[quote=chacho_keva;9736727][b]I thank you all for contributing your POV's. I'd like to make an attempt at responding to some of the questions several of you have raised.
Lovesmountains is absolutely right! I love my birthplace. I do not love Anne. I have a deep emotional connection with her. The connection is so deep that I care for Anne and have her best interest at heart. For this reason I had determined to tell her about my decision immediately. Had I not cared about her, I would have strung her along for as long as possible. I could've taken advantage of her emotions for as long as I pleased. Conversely, I chose what was best for her at the cost of our relationship.
Although we both have children of our own, Anne and I are slightly beyond child bearing years. Mine are adults. Her's are relatively young. Her children will inevitably force her to stay put for many years to come.
I am not from a Muslim nation or Somalia.
However, where I'm from, a monolingual person - as in Anne's case - will be hard pressed to fit in. She would be the oddball out in most any gathering. That wouldn't be fair to her.
Finally, one of the opinions posted in this thread severely over-simplifies the concept of love. The opinion went something like this...
"Oh, I will live with my man even if it's in a cave as long as he loves me." I sorely beg to differ. The issue of practicality has much a place in business and work as it does in relationships and love. It is too easy to say...
"I will live in a cave, as long as there is love(?)" Really now? I haven't met a woman yet who has knowingly married a man whom would surely reduce her quality of life right from the start. That is impractical, unreasonable and destined for failure. That infamous Hollywood cliche which says...
"and they lived happily ever after" is probably the biggest reason why so many marriages fail in the USA. IMHO, way too many people in the US enter marriage thinking that it is suppose to be a flawless institution marked by bliss, joy, and a daily dose of nuance. It's stunning to meet people (mostly women) who sincerely believe they are entitled to such unreasonable expectations.
Love is not always practical or reasonable
Believe me, I have no "entitlement mentality" when it comes to love. And I don't believe in Hollywood happily ever afters. Love and marriage are always hard work, not constant bliss 24/7. And because I know that, I would indeed go live in a cave, or a tent, or a dessert, whatever I had to to be with the man I love. You cannot understand this because you yourself have never truly been in love, I pray one day you'll have that experience, though not everyone does.
It is exactly as I wrote above, and your "practical" approach means nothing once you are in love by the way.
A man in love with a woman will move heaven and earth to be with that woman.
A man in love with a woman would live wherever he had to live to be with that woman.
A man in love with a woman would not chose his extended family and country of orgin over that woman.
This is not to say children don't complicate matters (which you failed to mention in your original post) - but children grow up and in the end, IF you are lucky, there will just be the two of you left to grow old together.
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