Ask Mike and Ma’at Arthur what makes a house a home, and they won’t talk about square footage or curb appeal. They’ll talk about pancakes on a Saturday morning, an impromptu dance party breaking out mid-recipe, and neighbors who show up before you even have to ask. “We believe we get what we give,” Ma’at says of their approach to community - and in the two years since the Arthur family traded Queens, New York for Shearwater, they’ve given plenty.

Mike and Ma’at’s story began as teenagers in Queens, introduced by a mutual friend in a twist neither could have scripted: Ma’at’s aunt, it turned out, lived next door to one of Mike’s closest childhood friends. What started as an easy friendship slowly deepened into something more, and after years of “talking, laughing, encouraging one another,” they married in January 2012. Today their family includes three daughters - Ava, 12; Zaria, 11; and Azalea, 7 - each one, as Ma’at puts it, discovering “the gifts God has given them” in her own time and her own way.

The move to Florida in June 2024 wasn’t just a change of address. “A recent goal to strive towards greater authenticity is what brought us to Florida,” the Arthurs explain. After more than two decades in airline operations and dispatch with JetBlue Airways, Mike retired in 2025 to pursue his passion full-time: Mike Arthur Photography, specializing in candid outdoor portraits that help families “cherish meaningful moments for years to come.” Ma’at, a certified special education teacher and former professional dancer who performed internationally, channels her own creative energy into Academy of Brilliance and Creativity, Dance Asante, and Mind and Motion - entrepreneurial ventures that blend education, movement, and community.

Shearwater, they say, felt like an immediate match. “We fell in love with the beautiful amenities, walking trails, and welcoming neighbors,” Ma’at recalls. The pool, the lazy river, the garden paths where you’re bound to run into a familiar face - it all added up to the “resort-style living” and close-knit feel the family had been searching for. It didn’t hurt that Northeast Florida also meant reconnecting with Mike’s extended family, who had relocated to the area as well.

As an African American family with roots across the pan-African diaspora and ties to the southern United States and Cuba, the Arthurs found something else in St. Johns County: history that mattered to them. St. Augustine’s legacy as home to Fort Mose - a site tied to the story of freedom for African Americans - resonated deeply, as did nearby Jacksonville’s connection to the Black National Anthem. “It is very important to them to have access to a city, variety of experiences and culture for their children,” the family shares.

That sense of cultural pride doesn’t stay behind closed doors. Ma’at co-leads The Melanated Collective, a Shearwater interest group she helped create to celebrate African American culture and build community connection. The group’s annual Juneteenth celebration has become one of the family’s favorite memories in the neighborhood - a chance, Ma’at says, “to bring neighbors together highlighting African American culture and intentionally build a space of belonging.”

Around the house, the Arthurs keep things lively and full of purpose. Meals are made from scratch - the family is plant-based, and weekends often mean testing new vegan recipes together in the kitchen or heading out to favorite local spots like Sweet Theory, True Food Kitchen, and Cava. Each daughter brings her own spark to the mix: Zaria writes songs and plays keyboard while nurturing an early talent for financial literacy; Ava paints, sculpts, and runs her own budding health and wellness business at local vendor markets, with law school and Harvard now on her radar; and Azalea, a self-taught gymnast who learned to ride a bike on Shearwater’s trails, brings boundless energy to everything from tumbling tricks to neighborhood races.

Community involvement runs through nearly everything the Arthurs do - from Mike’s volunteer photography for Impact Church’s creative team to Ma’at’s active role with the TCA PTO. “If we need anything, there is either a neighbor that provides the product or service or can recommend a local reputable place,” they say. “It’s been so seamless how we developed friendships with our neighbors.”

That sense of belonging, the family says, is what sets Shearwater apart. Monthly birthday parties, pool movie nights, community camping under the stars - it’s the kind of childhood their daughters couldn’t have had in New York City. “Neighbors genuinely care about each other,” they reflect.

For the Arthur family, life is very much a team effort - one built on faith, wellness, culture, and the belief that showing up for your community is how a neighborhood becomes a home. Two years in, Shearwater has become exactly that.