Project Muslimah [COMPLETED]

Project Muslimah

Five Years Later

Amarah 

"Well, don't you look beautiful today?" Ilyas said, as he began to fold the laundry we just had done. 

"Well, don't I always?" I asked him with a grin. I slipped on my dark green emerald earrings, and the dark green bangles Aimen bought for me from her trip to Pakistan with her husband. 

"You do." He replied. "Come here." He said, as he patted his hand on the spot next to him on the bed. 

"What?" I asked. 

"Just come." He said. I walked over wearily and sat down next to him. "I know we've been fighting about what to name our first born, and while we both have very good reasons to name the child ourselves, I'm going to let you name it." I smiled gleefully. I won! It was very true that we were both expecting our first child in a month, and we did have countless arguments about it day and night. And somehow you'd have thought that maybe the name wasn't the biggest concern of ours, but it was. 

However this wasn't our first child. It was our first born, but not our first child. 

"What made you change your mind?" I asked. He leaned in and kissed me on my forehead. 

"The amount of pain you're about to go through. I know you worry about it and I know you don't like saying anything about it, but I see it on your face everyday when I come home. And plus your morning sickness was a disaster." He laughed. 

"I can't deny that." I said, laughing nervously. 

"If God wills, I will be by your side every day looking out for you and for our child." I nodded slowly. 

"You say that as if you don't look out for me and the children enough." He gave me a hesitant look, then shook his head, reminding me of the days we would fight, and hold it against each other for a long time. We got through it eventually. There were many problems in our marriage. The first one ever had to do with me wanting to work which took months to sort out. And it only started because his aunt and uncle said something about it. But neither of us was backing out from our stance on it which took all the longer. But at the end of the day, I would mostly always win them. 

"You know how much of a kid I can be. Even if I know I'm completely wrong, I get upset for no reason." He said. 

"But you're doing something to change that, remember? You promised Ismail and Rooh, and you're keeping it." I said. "You don't take your anger out on me that much now. Why are you holding onto this?" I scowled at him. Ismail and Rooh were the two children we adopted in our second year of marriage. At the moment they were both five years old. 

"Because everyday I realize how I don't deserve a second chance." 

"Oh, get over it. We started all over again." I whined. Then I stared at him straight in the eye. "And this is my baby shower. You can't possibly make me think about such things on such a happy occasion, can you? You're just going to have to believe that even I don't think I deserve this second chance. But we both want it, so we're both having it either way. You always act remorseful on your part. It makes me feel even more guilty for not being as guilty as you are." 

"But you have nothing to feel guilty of." I poked his chest and gave him a super annoyed look. The smile he gave me was the same smile I fell in love with before we even got married. He pulled me into another hug, and that's when the door burst open, and both of our children came in crying. 

"What happened this time?" I asked them both sternly while pulling away from Ilyas's hug. Ismail and Rooh were both wearing black suits with dark green ties. Ismail was a Yemen born child that came to Canada with both his parents who unfortunately passed away before they could even settle down. Whereas Rooh was a Somali child who was abandoned at a young age. Right after we got married, we both agreed to adopt children in our marriage. At first we didn't have enough, but after working many jobs and using all the money I saved up before marriage, during our first year in marriage, we had enough to adopt two children. Ilyas was still confined to a wheelchair but he was learning how to walk again though it was never easy for him.