Why Mornings?14I had never been forgotten. All those years we wondered about
them, they had wondered about us too.
More tears and messages back and forth. I told her I’d be
in Manila in a few weeks, and she replied, “You will?! We’ll
come meet you.”
I never could have dreamed...
Oh, how He redeems.
%
Have you ever been so excited to arrive somewhere that when
you walk up to the baggage claim you start to cry?
Yeah, probably not. I didn’t expect to either.
It was the customs officer who triggered it. As she stamped
my passport, she looked at me closely and said, “You’re half
Filipino, aren’t you?” Having grown up in South Texas, I
blended in well with the predominantly Hispanic community.
No one ever guessed I was anything different.
That simple question from my favorite customs officer ever
was the greatest welcome she could have given me.
And so, tears at baggage claim.
Less than twenty- four hours later, the flood of emotion and
ugly crying hit the next level. It was Memorial Day 2011. I cried
the first time I met my precious Compassion sponsor child,
Maricor, and I cried a second time when our bus pulled back up
to our hotel and I saw a group of people gathered at the front
window. Watching. Waiting. And I knew. It was my family.
He redeems.
I raced off the bus into the hotel and the arms of my moth-
er’s sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews. Eighteen of them!