It's Official

We are now residents of Guatemala... well except for Eden, she is a Guatemalan. It only took 6 years! When we first arrived in Guatemala several missionaries recommended a lawyer to us to help us get our residency visas. Only thing is we live far away from Guatemala City. I guess it was an out of sight out of mind thing, because she never would finish. Jimmy contacted her repeatedly, but we finally realize she wasn't ever going to get around to us. Then we heard of another lawyer who is a Christian. 

{Back in April at the beginning of this process}

She is sharp too. From us getting all the correct paperwork together to us being in the system, it took about 6 months. We are so thankful. We haven't gotten the final papers yet, but when we flew out this last time our names showed up in the computer at Immigration as residents!!!!

Unfortunately there was a typo made when immigration put Jimmy's information into the system, so we had to return AGAIN to Guatemala City this past week to sign the last bit of papers.

{Leaving the hotel that morning}

Even with an appointment we waited for 3 hours. 3 hours with 3 kids under 3 is always entertaining... for everyone! 

They were pretty good playing with the educational apps on our phones (I know... lazy parenting, but they ARE "educational"). I also brought them a new letter tracing game as a surprise which ending up being a hit, except we all looked like we had gotten in a fight with a dry erase marker by the time we left.

Eden was extra cute that morning! I only have this blurry photo to prove it. One of the ladies asked to hold her and then took her off into the back offices to show her off. She was gone for a long time! That's kind of normal here. Then with lots of people waiting in line behind us the man doing our paperwork sat and played with his phone for several minutes. We weren't sure what he was doing and then we realized he was trying to figure out how to take a picture of E with his phone! Baby gringas must not be that common around here. Especially ones with blue eyes and double dimples! My kids get so much love and attention here. I wish all children were as lucky.

Jonah and Silas thought it was the coolest thing ever to get to put their thumbprint on our forms.

{3 inked thumbs}

We are so thankful to have this done. There are still a couple of steps in Petén before we have the paperwork in hand, but no more trips to Guatemala City! All of this work means we no longer have to leave the country every 3 months. As a tourist, 6 months after entering you have to either go to the capital or a border (Belize or Mexico, El Salvador is part of the CA thingy so it doesn't count) and pay to get a 3 month extension. When those 3 months are up you are required to be out of the country for 3 days. Border officials don't always make you stay out for 3 days, but it IS a big deal if you do not really leave or get an extension. We have been fined before because our visas expired on days we had teams here or for some other reason just couldn't make it in time to a border. Doing this for 6 years is very time consuming. Belize and Mexico are nice to visit, but not when you are forced to go on a regular basis!

Besides being able to stay here permanently, once you have your resident visa you can obtain your DPI, or your Guatemalan ID card. This is all you need to open bank accounts, get cell phone contracts, etc. Trying to do all of that with a passport is difficult. The DPI is also required to obtain your Guatemalan driver's license, and you can visit any Central American country as if you are a national and you don't have to have your passport scanned or stamped.

Crazy Item of the Day:
When we were heading back to the States a few weeks ago, we found out that at the airport they are now scanning your passport and stamping it with an exit stamp as you leave Guatemala. They didn't used to do this. It's not a problem, except that all of our passports showed up as being residents (thus excusing us from being in the country past our 90 days) except for Jimmy's because of the typo. They told us that Jimmy couldn't leave with the rest of us, and instead were going to send him to the Immigration office to pay a huge fine. The guy swiped it again and it still showed Jimmy as just a tourist and not a resident. To make matters worse, the official then realized that the latest stamp in his passport was an exit stamp with no entrance stamp. (I had to specifically ask them to put an entrance stamp on my passport the last time I flew into the capital because they think someone will do that in Petén but they don't.) Therefore, the guy said, Jimmy must have entered the country illegally. Illegal US immigrants must be a big problem there dealing with in Guatemala now! Then they threaten jail. After about 15 minutes of discussion and threats, the immigration official decided to scan it a third time and "Permanent Resident" magically appeared on the screen. But he tried a fourth time and it was gone again. One more try showed Permanent Resident, so the official stamped the passport without another word except, "Have a nice trip."

Tickets Are Bought

We have received Silas and Jonah's passports and have purchased our plane tickets. Jimmy and his dad are flying back next Wednesday. They are going to make sure everything is functional for when the boys get there, like vehicles, power, and water, and that all the bugs inside our house are dead. Then his mom and I will fly with the boys on Saturday. Home is so close I can taste it! I cannot wait to see my doggies!!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: Getting passports for the boys was an ordeal. We had everything that the passport application form said we needed before we left for the post office (in the ice and snow) with our boys. Well when we arrived there was a sign on the door that said we needed a photocopy of the passport customer's ID and that they do not make copies there. So we soon returned (in the ice and snow) with our boys and with photocopies of their birth certificates. This time we made it to the counter, but the lady did not like the photos Walgreens had taken of them. So we soon returned a third time (in the ice and snow) with our boys and improved photos. This time the lady behind the counter said, "A birth certificate is not a form of ID." Jimmy said, "Well is there ID you can get for a baby?" And here is my favorite part that reminded me this was run by our extremely efficient and competent government. "Yes," she replied, "... a passport!"

