~ Toddler Proofing the House ~

Yes, I love that Levi is walking already and that he loves to explore but that also means that I am constantly following him everywhere keeping him out of most of the drawers and picking up after what I like to call the "Levi Trail".

Yesterday morning while drying my hair in the bathroom, Levi found out how the toilet paper roll works. This was shortly after I picked up a tub of the small Legos that he dumped(over 2000 in the tub) in the bedroom. He found and dumped these and unfortunately some of them scattered under the bed and those will have to wait for another day to be picked up.




This is a bucket of Jaidyn and Addy's gourds that they picked and have played with all week. Levi thinks they look better dumped on our sidewalk. :)



What can I find to dump next?


Mama's Boy! Levi follows me everywhere and is usually perfectly content when I am holding him.


Levi likes bathtime once he is in the tub. He usually takes off in the opposite direction and makes us chase him to get him in, but once in the tub he has a great time.


All clean!


Addy had her preschool open house last night and she is so excited to start next week. This will be a nice change from last year at the beginning of the year when they had to pry her from my neck while screaming. Jaidyn will go three days a week and Addy will go 2 days.

We have a busy weekend planned and an Open House set for Sunday afternoon...still trying to sell our home.

The Lake

This past weekend I took Levi and the girls to the lake house. While the girls loved it as usual, I am not sure what Levi thought about the weekend. There was just so much to take in. He wore his life jacket, but it almost swallowed him. I left the upper portion unzipped just so he would have some more space for his little face. We went to Captain Ron's which has a beach area outside of the restaurant so that he could play more easily in the water. He didn't want to walk out in it, so we instead sat in the sand and played. Levi didn't want to wear his sun hat, but since he is lacking in a little bit of hair on top of his head, we kept trying to distract him to place it back on his head and also covered his head in sunscreen. He did conquer the stairs inside the lake house. He kept watching us go up and down them and it didn't take long before he decided to follow us. Now that he can get up them, we will really have to work on him learning how to get on his belly and slide down them.


Poor guy! His life jacket is just a little too big! It is so hard to find a comfortable one for his size.


Jaidyn thinks she is the Captain of Papa's ship. Jaidyn and Addy both fight to see who gets to sit on Papa's lap and drive. Jaidyn's getting very good and even knew our way home on the water the other night.


Levi did not want his picture taken, but I couldn't resist. They were all too cute in their swim outfits.


Sitting in the sand. Levi is once again trying to pull his hat off.




All the lake fun and sun will drain you...he is on his 2nd nap for the day. He did take 2 naps a day at the orphange, but since we have been home, we usually only do one early in the afternoon.

Settling In

Wes and I are still trying to recover from our trip. So much to catch up on. I finally have the laundry done and have caught up on my online orders from when we were gone. Wes returns to work today. So today will be first day home with all 3 by myself. However, it was mainly the kids and I yesterday as Wes had a good case of some sort of stomach virus and spent most of the day in bed or lounging around. It has rained a lot here the past couple of days, so our yard is suffering quite a bit. With our house for sale it really bothers me that the outside looks so unkept, but until Saturday when the sun is supposed to dry things out, I will just have to deal with it.

Levi is doing fantastic. Much better than I could have dreamed. It almost feels like he has been with us forever. He is such a sweet little guy. He loves to be cuddled (which the orphanage told us) and gives the best hugs and little kisses. He even likes to give butterfly kisses (rubbing noses). Too cute! Levi has spent most of his time roaming from room to room in the house just exploring. It is amazing how much his walking has improved in a weeks time. He will probably be running before I know it. He likes to see how many toys he can pull out after I have just picked them up and some of his favorite things he carries around are some Lego's, a helium balloon, and a small orange car. Wes encountered a little surprise yesterday morning when he finally ventured out of bed around noon...Levi greeted him at the bedroom door with a Barbie in his hand. Yes, the girls are already corrupting him.

Barbies, Barbies, Barbies! I bet Wes puts a stop to this soon with some G.I. Joe figures.


He loves carrying this helium balloon around while exploring the house.

Levi is a great eater. He has eaten about anything that we have given him. He likes oatmeal, all fruits, cooked vegetables, waffles, rice, and spaghetti. He has adjusted well from his high chair to the Little Tykes table in our kitchen. Jaidyn loves to help feed him. He gets so excited when he knows it is time to eat. He waves his arms, makes high pitched noises, and runs to the table. The past couple of night he has hung out with me in the kitchen while cooking dinner. He will just follow me from sink, to stove, to refrigerator. And the excitement begins as soon as he sees me start filling his bowl. We have still been giving him his evening bottle of formula just to keep something the same for him, but I plan on going to whole milk next week. We will probably try that in the bottle for a little while and then go to the sippy cup with it.

It didn't take him long to figure out which cabinet has all the snacks.


Addy helping Levi with his bottle.


Jaidyn is such a big help. She begs me to let her feed him. It will be nice, if she can help me out on preschool mornings.


Addy wants in on the picture taking. She's too funny!

We think he is cutting some more teeth as he has been pulling on his ears a little and has been chewing on his fingers. I have been giving him tylenol a couple times during the day to help reliviate the pain. I tried to put my finger in his mouth to feel for any teeth poking out, but he clamps his lips down so tight not letting me poke around. We have a doctor's appointment for him scheduled tomorrow so we can get all of his current medical information on file with our doctor and get him a general check-up.

Other than his nap time and bedtime routine, the adjustments have went very smoothly. We decided to go straight to a toddler bed and we did have a few nights of sleepless nights, but now I am glad we continued to stick with our plan because he has adjusted wonderfully. We have pushed the toddler bed up against Jaidyn and Addy's bed on one side and have a pillow on the opening of the other side. He rolled out the first night, but this has taken care of that problem. I rocked both Jaidyn and Addy to sleep when they were his age, but since he has been used to being layed down to go to sleep, I didn't want change that. The first couple nights home I would hold him before laying him down as I could tell he was getting sleepy, but he really wasn't comfortable. The first couple of nights were rough. Levi would cry so hard that he would start hiccuping. I would go in every few minutes to try and sooth him and pat his back like his caregivers suggested. I swear he would fall asleep, but the minute I would leave the room he would start crying all over again. Wes slept in the room with Levi as he really just wanted someone in there and the girls slept with me in our bed. The past couple of nights have been so much better. He has only whimpered for a few minutes before going to sleep in his bed on his own. Levi goes to bed around 8:00 and then the girls follow around 9:00. Hopefully by next week the girls will be following about 15 minutes after Levi. They start preschool after Labor Day and we will all have to leave the house by 7:30 each morning Monday-Wednesday.

