I can't believe it's been one whole year already! Even though a lot has happened in this one little year, the memories of us making that decision and actually moving are so fresh in my head that it feels like we just jumped off the porch yesterday! lol My last visit to Houston was January 2016 and I was still not too convinced that I should move to Houston, but when I got back home I said why not? My husband and I sat down, weighed out the pros and cons and after that our decision was made. We said "Houston here we come"! On February 22, 2016 we said "lets get to packing because if we don't we'll just find more reasons to stay." lol. We didn't know what Houston had in store for us but we knew we had to get out of Cleveland.
The next step was breaking the news to friends, family members, my Lux Beauties, and my salon family. Most people thought it was a joke, but our minds were made up! After making that list we realized that there were only a few reasons to stay but a ton of reasons to leave. Yes, we left behind people we love, and broke some hearts, but as I always say "we are only a flight away".
Our number one reason for relocating was to give our kids a better education. Many of Houston's school systems really invest in their schools. I just didn't see that same level of commitment to providing quality education in a public school system back from where we're from. Next, we wanted to show them that there is more to life than what our city had to offer. There is so much life and opportunity in Houston and I wanted our family to be able to experience that. Plus, the crime rate was skyrocketing in Cleveland, and the tragedies were getting too close to home; my oldest son understood what was going on and life in Cleveland was getting scarier by the day. Third, my husband and I just wanted to place ourself in a city where the opportunity was endless; living in Houston is like being a kid in the candy store. There's so much to do out here and everything is flourishing.
We were blessed to have some of our friends and family make this faith move with us; my friend Tiffany and her two kids, Justin's friend Juavarish (Varg), and my dad all packed up and move down together. We loaded up two trucks, attached one of our cars to one, Tiffany drove her car, my dad and Varg drove the moving trucks, and my husband drove our SUV. It was a trip we will all remember forever; twenty-nine hours later we were all in Houston with no plan! lol
We called around and found an extended-stay. We lived there for 30 long days! But, we were grinding during the whole time. Before the month was over, we had all the kids enrolled in school , Justin and Varg had their interviews and both landed positions with Dr.Pepper, Tiffany started her job at Sports Clips, and I started working at a Salon. After 30 days my husband and I found a beautiful place to call home. It's a nice three bedroom apartment in a gated community, with pools, a fitness room, a park and more. Life was moving and we were (and still are) so happy and so grateful for the way we were blessed along this journey. We really didn't have a master plan, we just felt in our hearts that it was our time to grow and we stepped out on faith believing that everything would work out... And that is exactly what's happening.
Part 2 coming soon!