Child Sponsorship

I wish I had the money to sponsor all of them.


I sponsor one little girl in Nepal. But what about all of the other girls and boys waiting for a helping hand?

Right now I'm totally dependent upon hubby's money. If/when I get a job, though, insha'Allah I will donate more. I have so many clothes in my closet, yet I keep buying more.

Sometimes I realize how materialistic I can be. I have tons of movies to watch, books to read, CDs to listen to, clothes to wear...yet I still buy more.

I'm going to make a resolution, like a New Year's resolution...only in August. Maybe it can be my Ramadan resolution...although I want to carry it out for longer than a month!

Okay, my resolution is: At most, i will only buy myself one item a month. That's still a lot compared to others out there...but compared to my usual buying habits.....goodness this is going to be a struggle for me. I'm already debating myself in my head going "how about one clothing item as well as one other item?" Hopefully I can shut out these greedy thoughts and really follow through with this.

I'll need you to help w/accountability. You know I generally post when I buy something new. :)

Visas...or lack thereof.

Hubby's parents have been trying to come meet their grandson. They were denied a VISA back in May, when they were going to come meet our son and help their daughter with the birth of her first. They had to wait until this week to get another appointment...and they were denied again.

My dad, of course, is freaking out. If they can't come here...he realizes we'll have to go there. He also sees this as a 'see, if you go they won't let you come back!' type of deal. He's wrong of course, lol. The problem isn't KSA letting them out...it's the U.S. that won't let them in.

They talk to our son on Skype...but I really wish they could meet him. Hubby cannot leave the country until after we've filed all the immigration stuff because his visa expires the minute he leaves. This means we're stuck in the U.S. for probably a year and a half. That means that unless they do eventually get a visa, they won't meet their grandson until he's over 2. :( Even after hubby's cleared to leave, we can't go to KSA until our marriage is approved which could take...forever w/out the right connections. So, we'll probably be meeting in Bahrain or Dubai over a year and a half from now. Sounds so bleak. I want my son to feel that he's a part of both mommy's and daddy's families.

Bilingual Children

My husband is Saudi, so Arabic is his first language. I am -trying- to learn Arabic and have recently gotten more serious about it. I know how to read and write the alphabet, but without any vocabulary that really doesn't do me a whole lot of good.

We want our son (9 months old presently) to be bilingual Arabic/English. There is NO Arabic speaking community or school programs around here, though, so it's all on us. AND my husband's at work all day so a lot of the responsibility to teach our son goes to me....but I don't know Arabic! How can I teach my son a language I do not know?

It's very important to my husband because his mom doesn't speak English, and he feels that he can better say what he wants in Arabic, so he wants our son to be able to speak his childhood language. It's important to me, too, because it will help him learn about Islam, and I think it's super important for him to cherish his arab culture while growing up in America. (also, it really is beneficial for children to be bilingual...believe me, I've studied it extensively in college for my minor)

Has anybody else tried or succeeded in raising a bilingual child? Is anyone planning to raise their (future) children bilingual?

I'm reading a book called "Raising a Bilingual Child," and it keeps stressing the importance of making the minority language accessible to children. For this reason I've bought a lot of Arabic children's books, flashcards, and workbooks. I ordered a lot yesterday from online-Islamic-store.com.

Here are the items I ordered for my son:

An Arabic alphabet floor puzzle,
Arabic alphabet/word flash cards,

An Arabic workbook,

Magnetic Arabic letters (that have ALL forms of each letter which is GREAT),and another Arabic writing workbook.


And I bought the following for myself from the same site:
Books on Reverts (I eat these stories up),and an Arabic book for me.My dad and sister have complained to me about how I buy my son only Arabic books and flashcards (we have hundreds of English children's books at home from my childhood). I try to explain that he will learn English AT SCHOOL and simply because it is the community language. Arabic has to always be a constant effort for him to feel comfortable. They drive me nuts. They complain about Islam, as I understand because they're Christian, but what do they have against the Arabic language? I have no doubt that my son will speak, read, and write English. But with Arabic it all depends on mine and hubby's effort to implement it in our lives.