Baby Sara - almost 8 months!!

- You missed the pic!!

Can you believe it? Our baby Sara is almost 8 months!!! Sheesh, where does the time go!?!?!

Hubby is coming home!!

So we knew that Shakil was getting the visa - we just didn't know exactly when. Well, about 2 weeks ago Shakil headed to the American Embassy in Islamabad. He was told he needed to bring a new medical report and 2 police clearances from the two cities he's resided in and his passport. We just knew that they were also going to want to do another FBI check but usually they'll tell you that when you get to the Embassy.

Shakil compiles everything and heads onto Islamabad. He spent a good 2 + hours standing outside before getting in and when you finally get in - you get to wait some more. Finally, after several hours they call him to the window. They asked for the information they requested and responded with "You've got the visa". I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when they said that to Shakil. If you only knew the shit (excuse me) we've been through. Well here if you don't know, here's how it all started . It's just been one hell of a journey. Now, I'm getting sidetracked. He got the visa!!! They told him that they would be sending his passport back to him via courrier with the visa inside within 10 days I believe. It came before that - it was just a few days. We just can't believe it. He now has his visa in hand and is ready to go!!

Shakil has to wrap up some things in Pakistan and then he'll be heading home where baby Sara and I are anxiously awaiting his arrival. Insha'Allah he will be here around the 9th or 10th of November!! We couldn't be happier. We've dreamed of this for 2 1/2 years. Honestly, after some time you really start to give up hope and Shakil was really starting to think that it would never happen. And to be honest wit you...so was I. You just keep waiting, hoping, praying and then finally it happens. It truly is a miracle because we had some big hurdles to get over but we did it together.

Out of those 2 1/2 years thanks to God we have only been apart for 10 months - if that. I've had the privilege to travel back and forth to Pakistan, learn about the culture, the lifestyle, the food, spend time with his family, learn about them, let them get to know me and give birth to our beautiful baby girl, Sara. It's been a heck of a ride but I wouldn't trade it for the world!!

Until later...

Bye for now.

Ramadan Mubarak!!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a blessed Ramadan to all that celebrate!!!

The flight back to Texas from Pakistan Part IV

After the security woman tells me that I should make it on time to my flight I get in that hell of a line. I bet that line wrapped around 5 times, maybe more. I didn't know how there was possibly going to be a way to make it on time. I did remain hopeful as I checked my watch now every 2 minutes.

I was overhearing others conversations about how they were running late too. Seemed that the security was holding everyone up. Now, don't think I wouldn't appreciate some good security because I do. It just seems when you are running late everything holds you up. You know like when you are in a hurry to get somewhere in your car and you get stopped at every stoplight - that's what I mean.

Sara was just babbling up a storm while we were in line and I heard some comments that they couldn't believe that she was acting so good. If they only knew she just got off an 18 hour flight they'd be shocked!

I'm looking down at my watch and I see that it's minutes from 7 p.m. Flight leaves at 7:15 p.m. We finally reach the entrance to go through the metal detector. You have to take your shoes off first, put your carry-on and all other items in a bin ready for them to scan. Sara and I walk through the metal detector which by the way, I was asked if they ever made me take Sara out of her carrier. The answer is nope, they sure didn't. She stayed strapped onto me with no problems regarding security.

We head through the medal detector and no beeps but wouldn't ya know it - they stopped me to search my carry-on. They said they saw something that looked like liquid. I couldn't imagine what it could be. Hand sanitizer, maybe - I thought? It was all locked up and I had to get it unlocked for the security. She opened it up and found it to be Sara's liquid infant vitamins. She said that it was fine since it was for the baby. I half ass closed up that bag, asked the security how far my gate was and she said it was a 5 minute walk. Sara and I were off - we were running!!! That 5 minute run felt like forever and we finally arrived to the gate at 7:10 p.m. Literally, 5 minutes to spare before they closed the gate. They took my boarding pass and we were on our way....home!!!

We get on the plane, find our seat and I'm still just sweating. I sat down in that seat, took Sara out of her carrier and just took a deep breath. Felt so good to sit down and relax for a bit knowing that I made it on time and within 45 minutes time I'd be home. Sara took a big bottle of formula and was out like a light. She slept on my shoulder the entire flight. I enjoyed a glass of Sprite because my tummy was a bit upset and before I knew it - we were starting to descend into my hometown.

