The road home!

After the visit with Allan’s family, we had planned to travel through Nicaragua and Costa Rica for two weeks, arriving in NC just in time for the annual Hill/Craft beach trip.

Well, the Lord had a different plan, which turned out to be better than anything we could have planned! Because of a few slight (now resolved!) problems with Allan’s passport, we were forced to spend a day and a half in San Pedro Sula awaiting his passports arrival. San Pedro isn’t exactly the place you want to wandering around, so Allan and I chose to spend our day and a half wisely by wandering around safe malls. We visited 2 different malls and literally spent alllll day there: two meals and a movie!

This dog (yes, it is wearing a diaper and has a doggy-wheelchair) helped to keep us entertained as well as the giant soccer ball! We also got to go see Toy Story 3 (highly recommended! I cried!) in 3-D for $3.50. Awesome.

We decided we had spent enough time in San Pedro waiting for Allan’s passport and thought it would be best if we just went back to Copan to get it ourselves (someone was supposed to be sending it on a bus). Going back to Copan was such a fun thing to do. We got to see almost all of our friends again (because Copan is SO small!) and pretend we were tourists! We are so thankful to the IMB missionaries to let us stay at their house, fed us, let us play with their awesome daughters, and just so willingly offered their time to us. This was one of the small ways the Lord provided for us during this time.

During our time in Copan, we found out that the passport was in fact not there and decided that we should probably go to the capital, Tegucigalpa, to request a new one. We were discussing this plan at a restaurant and one of our Honduran friends, Josue, overheard our plan. He was excited to hear we were going to Tegus. He immediately called his mother and begged that she meet us at the bus stop and let us stay at her house. WHAT? Seriously, Lord, that would be too awesome? A free, safe place to stay in Tegus (also not the kind of place you want to wander around) AND a ride? Come on!

And it happened. Ms. Bessy met Allan and I at the bus stop (which was an hour late and made her an hour late for work), greeted us enthusiastically, drove us to the US Embassy, told us how to get to her work place, and reminded us not to eat because she had fixed us dinner! Seriously?! This was too good to be true. She had a beautiful house with internet and international phone that she let us use to call home. We could not have asked for a better set up. Thank you Jesus.

Turns out the embassy was closed that afternoon already, so we would have to wait until the next morning. Bummer…we thought. Over dinner that night with Ms. Bessy, we found out that the passport was in Copan and was going to be put on the Hedman Alas bus (because it serves as the UPS for Honduras!) the next morning! PTL!

The next morning we went to buy bus tickets for Nicaragua that left at 5am the next morning. We then headed to the Hedman station to pick up the passport. It wasn’t there. So we waited. It didn’t come. :( We asked the employees and they finally discovered it was coming on the 7pm bus but the parcel area closed at 5pm and we would be unable to get the passport that night. That was not an option, however, because we had bus tickets leaving at 5am the next morning! We had to get the passport. We explored our options and finally bribed one of the employees to meet us after hours to give us the passport. We didn’t know if he would show, but his name was “Salvador” (Savior) so we were hoping that was a sign!

We went to the bus stop at 7pm and there he was, package in hand. Allan and I gave him all the Lempiras we had left and joyfully ran to meet Ms. Bessy (who had driven us to dinner and then to meet Salvador!) We couldn’t believe we were holding the passport!

So we made it!

We left at 5am the next day and arrived in Nicaragua!

Nicaragua was beautiful. Unbelievable hot and humid, but beautiful. We went to an old European-style town called Granada, and then caught a bus with this guy and his cotton candy (below) for Ometepe Island. The island if formed by 2 volcanoes! While there, we went on a nature walk and saw real monkeys just hanging out in trees. It was quite a sight! It actually left me speechless because I was so excited!

After Nicaragua, we crossed into Costa Rica and headed to a small town called Montezuma followed by Monteverde. Montezuma was a beach (but not the kind of water you play in unless you like being crashed by 8 feet waves). We hiked to a beautiful waterfall and went on a boring nature walk. We thought we would see animals, but it was just a lush forest. It was pretty, but just a lot of green over and over again! We spent most of the time playing with Jenga blocks in the welcome center :)

Now, Monteverde had some wildlife! There was a sloth that lived outside our hotel and we went on a sweet night-tour and saw all sorts of creatures, included the insect that looks like a leaf! That is his wing. God is super creative!

The trip was fun, but I think the thing we learned the most is that the Lord truly is always with us. He so faithfully provided us with everything we needed, and the best of that in fact! We learned more about the importance of hospitality and just how important it is to make someone feel welcomed and cared for!

We left the Spanish speaking world on July 3rd! It was crazy, exciting, and sad all at the same time. I will miss it, for sure, and hope the Lord has Spanish in my future, whether it is overseas or not. I am thankful for the time I had there. I am also so grateful for the USA and clean tap water, air-conditioning, ice, chick-fil-a, the ability to flush toilet paper, and more than one choice of cereal!

We just thought this sign was funny. English is hard.