Jaidyn has been so helpful. She always volunteers to feed him or give him his night time bottle. Addy is doing well too, but sometimes becomes a little jealous. She is my little snuggler and now that she has to share me with Levi I can tell it bothers her a little. Usually I end up with both of them in my lap. It is kind of funny as Levi and Addy will look at each other with a little bit of competitiveness in their eyes. Levi has even pushed Addy's arms off of me or tried to pinch her to get her to move.


We bought the girls each a bubble gun on the baywalk one evening in the Philippines. Several of the kids were carrying these around and they looked like so much fun. We need to play with them at night as they also light up.











To welcome Levi, Grandma Penny and Jaidyn and Addy's Uncle Bear made these signs. We live right beside the park so one was placed there, one was at the beginning of our subdivision and one was at our house. They were a nice surprise.






This past Sunday the grandparents, my brother, and Carrie all got to meet Levi. We had a wonderful lunch with steak, chicken, salad, fruit salad, potato casserole, and lots of yummy desserts (courtesy of the grandparents). Despite how tired Levi must have been as I know Wes and I were, he enjoyed all of the company.

~ Welcome Home Gathering ~

Will be posting about our first few days home soon. We are still trying to recover from the time change/jet lag. The time change adjustment has been hard on all of us. My mom also has great pictures on her camera from the weekend so I need to get those from her.

Wes and I have the best extended family in the whole world! My Aunts, Unlces, cousins, and sister Jill had a little welcome home party for Levi. Jill lives only about 15 minutes from the airport so it was nice for us to relax a little and eat great food before continuing our drive home. Levi was showered with gifts, balloons, and LOTS of attention. He loved every minute of it! (I know my mom and dad probably had to be a little jealous that they got to see him first)













Our drive home seemed so long. I am pretty sure that I didn't do my part in helping Wes to stay awake while driving. Wes's Mountain Dew and Coffee helped him through the drive. The exhaustion had set in and if it wouldn't have been for the excitement of seeing the girls, I know I could have slept through the night until morning with no problems.


I love this sign by our driveway!


Levi receiving plenty of Love from his sisters.

~ On Our Way Home ~

Wes and I honestly were making ourselves sick to our stomach just thinking about the long flight from Nagoya to Detroit. Twelve hours on a cramped plane is something that I don't care to do again anytime in the near future. We even looked at upgrading our seats to business class, but at an extra $4000 for each of us, that was completely out of the question. Levi was a complete trooper. In all honesty, he probably handled the flight much better than we did. He would just hang out on our laps most of the time. Books and stickers entertained him for the majority of the flights. Stickers were great, he would peel them off his body and then try to throw them. It was so funny, watching him try to throw them and then look back at his hands only to see them still there. We did get bulk head seating for our first flight (3 1/2 hours) from Manila to Nagoya so Levi enjoyed playing in the floor.


Levi taking a small nap on the plane.

Since we left our hotel at 3:15 in the morning, we just let Levi wear his pj's on all of the flights and didn't change him in to his clothes until we arrived in Detroit.

I wish Wes and I could have caught some shut-eye on the plane. We were both awake for over 30 hours with the exception of about a 1 hour nap during the Detroit to St. Louis flight.

Seeing Mt. Fugi was our excitement for the long 12 hour flight.

I just love how Levi sleeps with his arms above his head. The stroller was so handy to have in all of the airports. We were able to leave it right outside the plane door and the airport staff had it waiting for us at each airport once we arrived to use until it was time to board again. It didn't cost us anything extra to do this.


* Just some advice...don't order a cheeseburger in the Nagoya airport. I was thinking that it would be a safe bet...wrong! It was gray in color and of course I wouldn't touch it as it definitely didn't look like real meat. I am guessing a canned meat of some sort. I wonder if they even have cattle livestock in Japan? Maybe it is rare?

~ Last Day in the Philippines ~

We spent our last day in the Philippines attending Levi's ICAB (Inter-County Adoption Board) appointment and then confirming his plane ticket back to the U.S. At ICAB we received his visa passport and the sealed visa document packet that was only to be opened once we reached the U.S. and went through customs. His social worker through ICAB also presented Levi with a few gifts from his birth country. He received a Philippines flag on a stand, a die cast Jeepney toy car, and a book titled, "Philippines, The Land of Your Birth". The book includes history, festivals and holidays, games Filipino children play, and a place to place pictures. They also let us leave him a note to place in his file so that if he would ever revisit one day he could read about what we were feeling during our first days together.

Our welcome sign hanging in the ICAB lobby area.

Here we are pictured with Eva. Eva works for Holt and is the liaison between ICAB and our agency. She is one of the ones who worked so diligently to help keep our paperwork moving along so quickly so that we were able to travel in early August. She also took Levi to his medical appointment a couple weeks earlier.

Jonalyn was Levi's social worker who prepared all of the visa packet paperwork.

Eva was trying to entertain Levi while we waited in the NWA office to confirm his plane ticket home.

These two make quite the pair!

This was our favorite security guard at the hotel. He works 7 days a week, 12 hours a day and travels 3 hours one-way each day to work. All of this to support his family. He was usually the one who was stationed at the hotel front door with the metal detector wand. Wes just loved those pat-downs every time we entered the hotel. Ha! Funny, they always just let me walk on in. So if any of you are traveling soon and staying at the Intercon, be sure to tell him hello for us.

Levi is such a sweet little guy! He loves to wave at everyone.

All smiles when it is time to eat!

There was an exhibit of graphic art pictures at the mall across from our hotel and the theme was "working together to save our planet". This particular design was one of my favorites.

Friday was a long day just because of all of the required things we needed to do. Plus by this time, we really just wanted to be on a plane and on our way home.

I also wanted to share a few notes that I have made in my journal with our bloggy friends who will be traveling in the future to the Philippines.

