Finally??

 This is a post I have meaning to write for over a year. The reason I waited is I was hoping to have a conclusion wrapped in a little bow. It is not that way... but I digress.

The family immediately post accident (End of September 2023)

In August of 2022, following our return to Belize God gave us so much grace. We were able to "pick up where we started" so to speak with our applications for residency. The original process was started in 2021 and almost completed before we left the country. There was a LOT of grace. Our friends were in a similar space and their application was dropped.  

Zephaniah working on his timeline for school

The unfortunate/fortunate part of this is that the process was made easier in 2021. The cost however doubled. When we had started the process, Abigail was a child and now she was 18. The cost for her residency had doubled!  Yes adults were double the cost of kids. We weighed the cost with the fact that to live in country costed us 100$ a month.  As we prayed about it we decided to move ahead with all of the residency applications, including Abigail.

Zephaniah and Zion ice skating in Merida Mexico on our last visit (Jan 2024)

We paid and put the applications through. We were told that it would be 6 weeks or so until we received our cards and things became official.  We waited and waited and waited.

Standing at the river for Zion and Zephaniah's baptism

Finally over Christmas, (almost 4 months later) we attempted to cross the border. Even though we were assured by the immigration office that our receipt of payment would allow us to cross, the officer at the border wouldn't allow it. That being said, he did make a call to an immigration officer. I spoke with her briefly.  Interestingly within a week we had cards in hand.  WOW what an answer to prayer.  There was one minor "caveat" they misspelled Zephaniah's name. I know people are surprised at that ;) They wouldn't allow us to keep the "misspelled" card until they got a new one. We had to await a new one.

Our family "pre accident" on top of a Maya ruin September 2023

It has now been over a year with multiple stops at the immigration office to check in on progress. There is still none.  We don't have Zephaniah's card. We are fortunate that with parents and other kids do have them. We are now allowed to cross the border without a problem.  We hope and pray that one day Zephaniah will have a card (before we have to renew them 4 years from now!) 

As a semi update, Nathanael was just at the American Embassay (Selah and Zephaniah got new passports) They gave him a name of a person to contact about the card. We hope this person is able to print it for us.