Only Good Things

"……………how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him." Matthew 7:11

I was thinking, are we in the wrong place at the wrong time? We left the Philippines at the end of 2007 as a family for US. And the coming year, recession hits the most powerful country in the world. I thought they said this is the place where you can have milk and honey. As my family adjusted to the place and kind of living, I realized this is not much comfortable as being in the Philippines.

We have a house of three bedrooms with lots of space in the Philippines, but in here we live in a two bedroom apartment where we have difficulty where to put our stuff because of lack of space. Since we have house help in the Philippines, we do not have to do laundry and all kinds of menial house chores but in here, I have to wash the dishes almost after every meal and help out in cleaning the apartment afterwards. In here, my wife has to be satisfied with a small washing machine/dryer installed in the apartment where in fact we have a heavy duty large washing machine in our home in Pampanga. We have only one car, insured under third party liability (TPL), in the Philippines; we were satisfied with that since public transportation is always available. In here, we have to buy to two cars, insured comprehensively (ang mahal!), for me and my wife and for the kids to have flexibility in their school activities since public buses are scheduled every four hours. We love to walk around malls in Pampanga each weekend and have our kids watch movies, worth P 75 per person, from time to time and believe it or not, in here we have not gone to a single movie theater which might be worth about P 750 per person (times ten!). We bring our kids more often to Kentucky Fried Chicken in Angeles City but in here we can't do as much as we want since it's not economical. We have no problem with the weather back in the Philippines and we wear only a set of clothing but that is not the story when you are here; you have to have clothing for the four seasons as they call it. We can visit lots of friends and relatives in Pampanga anytime we want to but we can't do that here; first, we don't have much friends and relatives to visit and second, we need to make an appointment to do just that. We sorely missed our catholic community in Pampanga since we were with them for the last sixteen years and now, we are adjusting to the catholic community we are attending here. I can go on and on but will stop here.

When we prayed for God's blessing, God gave it to us. We were in this place within six months and all expenses paid for the whole family. And the heavenly Father gives only good things. It may not be comfortable, it may not be like the way we want and it's not a fairy tale but it's a good thing. People think people go to the US and live a comfortable life. As I narrated above, this is not true at all with us however we believe we are here because God sent us here to bring us out from our comfort zone. It maybe for reasons for His kingdom, for our family, for our personal growth but the sure thing is, the Father gives only good things.