* We felt like everything in the Makati area (hotel is in Makati) was priced very comparable to what it would be in the U.S. Of course, this was considered the Beverly Hills area of the Philippines.
* When dining out, a 10% tip was almost always already applied. We left a little more when we had great service since we are used to leaving 20% in the U.S.
* At almost every place we ate, they served the food as it was prepared. Sometimes, I might get my food 10 minutes before Wes would (guess they had to cook those squid a little longer). This actually worked out well when we had Levi because one of us was usually able to feed him while we waited to receive our own plate.
* Advice: If you travel outside of Makati bring your own toilet paper with you. I guess people steal the toilet paper for their own personal use at home, so many places outside of Manila don't supply it. I was caught off-guard 2x without toilet paper. One of the bathrooms even had a sink-like hose like device in the stalls. Was this supposed to be in place of toilet paper??? Ugh!
* We bought drinks and snacks at the ShoeMart grocery store to keep in our room. We really liked that you didn't have to buy soda by the 6-pack/12-pack. We could buy single cans, so Wes and I were able to get exactly what kind we wanted.
* Wes got a haircut in the Glorietta 4 mall while we were there. He said it was a different experience because there was an assistant who just stood by to brush hair off of him and use the water spray bottle while the stylist was cutting. He wasn't used to having so much attention for a haircut.
* While I was taking an afternoon nap one day, Wes went out to walk around outside of our hotel. A man approached him and said, "I see you come from hotel. You want woman?" The hotel security guards caught on and had to shoo the man away.
* While staying at the hotel we noticed that we never saw a female who cleaned or made-up the rooms each day. It was always men. Hmmmm, I like this scenario. Wes, take notes! :)
* We packed very lightly as we had planned to do our laundry about half-way through our stay. Our hotel didn't have a self serve laundry service as I wouldn't have minded to do my own laundry, but they did offer their own service priced at 160 pesos for each garment. Yes, even each piece of underwear would have cost nearly 2 US dollars to wash. Are you kidding me? They did give us a number to a laundry mat service down the street that would pick up our laundry and deliver back to the hotel. We went this route as it was only like 100 pesos per kilogram of weight. We got 2 big bags done while we were there for under 900 pesos. Not too bad of a deal and I got out of doing it.
* We also never saw blue sky while in Manila. We are not sure if it was just extremely cloudy each day or if the pollution or smog had something to do with it. It only rained 2x while we were there, so I can't really blame the weather for the dreary sky.

Just Hanging Out

I just looked at our available internet time and we have 1 hour left. This will be our last blog post from the Philippines. We have our ICAB appointment this morning and then will also go to the airport to confirm Levi's boarding passes for tomorrow morning. Our flight leaves bright and early from Manila, 6:45 am.

Yesterday we just spent the entire day hanging out together. It was our last day on our own as today we have several places on the agenda. This post will mostly be short and sweet with mainly pictures.


Levi and Daddy just hanging out playing before bedtime (this is from 2 nights ago)


Levi is sporting his St. Louis Cardinal Baseball romper from his Papa J.R. and Mama LaLa. Go Cards! We ate at Burger King for lunch today as we are trying to stay with American food chains to be on the safe side when eating. However, it wasn't a really a good choice as it didn't offer the healthier options like mandarin oranges instead of fries, etc. So for Levi, this place didn't work out very well.


Wes is already trying to teach Levi wrestling moves. I guess he will need to learn them to keep up with his sisters. :)

Levi won! Daddy had to tap out!


This is more like it...snuggle time with mommy!

We did go to the pool again today and he did like it, but wasn't in to it as much as yesterday. I think it was being we went down to the pool about 30 minutes before nap time. He is so used to his schedule that I think he could barely keep his eyes open. When we got back to our room he was asleep in his crib within 5 minutes.


You should see how excited he gets when he sees me start to mix his bottle. He waves his arms excitedly from side to side and gets the biggest smile.

We took Levi to baywalk as this was one of our favorite places that we visited earlier in the week. We love the casual atmosphere and they have had live bands both times that we have been. Part of the baywalk was shut down because the USS George Washington aircraft carrier was at port and U.S. Navy soldiers had a 4 day break. We watched smaller boats take them back and forth from the shore to the ship. Once again it was very cloudy so we were unable to see the sunset. Tonight we ate at Hooters and I will be honest, I picked it. Yes, it was my choice to eat there. To my defense, it was the only place on the boardwalk that wasn't seafood. We looked at, at least 3 different restaurant menus before I chose Hooter's. None of them offered anything I would eat. I am sure you all remember my post from earlier in the week when we ate at Pier 1. Wes also couldn't stomach the idea of eating that kind of seafood again.


Watching the waves splash in.




This may have been his first time on a slide. Levi wasn't really sure what to think about it.




These police men are part of the national police SWAT team. They were very nice and when Wes told them he was part of the SWAT team back home they let him look inside their vehicle and introduced them to a couple more guys on their team.




Just hanging out at Hooter's!



Sleepy Boy. His little blanket that his Nana made him has worked out perfectly in his crib.

Please pray for our flight home and that it will be a smooth one. Wes and I are already dreading it simply because it was so miserable on the way over. I wish I had a magic wand and "poof" we could be back home.

~ Smiles ~

Whoa! We truly enjoyed waking up yesterday to all of the comments on our blog, congratulatory emails and notes on Facebook. Thank you!

Sorry about the delay in posting more pictures. For some reason the Internet at the hotel was running extremely slow, so slow that we weren't able to download any pictures. I could barely sleep last night knowing I had so many cute pictures to share with everyone, hence that is why I am up for 4:30 in the morning. :)

We had a wonderful day with Levi yesterday. We were out and about quite a bit, but still came back to the hotel for his nap times just to trying to keep him on a schedule that was familiar to him. We were able to get lots of smiles and some giggles. We are still waiting for him to babble as we have yet to hear any of that. He loved the swimming pool so we will definitely be spending more time in the pool again today.

The first night went really well and he went right to sleep in the pack-n-play crib in the hotel right away. His nursery schedule showed that he would wake at 5:00. Wes and I were dreading that a little so we went to sleep fairly early too. Levi woke up at 4:30 because he was really wet (so wet that it leaked through his clothes) and so we were up for good then.

