If she doesn’t know where you from, don’t bring her home [Archives:2006/917/Community]

By: Waddah Al-Yemen
Email: [email protected]

Hello to my follow beloved people and country.. I am in a dilemma The subject is: marriage. My mom may god protect her carved in my heart not to marry from the west.

That was the last thing she said to me before I packed my luggage to my journey abroad. Here I am mom 11 years later still single.

Single in the sense of marriage (God forgive us all and let's not go to the details).

The problem is I have changed so much in this time, no matter how much you fight it, if you have been out of the country for more than 3 years: You have changed without even knowing it. I found that out after my first visit back home, I just start thinking differently.

Things that I may have viewed as wrong became so right to the point that I don't even remember why I used to think that way? And vise versa.

That was the point of my life where I started questioning the reason of my mother's request. I could not find an answer. That is when I started planning on marring Amy an American woman.

Six months into it I had a change of heart for one reason and one reason only my kids. I knew I will have no control over the way they will grow up especially if I continue living in the US. I am not saying it would have been impossible to raise them as Yemenis, but it would have been very heard.

As much as we would like to think that marriage is about two people getting married it is not. It is a lot more than that. It is kids, culture, families, and most of all believe between both sides. It is also about the small things such as hearing your name being pronounced the way it was supposed to be pronounced.

Funny I guess I am no longer in a dilemma, Yemen here I come.

Thank you to the best and kindest people on earth.
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