Our story could be the setting of a romantic movie: Two people (this would be us, Jeroen and Michelle), both living at the other end of the world, got in touch with each other and eventually fell in love. After a while they decided it was time for the next step, marriage, but then one of them needed to relocate to a whole different country in order to be able to be together.
The above is basically our story in short. We’re Jeroen and Michelle and can now be called husband and wife, as the United States immigration services has approved Jeroen’s marriage visa and we’re currently married and residing together. Jeroen is from the Netherlands and Michelle is born and raised on one of the paradise islands of Hawai’i (USA).
We gave the relocation a lot of thought and after weighing in all pros and cons, we decided it would be best to let Jeroen move to Hawai’i.
A few things that played along in our decision were the wish of Michelle’s mother to have her taking over her mother’s business, Jeroen being able to speak English without much problem and that it might be hard for Michelle to find a job in the Netherlands as she didn’t speak much Dutch. Another reason was the harsh Dutch rules on immigration and there were some more reasons for us to choose for this little rock in the Pacific.
We may possibly decide in the future to move to some other place on this planet but for now we’re still happy in Hawai’i. And since August 25, 2009, even more so as our first child, Isabella, showed herself on that date.