From Mother Theresa

People are often unreasonable, Illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some trueenemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Written By Mother Teresa

Undelivered Letter

I’ve been thinking of you lately so strongly and how I wish I could call or see you and know why.

A few days ago while sitting to watch TV, you came to my mind and my tears fell alone when I remembered. Saturday evenings used to be fun from the moment we’d start helping mom in the kitchen preparing for dinner and waiting impatiently for the others to arrive. And the few words I always loved to hear “go call Ammo Jihad and tell him not to forget the small koussa” or “… tell him not to bother with the koussa, I got them here” or “… ask him when he’ll be here” This meant that our evening is going to be happy and fun. I loved your smile, the sparkle in your eyes when you greet us, your sweetness, your jokes even those I didn’t understand at the time. I loved the look on your face when making fun of someone. You were a real personable person, a true friend and one of the family that we hold close to our hearts forever.

Tonight at Our Lady of Assistance, listening to a Christmas recital, the thought of you came as real as feeling you next to me. Christmas is here, and I’m oceans away from my family, yet the only one I’m missing the most this year is you. Or maybe I feel you so close that you are in my mind front and center? Is there something you wish to tell me by being so close these days? Or do I need you that much that I’m thinking of you more than ever? Or is your ghost living in this house and this is how I know you’re here?

I’m writing this and I know you are not “alive” to read it like people do, but I sure hope you can read my heart from wherever you are, and I hope you know that I miss you soooooooooo much and that I love you… always did and always will. There is no way you can be forgotten, MY Khalo by heart, not by blood.

Merry Christmas Ammo Jihad. I am so sorry for Anastasia who will not get to know the wonderful person that you (were) are.

My daughter the singer

My baby has got taste in music and she has a bright future ;)

June 7, 2009

It's a big thing after all! It is every adult citizen's right and duty.

This is the first time I experience it here in Lebanon and frankly I'm kind of getting annoyed by it. I cannot wait for June 7th to come to stop hearing about it.

I don't understand masalan, how a visit to congratulate new parents on the arrival of their daughter triggers a political conversation about voting, who said what and who is better than whom, and who we SHOULD vote for.

It feels like the huge billboards on the roads got even bigger with the campaign ads. Some of them don't make sense, and the best are the ones copied from an opponent's idea. No thinking required. That shouldn't have required a huge budget for marketing and advertising. Bravo! What a great money saving strategy! Money spent otherwise on other unthinkable actions like more billboards or paying voters or whatever annoying and disturbing action.

Radio and TV ads (at least the one I heard and saw) are a bit more conservative and targeted to the general public. They sound like they are made to encourage people to vote in general, no matter who they would vote for. That's great! The real funny one is that Xtra radio ad campaign... Only in Lebanon a beverage becomes a candidate in the governmental elections! I would maybe vote for it, if I know what it is made of :)

What are really annoying are two things actually.
First, people who try to TELL you who you SHOULD vote for. I might be of the same opinion, I may be voting for the same party but it is no one's business. Why otherwise would the voting experience be secretive and made behind closed curtains? Save the trouble of creating appropriate voting locations and do it by the raise of a hand, what's the big deal? Eh?

Second, some parties are paying money to Lebanese working and living abroad to come and vote for them. Where's the democracy in that? Why do some IMPORTANT people and parties have enough money to bring in people to vote and not spend it on Lebanon? Why do Lebanese in Lebanon have to pay an arm and a leg to have clean water, electricity and other necessities, drive on streets more like dirt roads, and sell their kidney to put their kids in schools, and be told that the national deficit is such, when there are IMPORTANT people with ENOUGH money to cover the national deficit and make life easier on EVERYONE? Wouldn't they earn enough votes had they done some good on the ground instead of having to beg people abroad to come and vote for them? Did these political figures with big money want justice and democracy in the election exercise; they would have worked on allowing the Lebanese living abroad to vote from outside the country. What is a better reason to have an embassy or a consulate than to facilitate the practice of ones duty towards their country? Just an opinion.

Looking forward to June 7, 2009; and see what happens after...

Welcome

Saturday March 21, 2009

• 5:00 am, the water broke


• 9:00 am, we - mom, my best friend Jako, and I - went to hospital to check the situation


• 9:30 am, it was confirmed that the water broke and that we're going to have the baby "today", but the passage was not open enough yet


• 10:00 am, I was induced to see if I can still have a natural birth


• 10:30 am, Karam joined us in the hospital, back from a shorter half day work


• 11:30 am, the c-section was decided


• 12:30 pm, I was half frozen, in the OR, ready to get baby out into this world


• 12:45 pm, I saw this little thing held by the legs and minutes later I heard her first cry


• 3:00 pm, I saw my baby girl for the first time and fed her

Baby Anastasia is here!! She's healthy and ever so adorable!

What better gift can a woman ask for on Mother's Day than to become a mom to a beautiful gift from Heaven?