I was on an aisle seat so I couldn't see much out the window but from what I saw, all I could think of is that I'm finally home. It is truly such a mixed feeling all at once. I was happy and sad. Happy to be home and sad to leave Shakil on the other side of the world. I always remained hopeful and I just knew one day he'd have that visa in his hand. We knew he'd get it but when...?

The plane lands and we taxi over to the gate. The man sitting next to me on the aisle made the comment that I sure had a good baby. I did tell him that she just got off an 18 hour flight and he couldn't believe it. I think they expected her to cry the whole flight but she didn't!! ha ha!!

Sara and I got off that plane and exited out the door. My Mom, my brother, my best friend Steph and her baby that is 2 months younger than Sara - never seen her yet were all going to be waiting for us. When walking to baggage claim there is a glass area that you can see the baggage claim. There they all were waiting, Sara and I waived and I could already feel the tears starting to come. I was so relieved to make it there - on time at that!

We walked out and they just ran over to hug us. It was such a good feeling!! We collected my luggage and all went out to dinner and had a great time. Surprisingly, the next day I didn't have much jet-lag at all. Sara slept the whole night and has been sleeping all night ever since. I couldn't ask for a better baby!!

The end.

Until later...

Bye for now.

Survivors ready!?!?!

Tonight is the premier of Survivor Cook Islands - I'm so excited!! This season should be pretty interesting with it being divided up into 4 ethnic groups. White, African-American, Latino and Asian. I can't wait!!

Freaky!

A Palestinian shows how a folded twenty dollar bill appears to show the World Trade Center buildings on fire. Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has warned that the Gulf and Israel would be the next targets of Al-Qaeda, in a video message coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States.(AFP/Hazem Bader)

The flight back to Texas from Pakistan Part III

You know it just seems like forever to get off the plane nowadays. It just seemed as if the line to get off was not moving at all. Finally, I reach the doorway to get off. The flight attendant says Allah Hafiz and I respond back with Allah Hafiz and I was on my way. I already had Sara strapped onto me in her baby carrier and we were just walking as fast as we could. We were on our way to immigration. I'm still looking down at my watch checking the time every few minutes.

Just when we're about to reach the immigration area - we all get stopped by immigration officials. I couldn't believe it nor did I know what was going on. I of course voiced that I had a connecting flight to catch but it really didn't help much. They said the reason we were stopped was because there was a flight that just came in from UK and those passengers require escort. Whaaaaaaat?? Escort? We just came in from Pakistan which they seem to think is a high risk country and we didn't get an escort. The officials said they were really getting fed up with having to escort every UK flight coming in. So, the reason for the hold up was to separate those passengers from us. They had to go to a completely different area than us.

Few minutes go by, I check my watch again and we're on our way again. When you reach the immigration area in Houston - it's huge! There are lines for foreigners and US citizens. The lines seemed pretty long and I was looking for the shortest line but I always manage to get in the longest even though it looks the shortest.

Finally, its our turn and the immigration officer scans Sara and I's passports and we're finished with the immigration portion. Again, I'm rushing as fast as I can to get to our next stop which is collecting my baggage. I grabbed a cart and headed over to the carousel to just wait. At this point, you really start to think why the heck was I rushing - rushing to get to baggage claim and wait again. So I'm standing there with Sara still strapped onto me (btw, those carriers couldn't be convenient - they're great for travel). There were a nice couple standing next to me and the woman started playing with baby Sara and Sara of course just ate it up - she loved it. I made mention to them that I was in a hurry because I had a connecting flight. They asked me where "home" was and I told them. They guy said, "well you only got about 45 minutes left to fly". 45 minutes sure sounds better than the 18 hours I just finished.

About 10 minutes pass by and the baggage starts to come out. I'm looking and looking for my baggage, don't see it...still don't see it. Then, the belt that baggage comes out on - stopped working! For crying out loud, I couldn't believe it! Just my luck. So the baggage guys start tossing out the luggage - nice huh? Yeah right! I'm looking down at my watch and it was almost 6:30 p.m. My flight is leaving in 45 minutes is all I could think of and I still didn't have my bags yet nor gone through customs. I just knew I wasn't going to make it.

All of the sudden they apparently got the belt working again and baggage is coming out. I'm looking and looking and then I see my big red piece of luggage come out. That couple were still standing next to me and the woman's husband offered to pull the luggage off the carousel for me. So nice. When it comes around to me, he pulled it off and put it on the cart for me. During this time, they had already collected their luggage but waited to help me with mine. It was just so nice of them and you know there aren't so many people that would do something like that. I really appreciated it. My next 2 bags came out almost right after the first one. I thanked that really nice couple for their help and Sara and I headed towards customs.

