I feel horrible that it has taken me so long to post since we went to pick up Joshua. I do have some pretty good excuses though. Besides adjusting to life with a very active toddler I have also had some serious health related issues I have been dealing with. About a month after bringing Joshua home I started having horrible reactions to the foods I was eating and found out that I have Leaky Gut Syndrome. I won’t go into a lot of detail other than to say that I have been very sick. Luckily I found a really good Naturopath who is helping me to heal so I can eat normal foods again. I am getting a little better and a little stronger every day, but it has been quite the struggle for me. I have had very little energy and have to spend a lot of time cooking my special diet, so I don’t have much time for anything else except for the most important things. I will try to blog more often now that I am getting my energy back, but no promises.
While we were in the Philippines I wrote in a journal every day so I could one day share all those experiences with Joshua. I thought of sharing them here, but not sure if I will ever get around to it so for now I’ll just give a quick summary. We were there for 2 weeks and spent the first few days in Bohol, which is one of the many beautiful islands in the Philippines. It was a bit of a culture shock for me, since I have never been outside the US(other than Canada). I am so glad we had so much time to spend before picking up Joshua, because we were able to do so much more than if we had him with us. We pretty much walked everywhere and took the public transportation which allowed us to see so much more of the culture and all the things you miss from the inside of a car. We did a lot of shopping at markets that most foreigners tend to stay away from. I was never really scared except for one night when we came out of a giant indoor market and walked right into one of the largest outdoor night markets in the world. We had a difficult time finding transportation and had to walk a ways through crowds and crowds of people. The hardest thing for me to see while we were in Manila, were the dirty little street children and babies. There were some who would approach us begging for money and it was so hard for me not to give them everything I had. We visited one other orphanage besides Joshua’s and both were very clean and you could tell that the children were very well fed and well cared for. There were so many beautiful children. It made me want to take them all home with me. The greatest lesson I learned from my experience in the Philippines was how you don’t need much to be happy. Most people in the Philippines live such simple lives, having only the necessities, and spend a lot of time with their families just enjoying being together. I realized, after coming home, how many things I own that I really don’t need. The simple things in life really are the most important. I guess with my health problems I have been having, that has also taught me to appreciate the simple things in life and to take the time to enjoy each and every moment I have with my family and those I love.
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