We did a bath first thing in the morning (the pee smell had to go) and he did really well in the tub. We weren't sure how he would do as he has always just had a bath in the baby tubs up to this point. Levi just hung out while Wes washed and rinsed him. The caretakers were right as he ate everything we fed to him at breakfast. I think the only thing he spit back out was a tiny piece of pineapple and I think that was only because he couldn't chew it. He was very squirmy in his high chair and kept sliding way down in the seat. Now I know why they had a towel tied around his chest when we got to feed him at the orphanage. Oh the joys, of eating out with a toddler again. :)
Bathtime!

Levi loves just hanging out looking at all of the board books and picture books we brought along.




We did some shopping in the morning to get things like formula, sippy cups, and a jacket for the plane ride home. He was quite the trooper while shopping, but mainly because I think everything is so new to him. I am pretty sure this will change.

We ate lunch in the mall at Jollibee. Jollibee is a fast food chain that is even more popular than McDonald's here in the Philippines. I think that Red Ribbon was also combined with the Jollibee because we were able to order some pasta. Wes and I figured that we would just share a portion of each of our plates with Levi. Wrong! Levi chowed on the spaghetti! Wes ended up ordering a cheeseburger and fries for himself. We did encounter some rude people in here. When we first lined up behind the cash register Wes and I were looking up at the menu to tell the cashier what we wanted when someone just snuck in front of us and started ordering. We didn't say anything because we figured that obviously he had somewhere he needed to be soon. Also when Wes went back the 2nd time to order his cheeseburger a lady and her son tried to cut right in front of him. This time, he flat out told them that he was next and started ordering. Weird! I guess if you want any food at the Jollibee you have to be fairly demanding.

Spaghetti Face!


Levi still wasn't finished eating.


Full belly! He loves waving at everyone.


Goodbye, Jollibee!


Strolling the Glorietta Mall.


Levi's walking technique reminds me of E.T. He takes short little choppy steps with his feet turned slightly outwards. He has a little waddle that babies have when they still wear diapers and he looks like E.T. when he walks. I was following behind saying, "E.T., phone home".

After his afternoon nap we thought we would try out the pool. He loved it! He is going to fit in so well with his "waterbug" sisters. Wes taught him how to splash and now there is no going back. We got tons of smiles and lots of giggles out of him while he was in the pool. It was actually raining most of the time they were in the water. I didn't get in, but instead sat under the big umbrella and took lots of pictures and video.


He's feeling pretty cute in his swim trunks (and of course he is very cute).


This is one of my favorite pictures so far of Levi and his Daddy.












This is my favorite picture of Levi and Mommy.


Levi's wrinkly hands from staying in the water so long.

For dinner we went to Guilly's which is in the Glorietta Mall and has seating outside. It is right beside our hotel so it was nice to sit outside and watch the hotel traffic and night-life going on. We also loved the upbeat music they played through dinner. The food was pretty good, or at least good enough that we might go back and eat there again the night before we leave. We liked the convenience of it being so close to our hotel and the atmosphere.


Levi entertained himself while waiting for his food by watching the cars go by. In this picture you can see our hotel in the background and our room is one of those in the picture. I also strategically got the girl in the green shirt in the picture as she reminded us of my brother's girlfriend, Carrie (only an Asian version). :)


Waving!




Ready for bed!


Hugs and Kisses! He looks thrilled doesn't he? :)

Yesterday, we tried to bump everything up an hour from his normal schedule. We napped an hour later, we ate and hour later, and went to bed an hour later. All of this was in hopes that he would sleep until at least 6:00 this morning. It is a quarter til 6, so I think our plan worked.

Two more days in the Philippines! Hopefully, we will be able to post more pictures again tonight if the internet speed will cooperate.

~ Gottcha Day! ~

Finally, he is in our arms!! It has been a long day...full of joy and full of emotions. Heart of Mary Villa had a very special visit prepared for us. While it was a short visit, it will be very memorable for years to come. Very emotional. They prepared a life book for Levi which has pictures and notes throughout each month of his stay at Mary Villa. Included were several pictures of his birth mother, pictures of his special caregivers, and playmates. They also included the nursery schedule with the routine that Levi has followed his entire life. Levi's birth mother also left us a letter and a letter to Levi for when he is older and the time is right. We also received a complete updated medical report to pass along to our physician. Before leaving they had a little prayer ritual ceremony praying for blessings during our journey with Levi.

Levi is wonderful! The caregivers had so many great things to say about him. They would laugh as they told us about his eating habits...anything and everything. Whatever we want to sit in front of him, he will eat. They have tried to reduce his bottle feeding to one at night since he has mainly been on solids since he was 6 months old, but they said he gets upset when he sees younger kids with their afternoon bottle so they usually give him one to. He also runs to the door as soon as it is feeding time so that he can be one of the first ones to eat. When they were talking about the multi vitamin they have been giving him, they also made the comment that he probably doesn't need a multi-vitamin because they were pretty sure he was getting in all his nutrients.

On the ride to the hotel from the orphanage he never made a sound. He sat on Wes's lap for most of the trip and his arms were stretched out to his side as if he was afraid to move. His eyes were so big and he would just look out the window at all of the vehicles that would pass us by. He finally relaxed a little and fell asleep for part of the drive. Our social worker who went with us to meet Levi was surprised that he never made a sound on the way back to the hotel as last week when he went to his visa appointment he babbled the entire time. She also said that he is very mobile and wanted to be walking around.

Tonight, we have yet to hear him make a single vocal sound. He hasn't even cried. Levi has finally relaxed and has been sitting up on the bed playing with several books that I brought. He really likes the musical greeting card that I brought along. I am not sure how long that will hold up as it is starting to looking like a crinkled mess, but he is enjoying if for now. Wes finally did get a smile from him about an hour ago. We fed him fresh Mango pieces and tiny pizza pieces for dinner and he ate every bit of it. We have taken several trips up and down the hallway of our hotel room to let him walk. He likes to walk, but only if he can hold one of our hands...very cute!

That's all I have to report for now as I really just want to go snuggle with him before we lay him down for the night. Enjoy the pictures!

