I have NC and posters may recognise me from previous posts - but please don't comment with 'changing your name won't get a different response' - I have done so as I really want to keep my identity from RL private.
I met DP 4 years ago. We lived togehter after 8 months, for what was a wonderful nearly 2 years. We moved apart due to work, despite the fact we could have lived in the middle, my DP didn't want to have to have a 40 minute commute to work compared with what was his current 20 minute one. When we moved in, we always knew I would have to move due to work for a temporarly 20 month time frame. We discussed it and I made it clear if we moved in I would want us to live in the middle when my job started. He was all for it throughout the duration of us living together, but when it came to it, right at the last minute (ie the day before we were going to sign on a tenancy), he changed his mind. I later realised he had told his friends and family that he had no intention of moving to the middle of our works, at least a week beforehand. He also told his parents that I was being unfair on him etc etc, and they actually thought I had made him go and view houses...when in actual fatc he had volunteered to view many after work when I was working late and sent me photos! The whole thing broke me, I was so upset, and...what was my DP's reaction? To say he needed space. So he had 2 weeks of not seeing me, right when I had started my new job and could have really done with some support. He even didn't speak to me over one weekend, didn't answer texts, nothing. I'm still not 100% past all this - it hurts to think about it. That was a few months back, and since then, he has been in and out of the UK with work, so I have seen him very little, maybe 3 weeks on, 3 off, for example. We never moved to the middle. Just to add to the mix, in this time frame, his mother asked to move in with him...she is extremely nasty about me and has said in the past that she doesn't want me there when my DP visits - she would rather just see him. They have what I feel to be an odd relationship - he had cried once when she fell out with her friend (oshe loses friends on a regular basis). She can also be manipulative with DP - telling him what other sons have done for their mothers, with a clear 'point' to it. She is divorced. Anyway, that's just an added extra.
Things were getting better for a while - DP seemed to have made an effort to stop MIL from being negative about our relationship and to accept us. We would go out when he visited and he was quite generous with money (not that he struggles for it). It got to the point where he decided that yes, it was right for us to move to the middle and that he regretted not having done so at the time, and 'can only apologise.' We started looking at places. 2 weeks later, he announces he is moving to New Zealand for 6 months and he is happy about it. He has offered to pay rent for me here so we can go ahead with gettind 'our place' and starting afresh. He has offered to give me use of his car and he will still make the monthly payments. He has said he will pay for me to fly out and he will come back. He says he wants it to work. I feel utterly broken and exhausted after all that has happened. I feel I can't trust him as he always said he wouldnt go to New Zealand for more than a month. He has told me he wants to marry me (says this regularly, but no ring..., just words), says he loves me and is committed, and says when he is back we will buy somewhere (it coincides with me finishing my 20 month working away).
I have found the whole thing really difficult to accept. I feel so lost and his reaction so far this week has been to pretty much say 'deal with it.' I know that is what I have to do, but why isn;t he making it any easier? How do I even knoe he will want to come back after 10 months? His track record of being genuine isn't exactly great. I have of course told him al lthi s- to which he says I have to believe him. If it is going to work I need to be positive and happy etc, and at the moment I am a mess. Is this just an unlucky streak and should I forgive the past and try again with this huge challenge to trust his intentions? Please help.