I look at my watch again and it is just after 6:30 p.m. I was expecting this to take a bit of time because last time they made us go through a different area. I wheel my cart and all the luggage up to the desk where the customs official is. He takes my customs declaration, gives me a "how are you"?, kind of looks at me and says I can go on. Whewwwwww, was I pleased!! Once you leave out of customs, the check-in counter for Continental Airlines is right there in front of you. Really couldn't be more convenient. I head over to the check-in counter and I'm standing there in the line. No one else is in the line but me. 2, maybe 3 women working the counter and they are just chatting and taking their sweet time. I'm all but stomping my foot waiting and once again...checking the time. It was about 6:35 p.m. - connecting flight due to leave at 7:15 p.m.

Finally, the woman calls me up to the counter. I told her I have a flight to catch at 7:15 p.m. and asked her if I was too late. She said "no, do you already have your boarding pass"? I told her no. She took my id, checked me in, printed the stickers for the baggage, slapped them on my baggage and they were off. She handed me my boarding pass and told me to hurry.

I throw everything in Sara's diaper bag and she and I head toward the escalator and go upstairs where we have to go through security - yet again. I arrive at the security entrance and I can feel the sweat bullets start to run down my forehead. Again, looking at the watch, it's about 6:45 p.m. The line is long and it wraps around a few times. At this point I KNOW I'll never it make it on time. I ask the attendant if she thinks I'll make it and she said "yeah, you should". Should or I will - that's what I really wanted to say.

Part IV will be out soon!!

Hubby had a fall...

My Mom and I heard the phone ring this morning and its normal for my Mom to automatically look at the caller id to see who it is. She didn't recognize the number and I told her to answer it because it could be Shakil. Well, she didn't answer in time and turns out it was Shakil calling from his mobile. I immediately got a bit snappy with her telling her she's got to answer the phone.

Well, a minute or so passed by and Shakil called back again. First thing he says is "Hey Tara, what's up - I had an accident". Uhmmmm...needless to say, that was a bit frightening for me to hear. I automatically thought - car accident. I then asked what happened and he told me he fell.

He was taking a shower and had left his mobile on the bed. During the shower, he hears the phone ringing. He immediately jumps out of the shower and runs to the phone, slipping and falling on his way. He fell down and hit his head, hurt his shoulder and banged up his elbow. :( All of that to get to a phone ringing and turned out someone dialed the wrong number!! Sheesh.

Poor Shakil had to get ready and drive himself to hospital where he had to get stitches in his head. They did some x-rays and he didn't break anything thank God but he's pretty bruised up and in a lot of pain. He's on some antibiotics and is taking something for the pain.

Times like this I really wish I was with him. :( I called him back later to check on him and he kept reassuring me that he was ok. I've lectured him before about running to answer the phone and don't think I didn't do it again today. He's got to stop running to get the phone. I mean, whoever it is can call back for goodness sake. He made the comment that he just needs me there by his side. :( I'm just thankful that God was watching over him because he was all alone at home and what if he had been knocked unconscious... just scary stuff.

I'll give him a call tomorrow and check up on him again. He's over at his parents house so I know they are taking good care of him.

Part III of the flight back to Texas from Pakistan will be posted pretty soon!

Until later...

Bye for now.

The flight back to Texas from Pakistan Part II

The lady sitting next to me on the flight was pretty chatty. I'm not complaining at all because sometimes having someone to talk to can make the flight seem somewhat shorter. Her daughter was 4 years old and a little on the spoiled side and kept whining that she wanted to go sit about 4 rows back with this little boy that she met. So that did get a tad annoying after listening to about 20 minutes of it.

The plane takes off and once we are leveled out in the air, I call for the flight attendant regarding the bassinet. The flight attendant comes and brings one for me. Now, one of the reasons I chose to sit bulkhead was because I knew that the bassinet would attach right in front of me. The flight attendant is just working and working trying to get it attached and it is not one that attaches. So they just put it on the ground at my feet - which took away any leg/foot room I had. The bassinet was just pathetic. I described it to someone as a lined cardboard box. Not at all comfy for a baby.