Pagsanjan Falls

Today we went on another Grayline tour to the Pagsanjan Falls of Laguna. The drive to our destination was a 2 1/2 hour drive south of Metro Manila. The drive itself was very eye opening. Wes and I barely said a word to each other as we just looked out the window at the living standards that the people of this country endure every day. Today, we truly witnessed how the poorest of the Philippines live. Sadly, most of the homes were made of things that Wes and I throw away...holey plastic tarps, old towels as curtains, and scrap metal pieces as roofs. Several had old tires on top to keep the metal pieces down. We passed tons of road side stands selling anything from cocunuts to escargo and saw many rice fields and harvested rice drying on the side of the road. I think many of my pictures will speak for themselves.

The highlight of our day was getting to "Shoot the Rapids" on a native banca (canoe). Wes and I have taken many canoe trips back in Missouri, but this is an entirely different type of boating than we have ever experienced. Our boat was first attached to another banca that actually had a motor. They took us a little ways upstream and then we and our 2 boatmen went to work maneuvering our boat upstream through rocks and boudlers between steep gorges. They worked their booties off to get us all the way upstream to the falls. I was sweating profusely in the boat and I was just sitting there. Our boatmen said they only do one tour a week because it is so strenuous. Once we reached the falls we were able to swim around a little. Wes and I also were able to take a ride on a bamboo raft that has a rope connected from the rock shore to inside the cave under the falls. They pulled us right underneath it. Now I know why we had to wear those dorky hard hats the whole time. Once we passed underneath the 300 foot falls, we were able to swim around in the cave opening. The scenic view of smaller water falls and lush green tropical vegetation throughout the boat trip was beautiful.


Here we are with the other couple in our tour group. They were from Moscow...and quite an interesting pair.


About half way we stopped at a nursery to walk around and stretch out our legs for a few minutes.


The caretakers of the plants live inside the garden center along with all the plants.


We were served lunch as soon as we arrived. First up, clam soup. Just seeing the looks on the faces of the couple from Moscow was priceless. Wes was the only one who would try a piece. These were little river clams with the shells, and clams soaking in what looked like river water. Wes did get sand/dirt in his teeth on his first bite, so he too was done with it after that. On our actual lunch plate we did have rice and some sort of noodle and vegetable side that I thought was pretty good. Wes and I were the only ones who ate anything from our plates. The couple from Moscow wouldn't touch it.


You gotta love the orange life vests and the hard hats. :)


A water buffalo just hanging out in the river.


Another motored canoe had a line of boaters attached bringing them back from the lower end of the Falls.

The following pictures are sites that we saw along the river banks.




















The way our two boatmen could balance one foot in the banca and then push off rocks to maneuver us upstream through boulder rocks was very impressive. None of the guides wore any type of shoes or gloves for their hands. I can't figure out how they didn't stub their toes numerous times.










This picture is for Jaidyn. She is always jabbering about something and has earned the name Jabber Jaws Jaidyn and for short we just call her "Triple J". We had the tour guide pull over just so we could take this picture.


For dinner tonight we were craving some Mexican food so we decided to eat at Mexicali which is not far from the Intercontinental Hotel. I would give a better description of our eating experience, but my stomach hurts just thinking about the few bites that I had from my plate. Just wanted to let all of you who may be traveling soon that this is not some place for Mexican food that we would recommend.

Tomorrow is our big day! I hope I sleep tonight. I can't believe that after all this time of waiting that we will finally get to hold our son. The feeling is indescribeable. I don't care how tired I am tomorrow night, I will be sure to post a few pictures of Levi.

~ Shopping & Night Life ~

Heading out early from the hotel. We had lots on the agenda today.

This morning we took a taxi (the first time we have been in one since the ride from the airport) to Greenhills Shopping Center. This was quite the experience. I had looked Greenhills up on the internet before going so we kind of knew what to expect. It is a huge indoor flea market with tons of new inexpensive items. Purses, sunglasses, watches, pearls, toys, clothing...you name it, they had it all. We kind of enjoyed the bartering also. It was so funny, because every booth we stopped by would say, "you are first customer of the day, so we go down 50 pesos". Umm, the place was packed and I am guessing that an hour in, we were not their first customer. It was quite entertaining to barter with them as they tried to work a sale. Wes bought 2 pairs of authentic (definitely not real, but they tell you they are) Oakley sunglasses. The girls tried like crazy all morning to coax me in to buying their "authentic" Gucci, Prada, or Coach purses. I resisted the temptation. Besides if I bought one, everyone would easily know it was a knock-off because I don't really shop above Target. :) We did get a few gifts for the girls. Hello Kitty is big here in the Philippines, so we got them each a hello kitty purse and a little hand held asian fan to go inside. They had tons of crocs and I really wanted a pair of the flip-flop style crocs, but apparently Asian women don't have feet bigger than a size 8/9. I needed a size 10 and they didn't sell any 10's in women's. But, they tried like crazy to sell me a men's flip-flop. Ugh!






We ate lunch at California Pizza in San Juan just across from Greenhills. That would be the 2nd meal in a row that we have eaten there. I wouldn't be surprised if we eat there again before we leave.

We had heard that the sunset of Manila Bay was beautiful and a sight to see, so tonight we decided to live it up and enjoy some night life in the Philippines. Wes has been in bed asleep at 7:30 the past two nights, so this was a big night for us. Ha! Manila Bay, aka Baywalk is located just off of Macapagal Avenue behind the Mall of Asia. Before sunset we took time walking the boardwalk, strolling through a small portion of the Mall of Asia, and looking in on a Catholic Mass service that was about to begin. We ate at Pier One Bar & Grill. Actually, Wes ate and I watched as I just couldn't bring myself to order anything from the menu. Unfortuneately, it was very cloudy this evening and we couldn't even see the sun set. We loved the baywalk and even though it was somewhat crowded, it was still a relaxing, enjoyable family atmosphere, so maybe we will come back later in the week with Levi. They had a live band at one of the restaurants so we sat around for an hour or so enjoying the music. It was quite entertaining as everytime they didn't sing a song in English, one of the male singers would do actions on stage so that the foreigners (us and a few others) could follow along. You can probably imagine some of his actions when they were singing love songs. Quite funny!


