Still...Stuck in America

Well as most of you have noticed, we have been in America a LONG time. We always intended to come back to give birth to baby Quinn and return to Thailand as soon as possible. Unfortunately with COVID continuing on, the Thai borders have remained very tight.

(Here's what we look like the longer we remain in the USA...just kidding it's just Halloween ;))

For months now we have been trying to figure out how to get back home. This is our busiest time of year doing trainings in the jungle and we are so sad to miss it all. I've started feeling like I'm running on a treadmill going nowhere- we keep getting leads for options to go home and then there's a turn in the bend and it doesn't work out.

Our Non-Immigrant type "O" volunteer visas (with work permit) officially expire on Friday. This is very sad for us. We spent the last year and lots of money to solidify a long term visa in Thailand (every few months spending long hours at Immigration and hundreds of sheets of paper with documents and proof of our work in country). Thailand is currently not allowing Non-O visa holders back into Thailand, though they are letting in certain other visas now. We thought we had an option to get a "B" business visa and that seems to not be working out, then an Education visa, but that is expensive and doesn't start till after the new year. Finally we have the option this week to apply for a 60 day tourist visa and hope that we can change to another type later in country, but they require birth certificates of children and my latest challenge (today) is realizing that Eden's is in Thailand at home (she was born there and its a Thai one!).

Other challenges were waiting for Quinn's birth certificate which took more than 4 weeks to arrive and then once we had it we could apply for her passport which took at least 6 weeks to process. We only got it sooner because I contacted all of our government representatives and finally our Congressmember's office had it expedited for me. Now with passport in hand, we still can't seem to find a way to go back.

In the meantime Adam did a mission with our organization to the Middle East (blog update coming shortly) and I stayed with family members in Oregon and California, taking care of the girls. Single parents out there- RESPECT!

It will be a long road even after we get approval to return to Thailand. Lots of hurdles to be qualified to even get on the plane and then on arrival we must quarantine in a 4 or 5 star hotel in Bangkok (expensive! But Praise God we have the funds already!!) for 15 nights before finally being able to return to Chiang Mai up north where we live.

I am feeling pretty discouraged today, homesick, and really trying to trust God, but we could really use your prayer. With all our hearts we want to go home to Thailand and continue our work.

Praise God for all the blessings and kindness we have received from family and friends while we have been waiting all this out in the States. It really has been amazing to see people's love pour out on us and the blessings of this season even though it has also been a challenge.

Until next time...

A+A+E+Q