Our St. Martin Trip

Thank you to everyone that prayed for me yesterday!  The Lord really had his hand on our family during my St. Martin trip. He's so good to us!  My three major concerns were: 1. My baby Micah and how he would respond to formula and a day without nursing.  2. The weather...Tropical storm Isaac was strengthening just east of us an we wanted our boat trip to be safe.  3.  My appointment in St. Martin.  We knew a language test was to come and if I didn't pass I would have to attend a 4 month course.  Well, Praise the Lord, He worked every one of those things out for me!

  So, how about joining me to my trip to St. Martin...

First thing before I left I set out everything for Micah.   Buying all the neccesities for my baby was a little tricky.  First of all they do not sell Rice Cereal here for babies.  I always start my baby on rice cereal for their first "food".   They did have Vanilla multi grain cereal.  (I could have chosen chocolate, but for a baby?  nope.)  Formula was a little tricky, too.  I found some already mixed and ready to go, but it was expired.  no, that won't do for Micah, so I went to the Pharmacy and they sold me the smallest can of powdered formula they had.  Unfortunately it smells (or wreaks as Patrick put it) like fish.  There is fish oil in it!  I also had ready a bottle, a beginner cup, and a pacifier.

 Then, it was time for good-byes.  I really did okay.  really.

 Then, Patrick took Josh and I to the airport.  Our original plan was to take the boat to St. Martin, but we didn't realize they don't have a morning boat on Tuesdays, so we had to take the plane.

 I love our little airport.  Here we are walking out to our plane.

 Our plane fit 9 people including our pilot. 

 Here we are before we took off.  Pretty small runway, huh?  And there's the beach at the end, with the mountain shortly after.  But, these pilots are pros, so there wasn't any problem.

 Leaving gorgeous St. Barths...

 and arriving in beautiful St. Martin.

 St. Martin is about 37 square miles and is divided in two.  One side is Dutch and one side is French.  It has two airports.  Princess Juliana is the large airport most people fly into on the Dutch side.  We flew into the smaller airport on the french side, Grand Case.  Do you see it?  There's just one runway.



 Grand Case airport.

 I had called ahead to reserve our rental car from the local rental car place.  They are pretty cheap.  I found the guy in the red shirt and he led us away from the airport.  We walked for a little while then came to a house.  At this point Josh was a little nervous wondering where this guy was leading us!  In the driveway our car was waiting!  I actually think it was this guys personal car.  He unlocked our car and cleaned out his stuff.  Then, when I showed him he still left his matches, phone charger and MP3 player, he said just to leave it.  Okay.

 This dog has a collar, but usually you'll see lots of dogs in packs of 5 or 6 roaming around St. Martin.

We had a little trouble finding our appointment spot.  There are lots of one way roads that aren't marked in Marigot.  But, eventually we found the place. There were 16 other people there all with a 10 o'clock appointment.  It took a while, but eventually I met with the Social Worker.  My meeting went great!  I found out there are 4 visits at the government office left for this year on my Visa.  I told the lady I live in St. Barths, so she will try to work with me and send some of the paperwork to St. Barths.  It is obligatory for me to return for the all day Civic class on French History.  It's from 8am to 4pm.  They want me to come on the 31st.  So, pray about this.   I would have to go overnight because there isn't a plane or boat that leaves early enough.  She gave me my language exam and I passed!  100%  yay!!!!

Then, it was off to BK!  Josh and I were excited for some fast food and it was soooo delicious! (we don't have ANY fast food on St. Barths)

Then, we had time to do some shopping.  One of the necessities was to buy some Dramamine for my Josh.  When he went deep sea fishing in Florida he got really really sick in the rough water, so he was pretty nervous for a repeat.

Then, we took the 5:15 ferry and headed back to St. Barths.  The weather was pretty good!  In between islands the waves were pretty high and I only had to grab Josh's hand twice.  (I get that from my Mom,  She always has to hold someones hand when she's afraid.  I'm just glad I wasn't sitting by a stranger!)  Tropical Storm Isaac stayed off in the distance for our trip, which is an answer to prayer!!  And my Josh didn't get sick.  yay!

Arriving in beautiful St. Barths, but the best sight I saw was this...

My sweet husband (and amazing father to my children) and my little baby Micah waiting for us at the dock.  The day for them went really well.  Micah didn't drink much formula, but did eat 2 bowls of cereal.  Patrick said he was very happy and was a good baby all day.  Praise the Lord!

When I got home it was like Christmas for all of us.  We had so much fun opening our suitcases full of goodies.  I tried to buy some of everyones favorites.  Patrick even kissed the Captain Crunch bag, and Brenna almost cried over the lemonade mix!

Thank you, Lord, for such an awesome day.