The Honeymoon

The morning after the wedding came very EARLY. We woke up tired, but I was so excited! We were on our way to St Thomas! The flight was good, nice and short. We slept most of the time.
Except when I am evil.

He hates when I do that.

We got to our hotel-- the Emerald beach resort and it was just beautiful. We had an AMAZING view.


Okay- now I need to tell you a funny story--well okay I was horrified when it happened, and I still feel embarrassed, but it also makes me laugh. In fact I was talking to Mr. S about it last night. Who would be horrified to know I am telling this story, but it is just too good to keep to myself. When Mr. S and I checked in, we used our American Express. Well they denied the transaction because Amex wanted to make sure no one had made off with our card to a luxury destination to have some fun. Well when we got to our room, I heard the phone ring (the front desk to tell us our card had been denied), but we were out on the balcony so I missed it. So after I am done looking at our perfect view, I go back into to unpack. Mr. S was not having any of that--we are on our honeymoon after all. Meanwhile, since the lady at the front desk didn't reach us by phone, the other worker was checking in someone else. Well since our card had been declined, it kicked us out of the system and put the next guest in our room. These poor unsuspecting people are so happy to have arrived to this beautiful island. I'm sure they were looking forward to getting to their room to unwind and relax. Instead they open their door and what do they see?? That's right, honeymooners getting it on. I was MORTIFIED. I'm sure that poor lady was too. Needless to say, I was no longer a happy honeymooner and Emerald Beach Resort was out a night of their money. But the rest of the honeymoon went on without a hitch.






March 14, 2008
We pack up and head to the airport. There is no easy way to start this part, so let me get to the point. When I planned the trip to St Thomas, I was not thinking. They said that we just needed our Drivers License. Which I thought was no big deal since Mr. S had one. What I didn't realize is that we would have to go back through customs to come home. I was so caught up in planning the perfect wedding and the perfect honeymoon, I had not stopped to seriously think it through. We got up to the counter and Officer Rodriguez asked for our form and our drivers licenses. He asked for our passports and I told him that we were told we didn't need them. He looked at me and asked me if I was a citizen and I told him yes. My heart was pounding so loud. He looked at Mr. S and asked him the same thing. Mr. S of course said No. My stomach fell out. I could literally feel my whole world tumbling down. They pulled us aside and into the customs office. They looked up Mr. S's information and told me they would have to detain him until the figured things out. I cried and cried. I made Mr. S call my Dad. Mr. S kept telling me that everything would be alright. It was fine, he would be home soon. That he loved me and everything was going to be okay.

I was a wreck. In a minute, in one minute my entire world had come crashing down. They told me I needed to leave to try and catch my flight. They gathered my belongings and put me through security. And wouldn't you know I had been randomly chosen to have additional security screening. The poor lady who was screening me. She sat me down and asked me what was wrong and of course I started bawling all over again. I was crying so hard I could not breathe. She got me some water, I gathered my things and went to the gate. I walked into the boarding room and it was empty. The plane had left. I sat down and cried. I cried and cried. Then the cleaning lady came in and said, "you know that plane's not going to come back." I wanted to kill her, i turned to her and said, "Of that, I am well aware." That was the only plane leaving for the day, I would have to fly home tomorrow. I had to wait forever to go see the ticket people at the airport. I think at this point I had stopped crying. I was in a daze, everything felt so foggy.

I finally get in a taxi and to go back to the hotel. They were booked for the night. I started to cry again, I didn't know what to do, where to go. I was alone. We had turned in the rental car. The lady at the counter was nice enough to call around for me and find one at the holiday inn. It was in the middle of town surrounded by a huge fortress like gate. I went to my hotel room and crawled on the bed. I bawled for hours. I cant even remember anything except crying. I talked to my Dad a couple of times. Customs finally called to tell me that Mr. S was being taken to the jail on the island. I sat up all night, watched the news, and cried. I had never cried so much in my life.

The next morning I went to the jail. Things are so dysfunctional over there. I wandered past security stations because no one was there until I finally ran into someone who told me what to do. So I called up to the third floor and they told me I would have to wait until Tuesday before I could see him. At which point I sobbed until he told me to come back in an hour to talk to the supervisor. The supervisor got back in two hours and told me I would be allowed to see Mr. S for 5 minutes. He also told me how to get Mr. S a money order so he could have some money here. So I ran around the island to the post office just in the nick of time before it closed and got the money order. They let me see Mr. S. But it was scary. It was behind a plate of glass, you know where you have to pick up the phone to talk? That was the last time I saw my husband. I cried some more. Mr. S told me to be strong, that it would be okay. He was fine where he was and it would be soon we would be together again. Two hours later I boarded the plane to come home.

It is so difficult for me to tell that story because all the emotions come rushing back. It was one of the worst days of my entire life. Since then, Mr. S has been housed in Puerto Rico(because they have a bigger facility than St Thomas). They have charged him criminally for Entry without proper documentation. The maximum penalty for that is six months. He has now been there for seven months. We are waiting for a decision on a motion to dismiss and a sentencing hearing. We have been told that will happen in November. I pray to God every day that is the case. It has been pushed back 5 times now. It is very difficult to get anything in St Thomas done. Please pray that the case is dismissed because if so it will really help Mr. S's immigration case. After criminal proceedings, Mr. S will continued to be detained because of immigration. We will then begin immigration proceedings. We have a really great immigration lawyer thanks to Wendy ! She is how I started back into blogging. Wendy and Leo had their own battle with immigration and our lawyer Linda really helped. Linda believes that she may be able to get Mr. S out on bond so he can come home while we go through immigration proceedings. She believes that the strongest possibility is that we will need to go back to Brazil while we work on papers for Mr. S. I pray every day that if that is the case that we will be able to return to the USA. While I am scared to have to move to Brazil, I am excited for the opportunity as well. I miss Mr. S every single day. We never dreamed it would take this long and we pray every day that it will be over soon and he will be out of jail. I can not wait for his return and for us to begin a life together where ever that may be. So this is my story of the road less traveled. It is only the beginning and I am so glad to have met so many of you wonderful people. It has been so fun thus far to learn about your lives and to be able to tell you about mine. Thank you for the support, I promise you, you have no idea how much it means.

"Hope is a rare gift, that if we are lucky, comes to us with the power to heal our lives. I've come to know that the deepest sense of hope often springs from the hardest lessons in life. It is in the darkest skies that the stars are best seen- perhaps it is divine irony that within the darkest moments we are capable of revealing the greatest light, demonstrating what is best with humanity."
--Richard Paul Evans--