Daddy's thoughts

What can I say about my little angel that has not already been said by her mother or grandma? I am certain my writing will not be as poetic as theirs, but I wanted to take a moment to share some of my thoughts from these amazing last few days. The flight over was definitely long to say the least, but it went by as quickly as possible with our anticipation on finally meeting our daughter. When Alicia, in one of her first posts, said the flight on the 747 from Minneapolis to Tokyo and from Tokyo to Manila was a "cattle car" in coach, she meant it. The airport in Manila was pretty chaotic, about what you picture or expect if you have ever flow into a major airport in a developing country. The city itself is beautiful as you can see from some of the pictures. It reminds me a lot of the Santo Domingo. They drive a lot like the D.R. as well, there is not even a posted speed limit in the city limits! However, with traffic at most times they don't really need one because you can't go too fast in gridlock. My favorite sites are looking down the side roads, from the main roads we are driving on, and into the neighborhoods and seeing the people on the narrow streets. The city offers everything you would expect from a metro area of over 18 million. Areas like where our hotel is located, Makati City - the center of their financial district, are a bustle with business people and shoppers. It is not uncommon to see BMW's Mercedes, Land Rovers, etc. Then there is the other side, ranging from shanty town like dwellings along one of the rivers not to far from Katrina's hometown of Cavite, to the high rise low income housing projects lining the city streets and railroad tracks in some areas. Seeing "street children" barely clothed breaks your heart.
Now to my little girl... I really didn't feel that nervous on our way to meet her. I guess 25+ months of preparation will do that. We had to wait in this little office for like 10 minutes, although it seemed a lot longer as you can imagine, for them to go get "Kat Kat." When they brought her in she looked just like the first pictures we got of her, only a few months older. I didn't want to scare her, but after a moment of looking at her in awe I grabbed her and sat her on my leg, the first picture posted with her on my leg was taken by Alicia's mother within a minute of us meeting our angel. After a few moments she recognized Alicia's face and put her arms out for her mother to grab her and hold her. It was truly amazing. For the first few minutes she was pretty calm, but then her personality slowly came out more and more. She is a very active little girl and will squirm and squiggle if she is not comfortable or doesn't want to be held. She loves to look at herself in the mirror. She also likes to be tickled and she laughs as she runs back in forth between mommy and daddy in the room and grabs onto our legs. I was worried when she woke up this morning, her first night away from the Hospicio, that she would be scared and not remember where she was. However, as I heard her wake up, at 4:17am for good, she sat up in her crib and just gazed at her mother and I with a peaceful grin on her face. She was a bit of a handful during parts of the ceremony today as she would have rather climbed a jungle gym then sat in a pew, but we managed. She is just so beautiful with her curly hair, long eye lashes, and full lips. We both feel just so lucky that god chose us to be her parents. It has been a whirlwind and a tiring couple days, no doubt due to the 13 hour time difference and the 21 1/2 hours of flying, but we are looking forward to enjoying the next couple of days and then bringing our beautiful daughter home to meet all of you, her new family and friends!