Bringing Mom Home to the States

Goal:

 USD $5,100

Raised:

 USD $2,630

Campaign created by Jason Holmes

Campaign funds will be received by Jason Holmes

Bringing Mom Home to the States

When Jason’s mom Patricia and brother Justin moved to Panama in 2008, they went to live and work there permanently. However, now in 2024, she is in extremely poor health and needs to return to the States as soon as possible. Following surgery for a broken hip, diabetes complications, and a heart attack, Mom is slowly improving in a nursing home in Panama, recently regaining the ability to walk short distances. Justin, who has his own serious health concerns, is not able to give Mom the care she needs. 

Adding urgency to her situation, while Mom was initially in the hospital for hip surgery, her home was broken into, and most of her savings and valuables were stolen or ruined. Additionally, her landlord has decided to do something else with the property she rents. Without a renewed lease, very soon she will not have a place to live in Panama. 

It is no longer feasible for them to stay, and we have a short window for action.

Our financial goal is to pay for:

  • Patricia’s nursing home and related care in Panama for the month of November (due Tuesday October 15)
  • Justin’s expenses as he handles packing out mom’s house and related work 
  • square away various small debts in town
  • Patricia’s flight to the States
  • initial setup cost while we help her apply for eligible aid


For years, Mom purposefully made her home in Panama a safe and happy place for the children of Ngoble Indians and itinerant Indigenous farmers when their families followed seasonal work into her area. Most of the children who showed up at her house were ages 3-10, as many as 20 at a time. In her little “school” sessions, she taught Sunday School, organized clothes drives, taught them how to read and write their names, led baking and sewing projects, played the piano for them, and found small ways to let the children know she loved them. When the seasonal work ended, their families would move on, different families would rotate in for different work, and eventually they would return again the next year. For the majority of the children, the time with “Abuela,” as they called her, was the most formal education they expected to have.

Jason and Joy have been partially supporting them monthly for almost 15 years, and friends of the family have given gifts when possible over the years, but these resources are simply not adequate for this need. Thank you for all the love, help, encouragement, and friendship y’all have shown us in this hard world. 


Recent Donations
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Mary Spears
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 50.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 50.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 20.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Meleah Bowles
$ 150.00 USD
1 month ago

Desmond Evans
$ 45.00 USD
2 months ago

Rae Sperry
$ 35.00 USD
3 months ago

David Smith
$ 100.00 USD
3 months ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 25.00 USD
3 months ago

David Smith
$ 500.00 USD
3 months ago

Bryan and Melanie
$ 150.00 USD
3 months ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 200.00 USD
4 months ago

I hope you can move her soon!

Aunt Susan
$ 50.00 USD
4 months ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 350.00 USD
4 months ago

Praying for success and safety.

Anonymous Giver
$ 25.00 USD
4 months ago

I am praying for Patricia and Justin.

Kristi
$ 50.00 USD
4 months ago

Ben
$ 100.00 USD
4 months ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 20.00 USD
4 months ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 100.00 USD
4 months ago

Updates

Update #4

January 12th, 2025

Dear friends, we are thankful for each of you. It's time for an update.

In October, we had a plan with some old friends of Patricia's who were willing to fly down and accompany her back to the States the week after Thanksgiving. This was great news and gave us a lot of hope. Unfortunately, this time frame began shifting, and they kept moving back their window a few weeks at a time. After multiple vague postponements, we've decided this was not a reliable avenue for bringing Mom home. We didn't give updates for a while because we didn't want to alienate potential help by describing the repeated delays, and it's hard to update when the only news is bad news - "hope deferred".

The good news is that Mom has regained enough strength that she no longer needs someone to travel with her on the flights themselves. Instead, we can hire a service to accompany her 1-on-1 through the airports, much more doable than an extra round-trip ticket plus incidentals for a second person.

The bad news is that the extra time has added about an extra $3,500 to our personal costs. It's not been easy.

The plan now is that Mom will fly to Missouri to stay with her sister temporarily, until she's re-integrated to the medical system and can move into an assisted living center there. For bureaucratic reasons, this integration requires a three month waiting period in the US. It is our hope and cautious expectation that she'll be able to fly back before the inauguration.

We have been humbled by your love, help, and prayers. Many of you have reached out for updates privately, and each time we have been so thankful to be remembered. We take every gift seriously - thank you deeply for your love for us.
Update #3

November 17th, 2024

Thank you again for all your prayers and other help! Making overseas arrangements over the phone moves slowly, and we're still covering expenses and paying off bills, but it's starting to come together. We have an initial arrangement to cover Mom's plane ticket and for someone to fly with her. We're working now on getting everyone's schedules straightened out - it appears Mom will fly back to the States shortly after Thanksgiving, and then we will work on getting her settled and re-integrated with the medical system here. Please continue to pray for Mom's recovery, that we can finish paying off bills, and endurance for both Mom and Justin.

Update #2

October 22nd, 2024

Thank you all, so much! For your generosity, your prayers, thank you for remembering us. I know I'm behind in updates and in my thank-yous, but I have prayed and thanked God for each of you.

Things have been busy, I can't say too much yet, but we have good hopes that Mom can go to a town we used to live in. It would be near old friends who love her, and within driving distance of family! I haven't seen Mom in person in over a decade, and my children have never met her, so we're really looking forward to a road trip.

Please pray for the situation, we think this is the best option. Our other options so far would be much harder to help take care of Mom, or even to see her. I'll post more info as I am able. Thank you again. God bless you all.

Update #1

October 16th, 2024

Thank you everyone! We've met our most urgent deadline, which was to pay for Mom's nursing home for the next month. We are extremely grateful, as this buys us time we need for her to heal enough to fly. We still have several hurdles before we can get her home - please pray especially for improved health and endurance for Mom and Justin both. Thank you so much for your gifts, prayers, and friendship.

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