The Tale of Two Parents

“You can’t go, I can’t let you board the plane without your yellow fever vaccination,” the ticket agent said after requesting our yellow vaccination books.

“What? We don’t need that vaccine, we checked. It was suggested, not required,” we politely informed her.

“But, did you go out of the airport here in Panama?” she asked.

We affirmed, “Yes, we were here over night, a quick glace at FB would have proven our adventures in Panama.”

“Then, you have been in Panama and anyone who has been in Panama needs their vaccine to go to Nicaragua.

If I let you go, the airline will fine me and put you on a plane right back here,” she said.
As the enormiry of her words hit us, with tears flowing we asked what our next steps should be. She gave us several options….the clinics aren’t open until Monday, so stay the weekend, get the shots Monday morning, wait 10 days and then you can go. 

What?!?!?! That won’t work, we can only see Amber March 10-15. Or, maybe they will let you in by bus?

You will have to call United since you booked on miles to see what they suggest, but I can’t let you on this plane.

We pulled away to a quieter area in the terminal…we prayed, Paul got on the phone on hold with United, texting Scott our ministry host in Nicaragua for advice, and Kris went to talk with different ticket agents. As time passed and the pits in our stomachs grew bigger, we contemplated flying back to the states so we would have a US passport stamp…that might work, but the Panama stamp was right there glaring at us and it was going to cost thouands of dollars. Even then, they might not let us board the plane back. We looked at taking Uber…30 hours, probably not going to work. We looked at flying to neighboring countries and bussing across where we might get stuck at the border. Could we take a boat, find a Aviation Fellowship guy to run us across??? We were desperate. After, what seemed like hours, we decided to change our tickets with United from Panama to Managua to San Jose, Costa Rica…where we were planning to possibly jump on a bus. Of course, one minute after we made that decision and started toward the ticket counter again, Scott called and told us, we shouldn’t have done that. The bus ride would require a 7 day wait period for authorizarion to pass and we probably wouldn’t be able to get through that way. Our hearts sank as we processed this info. As we went through security for the flight to Costa Rica, Paul hatched a new plan, what one way airline tickets are available from San Jose to Managua? Maybe we can skirt by the issue in San Jose. There was one nonstop at 7am, so we booked it and planned to stay in the terminal, leave our checked luggage in immigration and fly to Managua from there…not leaving the terminal. As we boarded the plane to San Jose, Paul was able to book the flight on his mobile and upload our tickets, literally seconds before we took off. Now, the rest of the waiting game began. We landed in San Jose and followed the signs to immigration, where it also said we could get our connecting flights. After walking down long hallways figuring we were nailed, we finally came to a split in the road…connecting flights went upstairs and through a new set of security, but we skipped immigration. After getting through that, we wondered how long it would be before they called us about our luggage…all the donations we were bringing for REAP. This was a cut and run situation. If we needed to leave the donations so we could get to Amber, that was an easy decision. We cased out the airport looking for the best place to hunker down for the night. We found a quieter location in the terminal and set up base there. However, it was bright, freezing, and a lot of people kept moving in and out of there. After resting for a few hours, and getting several bug bites, we relocated, to a smaller area in the terminal. We both kept praying, we needed several miracles. Around 1 in the morning, a strange number rang on Paul’s phone. Should he answer??? He did. It was José in immigration wondering why we hadn’t picked up our luggage and asked us to come out and claim it. Paul explained that we were sleeping upstairs in the airport and didn’t want to come down, the luggage needed to go to Managua with us in the morning….José looked up our newly booked one way fight and saw we were going, so he rerouted our luggage for us!! Miracle. At this point, we felt like we had passed one hurdle. Kris even experienced enough peace to eat some food…Paul was fasting at this point. We tried to rest until our plane left at 7 on Sunday morning. We did not have paper tickets, and this could have been a problem. We have noticed that these countries want paper and we have been sent to the counter more than once. Of course, the last thing we wanted to do was pop out to get the paper….and we had one more sigh of relief when the gate agent let us use our phone tickets to get on the plane. We texted Scott that we were allowed on and held our breath as we awaited getting though immigration and into Nicaragua. After our quick flight, we deplaned onto a mat to kill the germs on our shoes and were greeted with a nurse asking us about fevers and looking us over. We proceeded to immigration where the ticket agent asked where we are from and from where we were coming…the USA we proclaimed and with a stamp right next to the Panama stamps in our passports, we arrive in Nicaragua, one day late, but with enough time to arrive at the chocolate making outing we planned to do with the other racer parents as we waited to see our kids that morning. We arrived at REAP with all of the donations for the ministry and full hearts that God would do more than we asked or even imagined to make sure we got to spend this special week with Amber, her fellow racers, their amazing parents and REAP Granada. We messed up, but God covered over our mistake and held our hands through the process. We are so grateful and humbled by His mercy and grace. We were able to see three different countries, meet wonderful people and proclaim His goodness and care to all who would listen. Thank you, Jesus!