Back Again!!

It's official. I am the WORST blogger ever.
Here I am almost A YEAR since my last post.. struggling to remember my password so I can post something!
I could use an excuse... e.g 1. Being a journalist, I am always writing, and blogging on top of everything else is too much.. or 2. It has been a crazy year and it wasn't a priority.. probably a bit of both plus the fact that blogging seems to be very time consuming because I just can't shut up once I start and it takes up half a day just writing one post!

Since I have so much to tell I don’t really know where to start.. so maybe rather than post some mega-long blog and try that doesn’t do justice to anything I’m actually trying to say, i’ll give you a brief run down on the “big stuff” in my life so far, and what I’m going to blog on in future.. sound ok? J
Well I guess the major stuff is that my Dad passed away on August 29, 2009 – although he had bad health it was unexpected, in that he suddenly caught a lung infection, and within two weeks at hospital he had died. He was 69 years old.. I’ll talk about this a little later on, I don’t really have the energy now – i’ve actually got a lot of stuff written down already. It was sad, especially coz we’re still young (I’m 21 and my brothers were 19 and 15) and so he’ll never see us marry, have kids etc.. it was a huge shock but at the same time the Lord really blessed and comforted our family and we coped amazingly well. Mama, my brothers and I are also a lot closer – we really came together as a family, and my brothers have matured a lot. Anyway enough said on that for the moment!
I fell in love!! Can’t talk about it much atm.. suffice to say there is a man (ironically someone I’ve been friends with for two years!) who I had become closer and closer friends with (we’ll call him “S”).. Anyway neither S or I really believe in the whole “dating” concept – going out, living together for years and then either breaking up or getting engaged. He knew I had already ‘given up’ dating and wasn’t looking for a relationship unless it was based on the understanding we would marry. He is of the same mind. So far – boy knows girl, boy loves girl, girl realises she loves boy back – both boy and girl want to marry: sounds perfect right? WRONG! Because boy is Muslim... He is from Emirates (UAE).
This is the tricky part- For us ‘religion’ isn’t a problem, nor is culture. S is still studying here, and I planned to live and work in the Middle East in the future anyway – I know about Islam – from hadith, sunna, beliefs, practices you name it – and culturally I’m fine with Arab people. I speak some Arabic and have always planned to learn it properly. As a Christian he is “allowed” to marry me- he family have given permission and he even has Christian extended family. He would be happy for me to attend church, practice my religion and teach our children about Christianity. However both of us are aware that having different faiths and beliefs, and raising children who will ultimately “choose” one religion, and in doing so, hurt the other parent, would be difficult.Moreover, as a Christian the Bible is clear about being “unequally yoked.”
At first I said there was no way we could be together, then I went to the other extreme and said “I don’t care we’ll make it work.” .. Then I realised it is not my decision to make.. it is God Almighty’s.
I am just trusting in Him to reveal what is right (and wrong) to my heart.
If it is part of His plan for us to marry, and He sanctions this, then I know we will be fine together – if not (and this is hard) we will have to walk away from each other.
The story of Abraham putting God, even before his son, is really meaningful to me right now! But both of us know that God comes first.
Until then we are just .. waiting. .. More on this later

So – I have come back from this long hiatus to talk about death, love and God – and all things serious! However I always want to bring in some new light-hearted blogging!! I have been reading some great blogs, mostly expat blogs, from the Middle East which are just great! Here are a few: Angry in Oman, Susie’s Adventure, Eyes Wide Oman, Delirious in the Desert, to name a few! tThere are also great blogs from locals, that I will link later on! So I’ve been inspired to hunt through some old emails of travel stories from here and there.. and will post them, mixed in with some poems and snippets from life here.. It will be a real rag-bag mix this blog!

Hope you are all well and i know this is really too late but... HAPPY NEW YEARS!
(better late than never right?!)