Leaving home

After 8 months of going backwards and forwards between Perth and Houston, we made a decision that if we where going to try and make this work we needed to spend more time together. Get to know each other outside of the bubble that is a 3 week holiday, and see if we really loved each other as much as we said we did.
My fiancé is a single Mum. She has a 12 year old daughter who is in Grade 7, and her only family besides her is her Mother who also lives in Texas. In my head it was easier to pack my bags up and go over there....It was also a way out of a hideous work environment that had trapped me into staying for the exuberant amount of money they paid, but which had eaten away at my soul and made me question everything I was and how I related to people. I had lost hope, and in my profession, that is professional suicide...
I wanted the challenge, the excitement, the adventure that most Sagittariuses crave...And hell I had fallen completely and utterly in love with a woman who lived on the other side of the world. Making the decision to quit my job, rent my house, leave my family, my friends, my fur children and become officially unemployed all seemed easy when I hadn't actually done it yet.

Anyone who knows me, knows the strong connection I have with my 2 rescue pups. They show me unconditional love, pick me up when I am sinking into the quicksand that is depression, and never leave my side - even when I take a shit! The decision to give them to someone to look after for 90 days was harder than I imagined. It felt like I was dumping them to go and have fun and not care about their needs - I felt like a selfish asshole who had no right to have animals. It weighed heavily on me, but I was completely blessed to have a friend who I would call a "Crazy Dog Lady" take them on with her dog and family, on a 5 acre property in my families hometown. Her place is doggie heaven, and my two adored her fur child and family - it was a win, win.
This was driving them down to their new home. They had no idea that we weren't going to stay at my sisters, but I was leaving them away from me for 90 days, and I wouldn't be coming back in the morning to pick them up. I cried driving down the driveway looking at them chasing balls in the rear vision mirror. I had no idea how they had filled my life so much, as I did that day when I knew I wouldn't be waking up with them tomorrow.

And then these moles...My family I choose for myself in Perth. Always there to have a laugh, talk shit, make a coffee, drink booze, cook food, laugh at bullshit, listen at early hours of the morning, tell it how it is but hold you gently, have your back no matter what, lend a million favours, look after your car, animals, houses. Look after me. How could I give that up? My safety net?

But it was about stepping of the edge. Taking a risk - that many might find and say was completely stupid and ridiculous. But I was at a point in my life were I whole hearted believed that I had nothing to lose. So I packed my belongings into 2 suitcases, rented my house, jumped in a cab and left.

Sitting around Dubai airport for 4 hours seemed like 4 days...For some reason this seemed excruciatingly long, when in reality it was the shortest stop over I had had in the last 3 flights

I touched down on February 26th at 17.00 hours at Houston George Bush International Airport. Me, my 2 suitcases, my hair and a gut full of excitement mixed with "what the fuck have I done". I was freezing my ass of for the first time ever in Houston awaiting for my fiancé to pick me up. She was stuck in traffic and the longer the wait, the more butterflies joined the flight in my stomach and I wasn't sure if I was going to pass out with excitement to see her, or shit myself like a newborn with no control over their bowels.
Every Mini Cooper that drove up, made my stomach leap. An hour passed and then there she was. Thankfully I didn't shit my pants, but wrapped my arms around her, pulled her close, and nuzzled my nose into her hair and inhaled...she smelt exactly the same...she smelt like home.