Starting to get shaky

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I´m starting to get a little nervous about the trip. I´ll be flying out on the 17th, inshaAllah.....My husband will come at the beginning of August, inshaAllah, but it´ll be about a month and a half.....

Now given, I can understand most of what people are saying...but I don´t speak much.....Oh well...at least I´ll get a lot of practice, inshaAllah.

I think it´ll be kind of cute to see Jayjay all dressed up for my SIL´s wedding, though, inshaAllah.

And my MIL wants to take me shopping for summer clothes, inshaAllah, because the last time I was there, I only got heavier weight skirts and clothing. Alhamdulillah, I´ve lost almost 20 lbs. since I was there the last time (Jayjay was only 3 months old at the time, subhanaAllah), so I guess it´s time to go shopping anyway, inshaAllah..........

Okay...so maybe I shouldn´t be toooo nervous. My in-laws are good people mashaAllah and inshaAllah it´ll be a really nice trip...

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Jayjay was a little monster today...subhanaAllah. I wanted to iron and since I don´t have an ironing board, I was using a bench...which Jayjay constantly wanted to touch and walk up to and leave her toys on, etc..... So I picked her up and put her down next to her toys...and she SCREAMED at me. Oh my. She screamed and screamed. I still have no clue why... I eventually just put her in the living room and went and finished the headscarf I was ironing. Alhamdulillah she stopped crying before I came back into the living room, but she was just standing there in the doorway waiting for me with her running nose and tears in her eyes. Poor thing. Probably just wanted a little more attention? Allahu alim.

She also slept less than an hour for her first nap of the day. She usually sleeps from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. for her first nap, mashaAllah...but today, I made the mistake of looking at her while she was turning in her sleep...cute little bugger just smiled big at me and started to get up...so now, she´s "reclining" on me while I type, mashaAllah, hehe.

I still need to do Qur´an with her today and I think I want to take her out to play on the playground, inshaAllah. After she gets done chewing on my eraser, of course, hehe. Yum.....

No poop explosions the last few days...I think that she´s got the idea, mashaAllah...and I am ecstatically happy about that, mashaAllah! Alhamdulillah!

I hope she´ll learn a lot in Syria, inshaAllah. Hearing Arabic all the time will probably help a lot, inshaAllah. She understands some of the things I tell her, but only in English...

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I need to get a few things before I go...and I need to get a lot done. All of the laundry should be done and pressed, inshaAllah...I want to freeze a little bit of every meal I make this week so that my husband has some real meals and doesn´t have to spend much time cooking, inshaAllah...I´d like to dye my hair inshaAllah...and I need to get extra vitamins to take along, inshaAllah...I really dislike the diapers over there (like putting a plastic bag on your baby´s behind....um...no), so I´m going to take extra with me, inshaAllah...not to mention the baby wipes...ugh....inshaAllah once she can get going with the talking, we´ll be done with diapers once and for all (except maybe in the night.........we co-sleep, so I don´t think I´d like the idea of her going without a diaper during the night, hehe).

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Now for something a little more controversial, I´m certain.

I got a little upset a couple days ago, because of a new person in one of my Muslimah´s group...

She doesn´t read nursery rhymes to her children, because she doesn´t want her children learning things that the "kuffar" children learn...and she thinks that we are obliged to hate all of the kuffar.

Okay...so the first thing I thought of was that there is no such thing as a kuffar child...all children are born Muslim and it´s the environment that they grow up in that leads them astray. I have been known to throw things away or give things away that don´t agree with Islam--i.e. books that focus on Christmas or (at my husband´s request, books or toys that featured pigs) or things that have something to do with magic or fairies or if I found some kind of shirk in the story...but I think that most of the mother goose rhymes are not going to corrupt your child...inshaAllah...pat-a-cake probably isn´t going to convince your child to someday stray from Islam...inshaAllah...of course there´s always a first for everything...but I just don´t think that´s realistic, hehe.

We, as Muslim parents, do have a greater responsibility when we decide to raise our children in the west and we do have to be on the look-out and a whole lot warier about what we put into our child´s heads...but I´m American. I´d like my daughter to have a little bit of my culture, too, inshaAllah. I mean...I can give her everything that doesn´t go against Islam and throw out the rest, inshaAllah--which is exactly what I had to do after become Muslim, alhamdulillah and it´s what anybody who comes to Islam has to do no matter what their culture or nationality.

The second thing that I thought of was that we should definately hate kufr...but not people. Of course we as muslims should hate disbelief and shirk of all sorts.......but your non-muslim next door neighbor could become Muslim tomorrow, inshaAllah...and I don´t know about you, but I´d find it kind of hard to hate my parents, may Allah subhanahuwata´ala guide them to the right path. Ameen....hate kufr, not the kuffar. A lot of people haven´t had the opportunity to hear the call of Islam...which brings me to another thing.

As Muslims, we are also obliged to call people to Islam--especially if we live in a non-muslim land, we have the responsibility to make dawah....which is kind of hard when you hate everyone. And is it really logical that ANYBODY would WANT to come to Islam when all they see is that you despise them? That just shows them that Islam is some kind of hateful religion, which it isn´t.

Okay. That was my rant for the day.

Fi aman Allah,

UmmBatul