Mall of Asia


I missed getting the name of this church. The church was very large and the pews were packed for the 5:30 pm mass on Sunday evening. There was standing room only at the back and you can see in the picture the amount of people standing outside.


Yes, they have Hooter's in the Philippines too! I am not sure why Wes was so adiment about getting his picture outside the restaurant. Must be a guy thing!

Pictures from the BayWalk.









I know I have been warned not to eat anything from the outside vendors, but I could't resist. Hot, buttered corn on the cob on a stick. Besides, it was my dinner.

Okay, so this part of the post is especially for my sister, Jill. She and I are both extremely picky when it comes to food, so I just wanted to share some of the appetizers on the menu of the restaurant that Wes ate at tonight.



Crispy Kangkong - deep fried swamp cabbage
Mangga't Bagoong - green mango w/ fermented shrimp paste
Balut Ala Pobre - unhatched baby duckling in garlic ~ a Filipino delicacy
Tokwa't Baboy - fried beanweed w/ sliced pork ears
Crispy Tenga - crispy pork ears
Chicharon Bulaklak - deep fried pork intestines
Dinakdakan - grilled pork belly w/ liver in vinegar & spices
Kalderetang Kambiry - spicy goat meat stew

Wes had Laman Dagat Sa Bilao which consisted of a processed, grilled seafood variety...squid, salmon, mussels, and shrimp.





So I have several taxi related comments:

- Not a single taxi that we have ridden in since the airport shuttle taxi has seat belts in the back seat. It is frightening to not be strapped in. These taxi drivers are crazy. You should see the bumpers of most of these vehicles. Most of our cab drivers that we have had have seat belts, but don't wear them. However, on one ride today about 1/2 way through the drive the driver puts his seat belt on as he is swirving through traffic. OMG! How is that supposed to make us feel as we don't have a choice?

- Almost all of them have, "How's my driving?" with a phone # printed on the back of each car. Seriously??? Wes and I just crack up everytime we think about it.


- I believe that anyone who can drive here in Manila can be successful driving anywhere in the world. I would never want to get behind the wheel here.

- I am extremely nervous about traveling with Levi in these circumstances. I would feel so much better about him being in a car seat, especially with the way the drivers drive. There is just not a lot of caution involved.

- Oh, and for those of you who will be traveling to the Philippines, we have found the taxi fare rates to be very reasonable. All of our drives have been 25 minutes or less and I don't think that any of the fares have been over 200 pesos and even with a flag down rate or small tip, they are very inexpensive way to get from one place to another.

For tomorrow, we have booked another Grayline tour and will be visiting the majestic Pagsanjan Falls. We will be riding on a native banca (canoe) to the falls. I think we even get to go in a cave and take a swim if we want. We are excited to be doing something a little more on the adventurous side.

Only 1 more day until we go get Levi!! We are so ready!

Day 2 Notes

Just had a few more things that I wanted to note from yesterday.

In Response to Emilee's comment on our blog:
Yes, it has been a nice experience to be here during this time with like you said, so much history in the making. We noticed on our drive yesterday that there were several little memorial type areas set up and signs hanging on posts honoring and expressing gratitude towards the late President Cory. The news channels have had lots of little media reports and newspapers have had front page write ups. About 4:30 am this morning (wide awake again) I watched a President Cory special on TV. It was an interview with her daughter about her last days. The newspaper said that there are approximately 1000 people visiting her grave site every day to pay last respects.
There was also a big write-up in The Philippine Star about the GMA group that wined and dined in New York for $20K. In fact, our tour guide mentioned it yesterday and was pretty disgusted by her actions. The newspaper today said, "the extravagance is a manifestation of the Arroyo administration's insensitivity and hypocrasy while thousands of families suffer hunger and the nation was mourning the death of former President Corazon Aquino". The amount spent would have fed 18,000 Filipino's for one day.
Our tour guide from yesterday also didn't have much nice to say about former President Moraco and his wife. He said that his wife is still living and is very "generous" with the Filipino's money, but doesn't share it with people in her own country. He said that she bought George Hamilton (US) a house in Beverly Hills. On our tour he also showed us the bank that would have absolutely nothing if she took her money out. He said that if I have never seen a bullet proof dress to check out her attire. Apparently she is really despised by most in the Philippines.
While most of it is so sad, I really enjoyed learning the political side of the Philippines.


Oh and I wanted to share 2 little tidbits that I picked up from our guide yesterday.

- He said that Filipino's smile often because when they are starving and hungry they believe that air enters through their mouth and helps fill their bellies.

- Filipino's have lots of children and devot their lives to them because it is the children that take care of them when they are old. There are not a lot of senior citizen type facilities in the Philippines.

~ Manila Old & New ~

First off, I want to wish my parent's a Happy Wedding Anniversary. Sorry I missed it earlier this week. Hope you had a great time celebrating it with Jaidyn and Addy! Did you get to have a nice dinner out at McDonald's. :)

Last night was a night of restlessness. My body still hadn't adjusted to the time change and I was up from 2:30-4:30 am. I watched a little bit of the Asian Living channel for about an hour (interesting stuff) and then played around on the internet for awhile. Wes didn't seem to have any problems sleeping, probably because he is used to time change schedules since he goes from nights to days every two weeks with his job. Hopefully, tonight goes much better. I didn't take a 4 hour nap today, so hopefully I will sleep much more.

Change of plans! We got with the travel agent located in the hotel this morning and booked a "Manila Old & New" tour. For any of those who will be traveling soon, I highly recommend taking this tour. It lasted about 3 1/2 hours driving Makati and Manila. It cost us about $50 each, but was definitely worth it. Our tour guide, Rick was fantastic. He was a retired (or as he would say "a tired")university history teacher, so he was very knowledable about the area.

We were drove through Forbes Park, which was a ritzy residential area dubbed as Millionaire's Row. Rick told us that in the Philippines, 70% of the population is very poor, 20% make an average income, and 10% are very, very rich. He said that the very rich only continue to become richer and the poor, poorer. Sad statistics. He too, also said that Levi is a very lucky baby to be coming to the US. He said that here he wouldn't have any opportunity and would be part of the 70% statistic. I have to admit that this tour was very eye opening. Yes, I have read plenty about the Philippines, but until I actually saw it first hand, it just wasn't a reality. I have many very vivid images in my head right now...mainly consisting of the small street children.
These pictures are from a distance, but you can see some of the poverty living circumstances.