Back Home

Thank you to everyone who prayed for our trip. We left at 7:00 and were back by 5:15. We would have left earlier, but our bathroom was in the 30’s, so we left the space heater on for awhile. The whole trip was a big praise because we could have had to stay outside of the country for 3 days. Mexico was very different from Guatemala. It had street sign and lines on the road, plus a Sam’s. It had supplies like propane water heaters, propane stoves, and pressure washers. We basically just wanted to see what was available. We bought some groceries that were a lot cheaper there. No one even checked our truck when we drove back into Guatemala... we guess because of our tags, so we missed an opportunity to not have to pay taxes on something big.

{Jimmy in his cool hat paying for our truck fumigation at the border!}

Nery took over our class at Cristo Salva because we really want to visit different churches and see what is effective. We want to learn as much as possible before we start our work in the Petén. Tomorrow we are visiting a church in Las Mojadas with the Boggs and a team that came down. We have a medical missions team scheduled through our mission board to come visit in September for sure and then one possibly in May. Hopefully this will help us be better prepared for them as well. Please pray that we will soak up as much experience as possible these first 9 months!

Mexico It Is

Today we have to leave the country to get our turist visas renewed. We are driving to Tapachula while we are in Mexico. There is a Sams there for sure, but we were hoping that we might find some other stores that we don’t have here too. Please pray that we will be able to get everything done with the visas and return home tonight. Also please pray for our safety... there are really no good maps for anything down here. Thanks!

Jimmy was so excited about his class today. He had 11 students and pastors. He said everything went very well. One pastor came up to him afterwards and said that Jimmy must have prepared a long time for this class. I am very proud of him... he has worked very hard to finish his Spanish school while preparing to teach Greek.

Thank you for praying for Jimmy’s parents, they made it home at 12:30 last night.

While they were here they bought us a crate for Lucha... since she is so good at finding trouble. Fije must have gotten jealous, because today I could not find her, so I called her name and I saw her head poke out of Lucha’s crate.

Lucha saw her and started to get concerned.

After several months we finally put a Guatemalan tag on the back of our truck. Since we are crossing the border we decided we should probably go ahead and put the one on the front too. Mexico might be a little more official... I doubt it.

A Day in the City

After a day of riding in taxis with the window down, my contacts are coated in diesel fumes. I am very thankful for my new hometown in Quetzal, the air is much cleaner there. I thought it would be easier to find things in Guate, but it is not. If you do find what you are looking for it is a whole lot more expensive than it should be and a lot poorer quality.

We thought the City would be similar to the States, until Jimmy saw a heard of goats crossing a 4 lane road. A man was selling fresh milk for 5 queztals...as fresh as you can get.

While we were in Guate we did get started on the paperwork for our residence visas.

We also were able to get an extension on Jimmy’s truck. Please pray that we get our residence visas soon, so that we do not have to leave the country for 3 days every 3 months. That really eats up a lot of time and money. As soon as we get our visas we can bring in Jimmy’s truck tax free. We still will have to pay to register it, but that will save us several thousand dollars.

Getting the extension... doesn’t this look official!

Thank you for praying for us. We definitely sense God’s presence. Things are difficult sometimes while we are adapting, but our Heavenly Father is always faithful to encourage us. Everyday we are growing closer to each other and to Him.

Traveling Again

Updated by Jimmy:

Today we had to drive to Guatemala City. There are a lot of things we need to get done in the next two days. Our main purpose for coming was to start the paperwork on obtaining our resident visas. Once we have those, we will be able to bring in whatever we want into the country duty free one time. We will use that on my truck, which will save us about $4,000. That will also mean we are residents of Guatemala and won’t need to leave the country.

We thought that after our trip to Guate (the short name for Guatemala City) we would have to drive to the border because the 45 day permission on my truck expires Thursday. Thankfully, we found out that we could renew the permission in Guatemala City while we are here, saving us a lot of time and money. It should be so much easier to just do this as well.

The third thing we hope to accomplish is to buy some things we have been looking for the last month. Every time we set out to find something important, we spend lots of time only to finally be told that we can only find that thing in Guate... Well, finally our list is long enough and we have another reason to drive the 4 hours, so we will be trying to cross some things off our list as well.

Done With the Border

After 8 hours and $400 they are finally through the border. Please pray that they will be safe all the way to Guatemala City. They were given a hard time at the border and are still concerned. Just pray. Thanks!

At the Border

Jim and his dad are crossing the Guatemalan border this morning. Please pray that it goes smoothly. It only takes about 3 hours to get to Guatemala City from there and that is where they are going to pick me up and drop Larry off. Jimmy said that they had to go 1,000 miles into Mexico before they were stopped at a military check point. About six guys with assault rifles stopped them. There was a Hummer with a .50 cal pointed at them too. They both got out for questioning. One of the men started talking to Jim’s dad in Spanish. He yelled for Jim to come and translate. Jim said he was trying to ask if he could open the back of the truck. Jimmy’s dad said, “Why would he ask, he has the gun.” Jim told them he was a missionary moving to Guatemala. They really like Jim’s truck bed cover and wanted to see how it worked. Please pray for their health, they are both exhausted. Thanks!