Remember that I said it rained from Monday night, straight through the day Tuesday and all Tuesday night? When we woke up sometime between 2 and 3am on Wednesday morning it was still raining and I was feeling a bit panicky about traveling in the rain, the ferry being cancelled or delayed, etc. I prayed and prayed that the rain would stop. Finally it was time to get up and take my last (hopefully) cold shower and get ready to leave. Still raining pretty hard, but the waves did seem a bit calmer. As soon as James saw us, he signed boat and plane a bunch of times. I was pretty sure he didn't know Diane wasn't going with us. We had breakfast and James spent a good bit of time playing with Reneve while we talked with Diane. We took pictures of him with Diane and John, and with the girls, and then we us. The driver arrived a little after 7:00 to drive us to the dock. Our plan was to take the 8:15 ferry. James signed boat and plane again to Jesse, the driver. Everyone said their goodbyes and James seemed ok with Diane staying behind. He didn't cry one bit. I, on the other hand, really struggled to hold it together. Not because I didn't want to leave with him, because I totally did. But I knew how much these people loved him, and how much it was going to break his little heart to have them ripped from his life without much explanation. And I knew how much they were going to miss him, too. But I didn't want him to see me crying and get scared, or think this was a bad thing, so I did my best to get a grip! It was still raining at this point, but not pouring. The three
of us sat in the cab of the truck with Jesse, well smooshed into the cab is a more accurate description. When we got the dock, Jesse told us to wait in this waiting tent area and he would let us know when we could buy tickets. James played with the shark pillow pet we gave him and didn't seem to mind the wait. Once we got our tickets and got on the ferry, the rain started to slow down. The ferry wasn't very full, so they decided to wait a while for more passengers. Apparently this is a normal occurrence because no one else seemed bothered by the delay. I was trying not to be impatient!! The 8:15 ferry turned into the 9:15 ferry. But, in the hour we were waiting, the rain stopped! I was so thankful that the Lord answered that prayer for me, and that we were able to actually see where we were going. The passenger area of the ferry is all open, and they have tarps all around the outside. Once the rain stopped they rolled the tarps up. The ride was uneventful and about an hour and a half long. We did a bit of a dilemma as to how to get us and all our luggage back down the steps and off the ferry ourselves, but we managed in the end. The taxi driver Diane arranged for us met us at the dock and helped get everything into the taxi, which was really a van. James and Jason both fell asleep in the van for a while, but I wanted to see everything. It was exactly the same as the trip when we arrived, but still, I wanted to see! And the taxi driver was crazy! Like, scary driver crazy. But then, I think everyone in the Philippines is a scary driver! But we survived and stopped at McDonald's again for lunch just before getting to the airport. The airport was another adventure. Have I mentioned that I am not a very good international traveller?? First you go through rather ghetto security to get in the door, then you check in. Our baggage was over their ridiculously small weight limit. So we had to pay about 1200 pesos, again. Which I really didn't understand, because we now had three passengers with the same amount of luggage, so in theory we should not have been over by nearly as much as we were with just the two of us. But anyway. Then we had to pay the terminal fee of 30 pesos per person, and the go through security again to get into the boarding area. The boarding area is just a room, packed with people, with 4 doors that are the gates. There was a little snack/souvenir shop outside the very gross bathroom that did not have toilet seats or toilet paper. When it's time to board, they don't call row numbers or anything. They just put up a sign with the flight number and everyone mobs the door. But thankfully, if you have small kids they let you cut the line. So we boarded quickly and got settled. James went to sleep before we even took off and slept most, if not all of the flight. Once we landed in Manila, got our luggage, and found our liaison, it was somewhere around 6:00pm. We found a KFC near our hotel, grabbed some dinner and took it back to our new hotel. James was still pretty happy at this point. We got to our room, ate dinner, and went up to the roof where the wifi was to try and Skype with the kids at home. This was the first time we were able to talk with them, and the camera on my mom's computer wasn't working. And we kept dropping signal. I was getting frustrated, and apparently so was James, because the next thing I know he is freaking. out. So we said a quick goodbye and went back to our room. We got him ready for bed, him crying the whole time. We tried laying him in the bed and laying beside him. Still hysterical. Jason tried holding him and walking around. No luck. Finally I remembered the melatonin in the suitcase! Gave him some of that and eventually he did fall asleep. The bed was only a double, so Jason took the couch and I stayed in the bed with James. He stayed asleep all night, but he rolled around a lot and I got no sleep for fear of waking him up!!
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