Our first stop was the American Cemetery and Memorial which is reputed to be the largest and most beautiful of American memorials outside of the Continental US. I wish I would have brought a notebook with me on the tour so I could have jotted down some of the statistics throughout the trip, but I am very sure that I remember Rick saying that the white crosses represent 10,000 missing in action American Soliders and 60,000 Filipino soldiers from the Baton death march.












48 states were represented with their state seal in the memorial.








Flags were only half massed today in honor of the former President Corazon who died on August 5th. The tall blue buildings in the background are condo's that can be purchased for $30 million each if anyone is interested. You even have your own helicopter landing pad on top so that you can avoid Manila traffic. Hmmm!

We then proceeded on to Rizal Park which is in memory of the country's national hero. A beautiful park, lot's of history.









We also passed the "Walled City" of intramuros. Here we saw ancient walls (which had bullet holes in them), church ruins, and other relics of the Spanish Conquistadores. We also stopped at the San Augstin Church which was historically beautiful, but we were only able see in from the entrance as there was a wedding in progress. I kind of felt sorry for the wedding party as there were many tourists such as ourselves snapping pictures from the entrance. It just didn't seem to be a very private ceremony. Rick told us that weddings are big ordeal here because in the Philippines it is until death do them apart. They don't do divorces so they have to be sure from the beginning. At another old church (the one that they held President Cory's wake at last Wednesday for 2 days), we witnessed the bride getting out of the vehicle in front of us. She had approximately 10 bridesmaid in her wedding party. Rick shocked us when he said, "Ugh, she's ugly, but you can tell by her dress and the size of her wedding party that she is very rich." Yep, he was one of those truly honest type of guys and says things as he's sees it.


Look closely and you can see the bride and groom kneeling at the alter.

I think it was an Italian architect who crafted the ceilings for the church.

Heavy wooden doors to the church.


This is the church where President Cory's wake was held. It went on for 2 days and Rick said that the lines to witness this event were very long and people walked a long ways to be a part of the ceremony. We wouldn't have been able to get remotely close to the church a few days ago.

Here is the "ugly but rich" bride entering the church.

Our last stop was Fort Santiago, a spanish fortress that watched over the entrance to the Pasig's River. This is also where the country's national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, spent his last days before being led to which is now known as Rizal park for his execution.









Dungeons where prisoners were kept.



The Philippines posesses so much history and I really feel that by taking this tour it helped us to more truly appreciate Levi's birth country.


A row of Jeepney's parked at the Mall of Asia. This mall is bigger than the Mall of America. We didn't go inside, but the drive around it was a long one. They have little cars inside for senior citizens to use so they don't have to walk.


This is a picture of the open seafood market at Manila Bay.

Thank you to all of you posting on our blog. We really appreciate all of the comments and well wishes. Wes and I have never eaten at a California Pizza before and after several of you raved about it through the comments we decided to try it out for dinner. We will definitely be eating there again before we leave. I had pepperoni pizza (I never try anything new) and Wes had the Chicken Adobo Pizza which is only made in the Philippines. They were both fantastic! I left about a 4th of a piece of pepperoni (which Wes ate) on the tray just so I could say that I didn't eat the whole pizza! ha!


Earlier today, Wes and I had some time to enjoy the pool.


I just love all of the little ball shaped lanterns that look to be floating in the trees. They close down the pool area at 8:00 about an hour after it gets dark, so I hope we get to see them all lit up sometime before we leave.

We think we are going to visit Manila Bay tomorrow. The typhoon that came through earlier in the week left the area trashed, but we did drive by some of it today on the tour and we still think that we would like to walk the boardwalk area. Wes may even try out some of the fresh seafood available.

We're here!

Greetings from the Philippines! We're here! It feels so good to be on ground again. Flying to Manila is one looonnnnggg day. Over the next week, I hope to post almost everyday about our trip. We won't get to meet Levi until Tuesday so until then we plan to keep pretty busy getting out and about. Sorry if the posts are long, but I want to be able to document as much of our trip for Levi in the future.

