Formatting A Date Value

I have a column with dates formatted as yyyy-mm-dd (2006-12-21). Then I have a cell with data validation set to a list based off that column, formatted the same way. The problem I run into is that, let say I select 2006-12-21, the value is returned as 12/21/2006. The reason this is a problem is later in my macro, I am using the value to open a file based off that date. I currently have the files named in the same format (2006-12-21.xls). So when the macro goes to open the file, it errors out saying it cannot find 12/21/2006.xls. I have no problem changing the name format for my dated files, however, as you are aware, slashes cannot exist in the file name.

So my question is, when selecting my yyyy-mm-dd formatted date, how to I get the macro to not read the value as mm/dd/yyyy? If it helps, here is the code I am using to retrieve the value:


startDate = Worksheets("Macro").Range("B5").Value
B5 is obviously where the drop down is.