It all started when…

It was the year 2009 when we lived in Kingwood, Texas; the suburbs of Houston, where we first decided to make it a goal to move to France with a target of May 2016.

So why France? Well, even though it has been a childhood dream since I was ten, my husband is French. We met in Houston on June 17, 2005, the night before our mutual friend’s wedding. He was there on a two-week holiday so, of course, it was natural to be engaged within two months and married within six, right?!? Oh, and on top of this, it all happened during an eight-month long distance relationship! Yes, you heard me right! I like to live on the edge and go for all what I want without any holdbacks! Sounds crazy? Well, to me, it felt beautiful, pure and perfectly sane.

We were married in a small ceremony in France in December 2005 and while we waited for my husband’s visa to arrive, I had to fly back to the states solo. Thankfully, he was able to join me in Houston in March 2006.  All was good in the world again, because we were able to finally be together as husband and wife. Shortly after, among our family and friends we were able to celebrate our big Mexican wedding on June 17, 2006. Yep, one year to the day we met… (cheesy, I know!).  Then, we had our daughter in 2008 and already with our many trips back to France my husband started to get homesick! Who wouldn’t be homesick away from France, right?!? Hence 2009 marking the start of our goal!

Fast forward to the year of our 7-year plan and to our demise it still hadn’t happened! May 2016 came and the year 2016 went!  My husband’s job search took much longer than we expected (try 2 years prior). However, we did move the end of May 2017. Oh, but it gets even better; not because we planned every detail and made sure that all the stars were aligned! Which would allow us to gracefully move away with a going away party and ride off into the sunset. NO! Not at all, not one bit. When it happened, it happened in a whirlwind and we left like bandits. If I can say one challenging aspect about the French: their slow dot dot slow dot dot slow A-D-M-I-N-I-S-T-R-A-T-I-O-N. Surprise, so WHEN we finally were given the official green light, we had three weeks to pull off an overseas move!  Meaning: moving out and sizing down from a 4,000 sqft home, sell a car and, much, much more. Also while we were keeping our jobs and worked hard up until a few days before leaving.  It was one of the most stressful times in our lives. Ahhhh, but France! When we arrived, and the dust settled, we looked at each other and said; “We are home!”