Heading Home!

Thank you for your prayers!  We are going to sleep for a few hours, then leave at 2 am for the airport.  Our flight leaves at 6:40am.  We should be back home Wednesday evening.... Can't wait!

Halo-halo and Tiangge-Tiangge

We were treated to a favorite Filipino treat, Halo-halo.  It's shaved ice, milk, jelly beans, fruit, jello, and purple ice cream!  It was a nice cool treat after spending a couple hours at the outdoor market Tiangge-Tiangge!  

She also brought us puto and bought some siapao from a shop on the way.  Those are shown in the top picture with the halo-halo.

No, we don't know him!

More Random Pics

Derrick was so amazed at the story of Pastor John being bitten by a cobra and having to be flighted to a hospital off of the island that when he saw these dried pods on the ground, he was inspired to reenact the drama with Josiah!  The cobra ( a.k.a. Pod) is about to strike!

POOR GUY!  We felt so bad that he was sick!  What a blessing that Ate Virgie and Pastor Marlon were there to help and to talk with him about how he was feeling.  They told us several times that he said he was happy with his family, that he was not scared or upset, just that he was feeling sick and tired (he barely slept the night before we came.)

Hot Japanese corn from roadside vendors!  Also from roadside vendors:  buko - which is coconut juice we drank straight from a coconut with straws ... And also fresh beef for the next day's soup!

Random Pics with Little or No Explanation!

Isaac Jazhel Ritchie

6.13.2013

(Thank you, Lindsey Kerby for making his dog tag!!  He loves it!)

This paper we signed at ICAB will be left in a file so that Isaac can come back someday to research his adoption story.  We both wrote a message to him on this form.  A very emotional message for me to write!

Church on Sunday

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Church at Fishport with Pastor John And Virgie and their children, Israel and Hannah.

Children at Fishport waiting for Sunday School

Church at Sunrise with Pastor Marlon, who is also our driver.  This church is a daughter church of Fishport.

We had Dinner after the two church services at pastor John and Virgies home.  It was all amazing, and our Isaac especially appreciated the large spread of traditional food.  Have I told you how amazing our guides have been?  

Pastor John asked a neighbor to borrow their tricycle for the boys to try.  As soon as he pushed it over, a bunch of children hopped aboard!  So fun.  He also got a motorized tricycle to come by, so Derrick, Josiah, Isaac and Pastor John took a tricycle ride around town and came back very sweaty!

Friday After Picking Up Isaac

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We drove 2 hours to get to Ma-ma's Hope to get Isaac, so since it was only one hour further to go to Tagaytay, we decided to go for it.  First, the boys did the zip line.  The first trip over all three went together.  On the return trip, Josiah and Isaac went together superman style.  Then Derrick returned solo, also quite the superman.

We bought a jeepney ride up to the top of People's Park where we could look out over Lake Taal and the Taal Volcano.  We also paid 5 pesos to use the restroom before we went up...They had a special way to take care of flushing, therefore the fee!  The boys all bought hats because we weren't prepared for the excursion.

This picture is so funny... Ate Virgie had us doing the popular Asian thing with our hands to our faces for photos.  Derrick and Josiah are showing "handsome boy" and Karen is showing "beautiful girl" and Isaac is... Wait a minute!  Isaac isn't doing anything!  The Americans are doing the Asian thing, and our Asian is not!   (Taal Volcano is in the background.)

Email and Blog

We have not been able to email like we hoped, and blogging is, so far, a hassle too.  We will try to post more later, but I guess the Philippines doesn't like our consolidated server... We are receiving messages buy cannot send messages, and we can't login to the consolidated website either!

If you want to send a message that we can reply to, send it to 

ritchies.1997@yahoo.com.

We also have to pay for wifi here at the hotel so we aren't logging on very often.  It's crazy expensive!  I just paid for 1hour at 3:20 am since I am wide awake, so I'm about out of time for now.  We will try to find free wifi at the mall next door so we can email and blog some more soon.