Hello friends and family,

Our visas require us to leave Thailand every three months. Here is a story about our first border run to Myanmar (formerly Burma). Melia, with help from her Daddy, typed this story so her Grandma H can use it for children's story at their church.

We love and miss you!

Dear Grandma,

Here is the story about crossing into Burma and back into Thailand. We had to leave Thailand because we had to renew our visas from outside the country. (We have to leave every three months). So, just before our visas expired we went up to the border where there is a bridge across the Mae Sai river into Burma. We got there about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and parked near the bridge on the Thailand side. Then we walked across the bridge, but of course we had to stop at the immigration check points for the guards to check our passports. At the Burma check point, the guards said they would keep our passports and that we could pick them up on the way out. So we left them there and kept walking across the bridge till we got to the other side. It wasn't very far and after we crossed there was a huge street market where they tried to sell us all kinds of stuff. Mommy and Daddy wouldn't let us buy very much though. Mommy and Daddy did find a Burmese box to use as our missionary prayer box. After we went shopping we were hungry so we looked for a restaurant to eat at. It's a good thing we had a little map because other wise we wouldn't have been able to find one. It was just a little ways away from the market so we walked there and ate some rice with vegetables. All five of us ate for about $2.30. After we ate, we decided to walk around a little bit more to see if there was anything interesting. So we walked back toward the bridge and saw some kind of monument. Mommy and Daddy took some pictures of it but I didn't think it was very interesting to look at. Then we walked some more and went a little bit past the bridge but we didn't see anything else interesting there either. So we turned around and decided to go back to go across the bridge. It was a good thing we decided to go back then and not any later. We got to the immigration check point on the Myanmar side, they gave us our passports and said that we were very late. Late for what, we wondered? As we started across the bridge, first a boy started telling us that we needed to cross to the other side, so we did. Mommy gave him 5 baht for his help. As soon as we crossed we got to the first immigration check point and the guard told us to hurry so we started walking toward him faster and he kept telling us to hurry. Daddy went ahead up to the window where the guard was and came running back with some papers we had to fill out before we could go back into Thailand. He said that the guard told him the border closed at 5 o'clock. By this time it was already about 5:15. As soon as we got the papers, we heard them slamming the gates shut behind us. Mommy and Daddy were writing very fast to fill out the papers and Daddy took them to another guard at a different window. The guard told Daddy that we were very late and the border closes at 5 o'clock. Daddy said he was very sorry and this was our first time crossing the border and we didn't know it closed. (In our defense, it doesn't say in any of the tour books or on either side of the border that the border closes at 5pm). While we were standing there waiting for him to finish our visa papers, other guards were closing the gates to Thailand in front of us so it seemed like we were trapped there on the bridge between the two sets of gates. At last the guard finished with our papers and sent us with another guard through a special door around the gates. After we got through that door, there was one more little office where we had to go in and get our passports back. Finally, about 5:30 we had our passports back and the last guard let us out of the office and closed the door behind us. There were no more doors or gates behind us and we just had to get off the bridge and walk to our truck. Boy were we glad to get back to it because all our clothes, food and water were there waiting for us. Mommy said that if we had been any later, we probably would have had to stay in Burma overnight at a hotel. But we didn't have any clothes except for what we were wearing and we didn't have our passports either. In Thailand, you have to have your passport to stay at a hotel if you are a foreigner. We were so happy to be back in Thailand after that scary part when we were crossing the border. While Mommy and Daddy were doing the papers, Marcus and I were praying that they would let us through and God answered our prayers.

Love,

Melia