Day 32: Why the Philippines?

People have asked us, "Why the Philippines?" and it's a valid question. We didn't wake up one day and decide to raise a Filipino child. Actually, when we started to investigate international adoption, we had another country in mind, chosen because it was supposed to be one of the quickest countries for adoption. We wanted another child so badly--felt desperate for one--and so the quickest deal seemed to be the only option. But my dad stepped in with some sagely advice, "Your country needs to be the one God leads you to, regardless of how long it takes." He was right. And so we started asking God what country He chose for us.

That's when we came upon the Philippines, or rather, the Philippines came upon us. God reminded us that years before, someone had said God would use us in southeast Asia. We believed her at the time, and sort of filed it away for the future. Was the future here? The Philippines was one of the countries our adoption agency worked with, and it was in southeast Asia, but it was also one of the slowest for adoptions. Nice. When we asked God what He thought, did we really want to know?

There are moments in life when you learn the truth about how something will be, no matter how undesirable or different than you had hoped, and you dig in and accept the outcome. You choose the harder road because even though you know it's the harder road, you also know it's the better road. That's when we chose the Philippines. We realized this was one such moment, and we needed to choose the better road. That's not to say the better road is always the harder road; sometimes the better road is the easier road; but sometimes it's not. That's just life. Our road led to Manila to a boy named Rex, which is why we chose the Philippines.