Our first day with Petch!

What an awesome day!!

Petch came to the hotel today and had lots of smiles for us, although he is a little shy. The boys were great with him, and did wonders for breaking the ice. We met in the hotel, and had a brief orientation. We learned that Petch is 9 now, estimated birthday is in August. We also learned the Thai say "Pet" instead of "Petch", but for obvious reasons you may all continue to call him "Petch".

We played in the meeting room of the hotel for a bit, then we took a tour of the hotel. He hasn't swam before, and told the Holt staff, Pat he was a bit nervous about the pool. All be honest it was nice to have an interpreter all day. Wish we had them everyday!! Then we went to lunch with the social worker, Pat (the Holt staff), and our family. They decided to go to KFC since Petch tells us his favorite food is chicken!! (Lily will be happy about that.) Petch darted out into the street about 10 times, so we could see we are going to have to keep an eye on him. :)

We ended in our hotel room, showing him were he will stay with us on Tuesday. He seemed to be pretty interested in all things electronic, so I guess he will be pretty happy in our family. Hehe.... He liked looking through his new clothes and put right on a t-shirt we got him. It was funny.

Things we learned about Petch today:
1. He is an active boy!!
2. He likes to smile.
3. He is interested in hanging with his brothers.
4. He can count to ten in English, but that's about all.
5. He is perfect! :)

Tomorrow is a busy day for us. We will meet him and the staff in the lobby and go to the mall to shop and have lunch. Then we will drive around 2 hours to his foster home and meet his foster family. We also learned that we get to see where he has gone to school which is very cool.

Love to all of you! Send us an email too if you wish at hollie.strahm@charter.net. We will be checking it as well.

Devan, Hollie, Gabe, & Joe