Hello to all of you wonderful souls and thank you for visiting Rachel and Ocean's Gofundme profile! Thank you to everyone who has supported them during this difficult time. They could not have made it through this without all of your invaluable support! Here is the update of what has been going on since the original post was created.

***If you are not aware of the situation that unfolded in August 2025, please read the backstory at the end of this post.

Update: March 2026

On January 6, Rachel was released from prison with a 5 year community service sentence and a $1,000 fine, so she could go back to Santa Fe and live with Andros. She is not permitted to live in their house on the farm until further notice, so she is currently renting a house in Santa Fe town. She has returned to homeschooling Andros and working as a massage therapist, while attending community service in Santiago one day per week.

Each month, she is required to bring verification of her judicial good standing to Immigration in Panama City because her residency visa was suspended. There will be a process to determine whether or not she will get it back at the end of her 5 year sentence.

On January 6, Ocean was sentenced to 12 years in the Santiago prison, about a hour away from Santa Fe. Rachel is now able able to visit Ocean for the alotted 8 minutes, every 2 weeks. Andros is only allowed a visit once every 3 months because that is protocol for all minors. Ocean is a transgender woman in a men's prison. She has been resilient in maintaining her physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. She keeps to herself and occupies her time with arts and crafts, writing, Qigong, yoga and is studying Arabic and Spanish. She is taking the courses offered at the prison and plans to begin a second university degree program, or post-gradute program by the fall.

The family is doing the best they can with the situation. Everyone is very grateful that Andros is back with Rachel, and that Rachel has her freedom. There are many pieces to clean up and recover from- emotional, financial, social, and legal. They are facing high legal debts, in addition to financial losses (police confiscated savings from their home, as well as destroyed and stole valuables), and 6 months in jail without income. With the property abandoned for 5 months, there was loss of cacao and coffee production, theft of valuables, and structural damage due to termites throughout the house. Rachel will soon begin making necessary repairs to their home.

Thank you for all of your support! It has been invaluable in this process!

***Backstory:

In August, their family's life was unexpectedly turned upside down when a larger investigation into drug-related activities in their small mountain town unfortunately lead authorities onto their farm, and into their home, where they discovered Ocean's supply of organically-grown medicine within a refrigerator. The consequences of this event have been severe and traumatic and highlight the violence and injustice of the legal system in Panamá.

Ocean and Rachel took a leap of faith in life in pursuit of their shared dream, to live life guided by integrity, creating a family in the jungle, striving for sustainability and the freedom to explore the depth of their creativity . Fithteen years ago they began a permaculture-inspired farm, growing most of their food, and planting an arc of botanical diversity, with the intention of restoring the land to a productive ecosystem for all living things. It was there they homeschooled their child, whom at 12 years old, has become one with his natural surroundings, developing a deep passion for ornitholgy and photography of the plethora of exotic birds and other wildlife native to the area. Raised within their small community, he was blessed to safely explore forests and play in rivers with friends he has known his entire life.

Rachel and Ocean have always prioritized the health and wellness of their family & community, weaving experiences that would be priceless education and opportunity into their everyday lives.

Now, as they challenge their case within the Panamanian courts, they have quickly accrued mounting legal expenses. While family and community have stood by in support of many of these expenses, caring for their child, home and animals, collection of supplies and funds for two parents' mínimal existance in Panama's, chaotic and over-crowded prison system, they must seek additional means of financial assistance at this time.

Their child requires financial support to continue his homeschool education with the family that has graciously accepted him into their home.

Life in Panama's prisons is not free. Both Ocean and Rachel require funds to cover the cost of communication, food, clothing, bedding and the most basic of necessities like toiletries, including toilet paper, laundry, dish, and bath soap and all other basic living supplies, as little, if much at all, is provided by the prisons.

Your gift will greatly benefit this lovely family at this time, but what they ask for most of all are for your prayers and blessings.

Thank you, and bless all of you for your contributions❤️