It’s been 3 years!

Where has the time gone?? Selling everything you own and moving to a foreign country is scary, no matter how much you think you know the country or love her people. Living in the Caribbean is 100% different than visiting the Caribbean, that is for sure!

St. Maarten has her own set of idiosyncrasies but we’ve learned to embrace them as part of the journey. When we first made this move we didn’t know if this would be a permanent change or not. We thought we’d give it a year then see how we felt.

Approximately 18 months after we moved here, a nasty virus we’ve come to loathe called Covid arrived around the world. We moved to our second location on the island, in Point Blanche on March 13, 2020. On March 18, 2020 the island went into a 3 week total lockdown. As in, you couldn’t even leave your house, lockdown. It was an absolutely horrific time on the island, and around the world, as we saw millions of people worldwide succumb to the virus.

While the world still wrestles with the ongoing effects of the virus, life on St. Maarten carries on. Two days ago we sat in reflection that it had been exactly 3 years since we arrived on her shores as permanent residents. We used the down time during Covid to obtain our permanent residency on the island. I feel I am now an expert in that process, and if you have any questions, please reach out.

Approximately three months ago we decided that we love this island, and after having made a few trips back to the US in those 3 years, came to inexorable conclusion that this is where we want to spend the rest of our lives. To that end, we began the process of looking for land. Ultimately we wanted to build, though thought we could settle for just the right pre-built property. Our hearts were truly set on building though. As this was going to be our dream home, we wanted it to be truly ours.

Our realtor http://www.facebook.com/woutoverbeek has been with us since our previous move and he is easily the best on the island! Shortly after enlisting his assistance we saw a property in Almond Grove in Cole Bay for sale. Through a few trials and tribulations to see this to fruition we finally closed on the property yesterday, September 30, 2021, almost 3 years to the day from arriving from the US to make the island our home.

Please join me as we continue this process of constructing the new home. We *hope* to break ground around the middle to end of November 2021 but we also have completely adopted the concept of “island time”. This will happen as it happens 😊. It’s ok, we’re not going anywhere!!