OUR FIRST DAY TOGETHER

It was great that Allen and I could sleep in this morning. Our ride came at about 10:30am which gave us lots of time to get ready for the day. It took a while to get to the airport because of the heavy traffic. It is so amazing to me how crowded the streets are. The driving habits of people are UNBELIEVABLE! It is like an unorganized mayhem. We did see an accident today which was a first for us. Whatever they do, it must work!

Paul Healy picked us up from the airport. We had carried a camera to Cebu for Joel Reasoner. Joel is on staff at CSC and grew up just blocks away from where we live in Cambridge. Joel was on his way to the airport to visit his parents in Japan, so we met in the middle and handed over the camera. Literally, we were ships passing in the night (or day as the case may be). We saw Joel for a total of MAYBE five minutes but it was good to see him.

We drove into the gates at CSC at about 4 p.m. and saw several kids watch us come down the driveway. I could see Roselyn from a distance and she put her hands up to her face in excitement. Then, well... I would have to say it was really surreal. As we got out of the van, our kids came to greet us. We hugged them and tried to make some small talk. At the same time, many of the other kids gathered around as well. We remembered most of them from our visit in January. After a little bit, Allen got a frisbee out and we went into the yard to play. It was a good way to just be together without the pressure of trying to find things to talk about. The only thing that was a little ackward was that the other kids just stood and watched. They have certainly seen other families come and go, but they seemed intrigued with what was going on. I'm sure it is very hard to think about saying goodbye to their friends. My heart breaks to think that most of them will continue to wait and hope for a forever family to come for them.

Anyway, we had fun playing frisbee and then basketball. The best thing about our initial time with them is hearing them call us "Mom!" and "Dad!" It must be fun for them to finally be able to use those names (again). It is great for us to hear it.

We had pizza for dinner as a family along with a few other staff people. It was so cute watching our kids in their current environment. Rodrigo was very helpful to his house mom by helping to set the table. (What mom wouldn't like that?) You will notice that he has a different shirt on in different pictures. Both the boys were dripping with sweat the entire time we were there. Rodrigo changed his shirt four times while we were there. The people told us that he was trying extra hard to look his best with his new parents here. SO CUTE!!!!!! I will have to say, he is the cutest little boy I think I've ever seen!!

After dinner they had a little program for us. Roselyn and Romeo were involved with the music. Rodrigo sat with us. It was a perfect evening. Allen and I tried to go in with NO expectations. The kids were so good and so... appropriate. It was a great day and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Forgive me for writing so much! I am just so excited to tell you about everything! Hope you enjoy the pictures!!