Part of the adventure with international travel nowadays is getting there. The COVID rules for each country are continually changing, and airlines may have the wrong information. Do you need a Rapid Response COVID test or a PCR test? What type of international insurance does each country require? What countries require online document registration before traveling? Some countries only accept US citizens from specific states, but those particular states change daily. My October trip to Nicaragua included committing every mistake possible. I left Norfolk, VA, on Oct 24th and spent two days in Miami correcting everything. Due to a lack of flight space, I had to fly into Liberia, Costa Rica and cross the Nicaraguan border. When I arrived, I was informed by Costa Rican immigration that they had removed Virginia from their accepted list of states that morning. Still, after several officials discussed it, I was allowed to enter. Driving to the Nicaraguan border by car and crossing by foot was tedious but successful, and I was finally in Nicaragua by 5 pm on the 26th. My driver, Ervin, met me on the Nicaraguan side, and I spent about a week in Nicaragua.
One of my main goals was to meet with a Nicaragua adoption lawyer to clarify Nicaraguan adoption rules, which is a challenging process. The children in our Nicaraguan hosting program are not available for adoption, but we often get questions about the adoption process. We plan to have a Nicaraguan fact-finding mission trip for people interested in learning more about adoption. I also discussed our Christmas Wish program preparations and future Hosting Programs with my Nicaraguan translator and orphanage staff. Finally, I took the children out to several places, such as the beach and the amusement park. When I took out some of the kids for dinner, one of the kids said to her friend, “We could never have a meal like this at home.” It’s a momentary, small joy but nevertheless significant. Folk singer Carrie Newcomer has a song called “Stones in the River.” The chorus goes like this:
So today, I’ll drop stones into the river
And the current takes them out into forever
And the truth is most of us will never know
Where our best intentions go
And still, I’ll drop another stone
Keep doing small acts of kindness. It’s often the little things that have a great impact.
Ironically, the trip back was easy and uneventful. The COVID era is one of the few times in history when it’s easier to get into the US than a foreign country!
