Thailand

Upon arrival in Thailand, we changed into shorts and purchased temporary SIM cards for our mobile phones.  Though there were still surgical masks in view, the warm weather and the ease and friendliness of Thai culture quickly lifted our spirits.  We spent the first few nights at a guest house just inside "The Moat" in Old Towne Chiang Mai (which is centrally located and surrounded by an ancient fortress-like structure and moat for protection from invaders).  Our first meal was at a simple, roadside restaurant where we dined on various types of curry and some Pad Thai.

After a few days, we were able to move into The Juniper Tree - a guest house frequented by Overseas Workers like us for R&R.  There were a number of other families there, and for the first time in 18 months we saw our children surrounded by friends who spoke their heart language.  We love China, but Chinese children are in school seven days a week and rarely have time for socializing except on bi-annual school breaks.  More than once I teared up at the sight of our three children ambling easily with their new cohort over the next ten days.

But during those ten days we were going to have to make some hard decisions.  Our original return flight to China had already been canceled.  We were already going to have to shorten our intended stay in Thailand and lengthen our stay at the guest house due to ICC's first Global Summit being canceled due to the Coronavirus.  At this point, we had three options.  1) Try to find another way back to China and re-enter an indefinite quarantine situation.  2) Stay in Thailand indefinitely without our children's homeschool resources and try to ride it out.  3) Contemplate returning to the US for a time to stabilize our family and then return hopefully sooner rather than later.

After days of prayer and conversations with people we trust, we made the difficult decision to return to the US temporarily.  But what about timing?  We knew that 14 days at that time was the magic number for quarantine.  So to ease our border crossings, we planned to fly on the evening of February 17th (14 full days after we left China) and transit via South Korea before hitting US soil in Atlanta on the morning of February 18th.

With both heavy and happy hearts (hating to leave but happy to see friends and family), we pulled our masks back out and suited up for the second leg of our unexpected journey!