Why I Live Where I Live

...my TALE of Why I live where I lIVE...

Ahh, how this takes me back.

I have come to live where I live quite by chance and under circumstances which at the time were very heart breaking but now looking back was merely God working hard behind the scenes to pull things together for me. This is a story of ultimatums, hard decisions, trusting God and good old fashioned love winning out. So sit back and enjoy my little tale.

Having met my husband in my final year while he, on the other hand, was just in his first year of university and knowing almost straight away that he was the man I was going to marry (isn’t it amazing how a woman just knows when she meets THE ONE), I settled in for a long wait before the question would be popped. Hmm, I reckoned, I would give him six years. Four years to finish university and another two for him to settle down and plant his feet down in the real world.

Ten years later I was still waiting.

Oh, its not that he didn’t love me. On the contrary he was crazy about me. We were soul mates – we did everything and went everywhere together. But, as I believe it happens to many men, when it came to marriage a case of cold feet stepped in. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

Many tears, tantrums, threats and hours and hours of discussions between us and discussions with myself later, I decided to issue an ultimatum. Marry me or else…….

Four weeks later I am sitting on a plane and heading 6000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to England. Oh, did I mention that the ‘or else’ won out?

Heartbroken but determined to make the most of it; I flung myself into building a new life in England. I moved into a shared house, fortunately one of my best friends was living there as well so that made things a lot easier as she showed me the ropes and was a shoulder to cry on on those days when wave, upon wave of self doubt plagued me. Did I do the right thing? Am I ever going to adapt to life here? IIIIIIIIIII miiiiiiiiissssssssssssss hhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmm!!!!!!!!! This was the killer.

But then something happened: many months of telephone calls ( my phone bill was horrendous), hours spent on MSN messenger and a couple of visits to see ourselves in-between, my husband realised that the pain of being without me far out weighted the pain of being with me. Plus and this is a plus, he loved me more than anything on earth. And one sunny summer day, while chatting on the MSN messenger, he popped the question. Now isn’t that romantic and a first? Do you know of anyone else who was asked for her hand in marriage via MSN messenger? I still have a print out of that conversation as proof. Hehehehehe.

Six months later, we where married (back home) in a lovely little evening ceremony surrounded by family and friends. We came back to England were we had our week long honeymoon after which he flew back again. Please don't ask how much we spent back then on air tickets. Considering we were flying between continents, I can assure you it was A LOT.

It was another year before we were finally together - in England. Yes, we remained here and now it's our adopted home and we love it. We’ve been married almost five years now, have a gorgeous little three year old, bought a house and are planning for number two. We look back now at those days and laugh about it. But I can tell you we weren’t laughing much at the time.

And that’s the story of how I have come to live where I live.


Disclaimer: Issuing ultimatums do not always work and may backfire on you. So unless you are almost 100% sure it will work in your favour, don’t do it!