boy.

Gregg and I had carefully selected a Bumblebee Transformer to bring with us to our initial meeting with Francis.  It was a good plan.  We were able to play, rolling the car back and forth, and Gregg and Francis bonded over learning how to transform Bumblebee.  Mama La also brought out the cars we sent Francis in his care package as well as the book we recorded for him and his photo album.  The book and photo album were clearly well-loved, and he also loved playing cars with us.

We blew up a balloon, and that was one of Francis’ favorite things.  He loved batting it around the play room with us.  We also took him out on the playground and discovered his love for slides.  Our other discovery was exactly how much energy he had!  High-energy boy + high heat and humidity + jet lag = exhausting!  Mama La made us a delicious lunch, and we got to find out exactly how much food our boy could put away!  A little more play time and our visit was over all too soon.  Someone needed a nap, and it wasn’t just Mommy and Daddy.

We returned to the hotel, unpacked some more, and went to Mass that evening.  Gregg and I were floored when, out of over 1,000 people in the cathedral, we were selected to bring up the gifts.  We enjoyed the experience of the Mass, which was in both English and Bicol.   

After Mass, we returned to the hotel and had dinner.  We tried the Bicol Express, a very spicy regional specialty, with some calamansi juice.  Unbelievably good.

First day with our son down.  One more visit to go, then he would be ours forever.

To be continued…

Welcome to Legazpi!

Sitting in the RSCC lobby minutes after meeting Francis, looking at the book we sent him.

One of Francis' favorite things - playing with the balloon in the playroom.

Our first real family picture.  Still one of my favorites.

September 14, 2012

We arrived in the Philippines very early in the morning on September 14 – something like 3:00 a.m.  Maybe it was because of the insanely early hour, but for some reason, navigating the Manila airport and collecting all of our luggage was nowhere near the difficult experience I expected it might be.  We had converted most of our money to pesos before leaving, so that was a huge help.

Our agency’s liaison met us exactly where we said he would, and the four of us tumbled gratefully into the waiting car.  (Little did we know that by the end of our trip we would truly have had it up to here with the driver our liaison found for us.)  After hearing horror stories about the traffic in Manila, we were also surprised that it was nowhere near as bad as we expected in the middle of the night.  We went straight to our hotel, the Fernandina 88 Suites Hotel in Quezon City, and checked in.

The rest of the 14^th was mostly a blur, seeing as we slept through the majority of it.  I don’t think Gregg and I were awake nearly in time to have normal breakfast brought to the room via room service.  We had a small, simple meal and then met with our agency liaison in our room to go over the schedule for the next two weeks.  We chatted with him for about an hour, and then started going through our bags to sort out what could be left behind at the hotel in Manila while we traveled on to Legazpi. 

Later that afternoon, Gregg and I had the hotel’s massage therapist come to the room so we could get massages.  This was interesting, because she did not have a table, but did the massage on the bed.  While Gregg was getting his massage, I went out into the kitchen/living room area of the suite and worked on updating the blog and taking some pictures.  We both ended up relaxed and ready for dinner.  We joined my parents in their suite, which had a larger table, for room service dinner.  After that, it was time for bed.  We had a very early wake-up call the next day.  The next day, we would be meeting Francis for the very first time!  

To Be Continued...

Manila traffic outside our hotel window.

Manila at night.

Getting our gifts ready for Francis' caregivers.

September 12-13, 2012

The string of events that occurred one year ago seem to have occurred just yesterday.  And they seem to have occurred a lifetime ago.  One year ago, we were a childless couple waiting for our lives to change forever.  Today, we wouldn’t change a thing.  These are my memories of how it all happened.

The morning of September 12, 2012 was a crazy blur of packing last-minute items and making sure everything was ready to go before we left for our 2:55 p.m. flight out of New York.  Our pet sitter came to be with Lakota when we left so she was not panicked when we left with all the suitcases.  It was a good plan – Lakota was very relaxed when we were gone.

My parents joined us on the trip, and they met us at our house prior to leaving for the airport.  I could not believe how relaxed Gregg and I were the whole trip.  We took a direct flight with Cathay Pacific, from New York to Hong Kong, had a one hour layover, then straight to Manila.  I recommend this for anyone.  I also recommend their Economy Plus seating – it was well worth the extra money for the extra room it afforded.

Unbelievably relaxed waiting for takeoff from JFK.

Unfortunately, with a few hours left in the first leg of the trip, my mom was stung by a bee and she had an allergic reaction.  We talk about the irony of the situation to this day.  The Cathay Pacific staff was top notch, though, caring for her through the remainder of the flight, calling ahead to get her an appointment with the clinic at the Hong Kong airport, and getting her and my dad back on the flight right before takeoff.

One more very anxious hour on the plane from Hong Kong to Manila and we would land in the Philippines, the land of our son’s birth and first seven years of life.  It was the very early hours of the morning, September 14, 2012.

To be continued…

Probably the most appropriate sign in any airport ever.