When we first started talking about leaving SA me and Cornel was all for it, but did not know where to start. Through friends of friends in Australia Cornel got an interview 2 years ago with an engineering company. He got an job offer that day but it was also the same day my dad was admitted to hospital for a heart operation. I was devastated, I remember sitting in that interview with Cornel with my cellphone on and not understanding what the people was saying because I was scared out of my wits that my cell is going to ring and it is going to be the somebody having news about my dad. Well to make a long story short we decided that Cornel will not take the job in Australia because we can not leave now because the time is not right.
So 2 years went by and still we had it in the back of our minds... Oz and the dream we have had since 1996 when we first started talking about leaving SA.
And then a phone call from a friend in Melbourne changed everything. They had a position available at their branch in Mount Waverley Melbourne and Cornel would be the perfect person for the job. So we decided after a lot of emails and phone calls back and forth between the company and Cornel that he would go on a LSD (Look See and Decide) trip in March 2008. He loved it and he loved the people and I can remember him phoning me on the Sunday and saying that he could grow old there. He came back and we decided to just do it. It sounds like an easy decision to make but no it is not!!! We went over every single aspect of it and had long lists of pros and cons. In the end everything was pointing in the right direction ..... just do it.... go and start a new life in Australia.
But how do we leave a life behind? How do we leave our parents and family and friends behind? I can remember that in the beginning I could not tell my mom and dad because I was so afraid I was going to brake their hearts. My heart was already so in turmoil although it was beating faster because of the excitement. How dare I take their grandchildren whom the love and adore away from them? This was the hardest for me!! I do not even want to start thinking of saying goodbye. But enough of this otherwise I might start crying again......
And so the whole roller coaster of emotions and feelings and preparations began....