Residency trumps lease

I recieved a comment about 'signing a year lease', and while yes it is true we committed to a year lease, it was under the stipulation that our container would arrive and we would be granted residency. When you plan on being granted residency you act that way, then when someone tells you that what you've 'planned' isn't going to happen, you start to act differently. Did that make sense?

While researching how to answer this comment, I looked back at some of the websites and information I originally looked at preparing for the move, some things have changed, and some are still the same. For example, coming from North Carolina, we had to deal with the Ecuadorean Consulate in Atlanta Georgia, even though the Consulate in WashingtonDC was closer. The Atlanta Consulate website is a joke, and actually re-routes you to the DC website, but once there, you click on a link, for more information and it's broken.

And the tool bar down the right side, doesn't seem to work. I remember now, that this is when I emailed the Atlanta Consulate directly asking my questions, sometimes I'd get a response, but only two of four questions answered, sometimes no response at all. Geez, thinking back, this move has been frustrating from the start!

One of the things that has been updated, is the wording stable to the income requirements for the "pensioners residency visa". Many expats since being here have facebook messaged me stating that they recieved their "pensioners visa" without being retired on Social Security, but it seems since we've arrived, they have changed that. Our plan had been our rental property income and Mike's website building business to qualify us for the income requirements, but since arriving we have been told that neither rentals or self employment are stable enough to be considered. One of our rental houses just rented with a two year lease from the Housing Authority (section 8) and since this is techniqually money from the government, we will try it, Fernando is trying to call the Consulate to verify, Good luck!

So, there ya go, the reason that yes, even tho we "signed" a year lease, we were looking for other accommodations, because if the Section 8 lease doesn't qualify us for residency, we will have to leave Ecuador on Dec 23rd. You are required to have round trip tickets, so our plane tickets are for Dec14th I think, but they are headed back to Atlanta, and there's no reason for us to go there...we will just stay here in South America and continue our adventure. I've looked at Airbnb and Flipkey for Peru, and can rent a furnished apartment in Lima or other larger cities for under $600/month. (Flipkey is how we rented the Crucita house)

Above is my new motto, and I must say, just because this move has NOT gone according to plan, and all our worldly possessions may be lost forever, it still has been an amazing adventure! Mike and I are glass half full people, so it's been somewhat easy to "see the bright side of things" (Some days are better than others, but...) we didn't set out on this journey thinking it would be all roses and sunshine, we knew there would be hiccups, and we CHOSE to do it anyway. We are going to make the best of it, no matter what happens, no matter what obstacles are put infront of us, as long as we have each other, and our pups, HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS.

So, dream big, expect the worst, hope (pray) for the best, and live life to the fullest. We are not guarenteed tomorrow, but today...today is a GIFT. Stay tuned, the adventure continues!