August 5th/6th
Our drive to the STL airport on Wednesday morning didn't start off very well. Shortly before we left the house, I took my Malaria pill since we are supposed to start taking them 2 days before we arrive. Because I can't swallow pills, I have to break the capsules open and dissolve them in liquid. As soon as we started driving I got extremely sick to my stomach almost immediately. Wes was able to pull over on the side of the road so that I could take care of business. Luckily, it was extremely foggy so hopefully all the cars passing us didn't recognize me or know what I was doing. I have decided that I don't think I will do the Malaria pills, but instead cover myself in bug spray everytime we leave the hotel. It sure beats throwing up.
When we arrived at the airport, Wes had to walk through security 4-5x as he kept setting off the beeper everytime. Flustered he left his wallet, watch and sunglasses in one of the security bowls. Not sure how we both managed to not pick these items up. Luckily at the same time he realized that he was missing these, the airport intercome announced, "James Collins, we have some things at the security gate that we think you may really need." Knowing they had his wallet, they were asking him for his picture identification...glad they could joke about it.
My ticket at the boarding counter beeped when scanned and at first my heart sunk when they first told me that they had given up our tickets to someone else...but had
bumped us up to Business Class! I think the others in business class seats must have known this was our first time to sit in these seats as we were the only ones to order a Bloody Mary before 10:00 am. Hey, they were free and we were on the start of our "vacation". Jared, you would be so proud of Wes. He ordered a Budweiser product, but they only had Miller products, so he got a Sprite instead. No Budweiser products on our flights, just thought you would want to know. (My brother is a sales promoter with Budweiser so our family tries to be faithful.)
On our first layover, we called the girls and found that Papa had removed the training wheels from Jaidyn's bike and she was riding without them. Grandparent's work magic! We can't wait to watch her ride when we get back.
To those who will be traveling to the Philippines in the future, I am not going to lie...The Minneapolis to Tokyo flight was completely exhausting. We flew economy and it was miserable. Tight, cramped seating with only about 2 inches of recligning. Wes and I tried wine with dinner hoping it would put us to sleep, but no such luck. We didn't sleep at all during the flight and at that point we had been awake for an entire 24 hours. Here is a little exert from my journal, "Wes and I just looked at our watch as we are timing our 12 hour flight to Tokyo and realized that we are not even half way there. Only 2 1/2 hours in. I am trying so desperately to fall asleep as my eyes are watering because I am so tired, but just can't get comfortable. I can see the business class seating just up ahead-what was I thinking booking economy seating? Fluffy, reclining big chairs, yummy dinners of fruit kabobs and icecream, and each individual has their own personal tv. We are stuck watching an old rerun of Frazier." A crossword puzzle and 2 suduko puzzles entertained me to the 1/2 way point. Mom, you would be proud of my puzzle skills although I could have used your help on the crossword puzzle.
I did manage to finally fall asleep on a bench once we arrived at the Tokyo airport for about 25 minutes. I also slept through the take-off on the flight to Manila. Wes and I took turns sitting by the window on the Manila flight so that we would have a place to lean our heads.
The flights did feed us very well. Rice and chicken was one of our choices for every meal. I even had Chicken and rice for breakfast, which was a first. So much food was served during our flights that we didn't even need the snacks packed in our carry-on. Bread, salad, fruit, desert was served with the main entree every meal. Good thing I had a human garbage disposal next to me so I didn't feel like I was wasting so much food.
A typhoon was somewhere during our flight to Manila so we experienced some pretty good air turbulance, which didn't set well with my stomach. Wes turned all of the air jets on me and luckily I was able to get through it. I know, what you all are thinking...I am a wimp!
We took the hotel shuttle to our hotel and finally arrived around 12:30 am. We were going to take an airport taxi to the hotel, but when we asked we were shuffled towards the airport shuttle area, which was actually a taxi car anyways. The ride was CRAZY to say the least. They have lanes, but don't use them. Our driver rarely used his blinker, but instead would just honk his horn and then fly around another driver. We almost side swiped a huge bus, but somehow our driver managed to manuever us through the cement wall and the bus. Wes and I had our seatbelts on tight in the backseat and I am shocked that the driver wasn't even wearing his. I had been warned about Manila driving, but until we experienced it we really didn't get it. The hotel shuttle rates were 975 pesos which I think was a lot more than a taxi would have charged, but at that point in the trip, we just wanted to crawl in to a bed. We opened our room door and instead of the king bed with a crib that we had requested we had two twin/full size beds. It was fine for the night since Wes and I were glad to be sleeping in seperate beds as we had plenty of snuggly time sitting so close together on the 20+ hour flights. They are supposed to move us later this afternoon to another room.

August 7th
Not sure why, but we woke up around 6:00 am. Excited to start the day, I guess. We ate breakfast in The Jeepney hotel restaurant (part of the package stay). It was deicious and buffet style. My favorite thing was the fresh juices. I think they must have been made from a juicer. They were so much better than the overprocessed, sugary juice drinks that I am used to. Wes loved the salmon and fried rice the best. I can't wait for breakfast tomorrow and definitely won't be starving while we are here. Ha!
We walked the streets just outside of the hotel this morning just to observe the morning traffic. Everyone was very friendly considering the city atmosphere and the fact that they were all more than likely going to work. It was not at all like St. Louis and the "not-so-friendly" attitude that people in the city seem to give. We passed lots of people and I didn't see another blond and trust me, I was looking for one. I am sure we stuck out like a sore thumb. I have also noticed that all of the women were wearing panty hose with their skirts. In my opinion, it is way too hot and humid here for pantyhose. In fact, I don't even own a pair. The shopping experience is also quite interesting. In every area of the ShoeMart shopping center, the staff were all dressed exactly alike. There are tons of staff members. and every time we turn a corner, we would hear "Good morning Mam, Good morning Sir". It is almost like having a personal shopper right at your side. It seems that they don't want you to take anything off of the shelves. They are right there to grab it for you. We were also looking for some outfits for Levi today and everytime I turned a corner, I got asked, "What size?" You can imagine the looks that I got when I said "I really don't know what size he is". In the toy store, we were followed almost as if they thought we were thieves. They followed us down every isle. We didn't hang out in the toy store very long. Weird???
Later this afternoon Wes went and worked out in the hotel gym and I took a nap, a long 4 hour nap. I was so tired that I skipped lunch and anyone who knows me well, knows I rarely give up an opportunity to eat. :)
For dinner tonight we went to the Makati Hard Rock Cafe. Our waiter was very friendly and gave us lots of suggestions for our stay while we are here. Wes and I both bought a souvenier shirt, but I am thinking that we will try not to wear them on the same day so we don't look like a dorky tourist. We then cruised around the Glorietta Mall. It was so busy!

Our first day thoughts of the Philippines:
-All of the staff in the hotel, shopping centers, and restaurants are extremely friendly.
- The few people that we have told that we are here to bring home our son have told us that he is one lucky little boy. We however, feel that we are the lucky ones.
- Everyone is so tiny. I am as tall as most of the men. Wes is a good head taller than the general Filipino public. I also noticed that there are very few people who would be considered overweight.
- The Nalagan's warned of us the heavy pollution. I have to agree as there is a consistent smoggy feeling about the air and a distinct smell.
- Too much traffic, lot's of people, just a very busy place. It makes me appreciate the small one little stop light town that we live in. :)

I think tomorrow we are going to take a taxi to Manila Bay and Rizel Park. Hope the rains don't spoil our fun. That reminds me, we still need to purchase an umbrella.


Bags are packed and we are leaving for our drive to the airport.


The Intercontinental Hotel that we are staying at for the week.



A walk around the block from our hotel.


Busy morning traffic.


Hotel security officers hang out on several street corners. Wes was quite impressed with the guns they had strapped on them.


View from our 1st hotel room window.

View from our current hotel room window.

Makati Hark Rock Cafe









A Gold's Gym in the Glorietta Mall. Wes just couldn't help himself and had to pose beside Arnold Swarteneger.


Filipino's love Micheal Jackson too. Many people were gathered around the 2 large TV screes watching MJ videos and there was also a big memorial sign next to the TV's in which people could sign.