Since I you're not allowed water on the flights due to security reasons, I had to call the flight attendant to get water for Sara's bottle. Flight attendant was not so prompt with coming so I just got up and went to the back of the plane and asked for water. The flight attendant filled up the bottle and offered me the rest of the bottle of water which was nice because that would make it where I didn't have to keep calling them for water. Sara took her bottle and went right to sleep. It was a bit hard at first getting her to lay in the bassinet. The lady next to me helped getting a blanket doubled and put in it there for some padding. I'd lay Sara down and she'd instantly just raise her head up, then up on her knees and would cry. I just kept trying and it wasn't long before Sara just gave up and went to sleep.

Since Sara was asleep that enabled me to eat. They are pretty prompt with getting food out once the plane takes off. The first meal was eggs (like omelet style), some chicken pieces or what looked like chicken and cup of Nestle yogurt. I couldn't eat the eggs because they just didn't taste right nor the chicken. I ate the yogurt though - it was pretty tasty.

I'd chat on and off with the lady next to me and again she was just so nice and so helpful. She told me if I needed any help with Sara, to hold or whatever just to let her know that it wasn't a problem and she didn't mind at all. There was a man to the right of me and he was pretty quiet and didn't say anything to me until the very end of the flight.

So this leg of the flight was from Lahore to Manchester. That's about an 8 hour flight. I really don't think I slept more than an hour that leg of the flight. The next meal they came out with was I think Chicken Biryani and again I was able to eat since Sara was still asleep. Wasn't bad but I really couldn't eat much. I did have a cup of tea though which was nice.

Those 8 long hours start to come to an end when I feel the plane start to descend. It's a good feeling to know that you are halfway home but boy was I feeling tired. Sara slept that whole 8 hours - not even waking up once. The plane lands and Sara was still sleeping in the bassinet and everyone was not sure whether or not we were going to have to disembark. I've taken this flight before and you are told to disembark, go through security, then to the gate and back on the same plane. I've always found it to be ridiculous since we are going back to the same plane. So we're all just sitting there on the plane wondering what they are going to make us do and just when we thought we were not going to have to get off - they tell us we have to get off. Sheesh. I had to wake up Sara, grab my carry-on luggage and get off the plane.

Once off the plane, we head to security where there is a HUGE line. It seemed that line was moving so slow. Sara managed to stay content for about 20 minutes and then started to fuss. I had to get a bottle ready while standing in line and feed her while standing in line. She took the whole bottle and stayed content the rest of the time thank goodness. We were in line for about 2 hours - maybe more when we finally made it to the area where they scan your baggage and make you walk through the metal detector and possibly get frisked or patted down I'd say. Sara and I walk through the metal detector and they take Sara's diaper bag off to the side to search. They of course take EVERYTHING out and lay it out on the table. They took Sara's Panadol (which is like liquid infant Tylenol), diaper rash cream telling me that neither are allowed. I wasn't happy because that was medicine for Sara if she was to get sick, fever or something on the flight or just needed something to relax. Thank God I didn't need it.

Once through security we have to go upstairs and find which gate to go to and just wait. Finally, the time comes when we get to board again. The lady that sat next to me and grabbed some Burger King for her little girl and was taking that on board. When we made it back to our seats she pulls out some onion rings and said she got them for me. Nice, huh?!?! Those onion rings tasted damn good! Don't think I didn't just devour them up! Plane takes off again and we're off for the last leg of the journey home - about 9 hours to go. We spent a total of about 3 hours that the Manchester airport which is normally only about 45 minutes to an hour. Needless to say, I was a bit bothered about the delay considering I had a connecting flight to catch in Houston that would take me home.

Sara was awake for a couple of hours before she napped again. I forgot to mention that we were flying an older 747 that didn't have diaper changing table in the bathroom. So, I would have to lay Sara down on the toilet lid with a small cribsheet that I brought to change her diaper. Not fun and not easy at all!! The pee-pee diapers, I'd change in my seat but the poo-poo diapers I'd have to head to the teenie tiny restroom.

The next meal that came out was pretty much a snack of chicken sandwiches and some other stuff. I can't even remember now. Maybe because by that time, I was getting delirious. I had been up wayyyyyyyyy too long. I was up all day and night before leaving so that didn't help much.

I'm watching my watch those last couple of hours just hoping that we'll make it to Houston on time but I knew it just wasn't going to happen. It was looking as if we were going to land at 5:30 p.m. which we should be landing at 4 p.m. My flight was due to leave at 7:15 p.m. I was just so afraid I was going to miss the flight due to the delay in UK.

Last meal served was Chicken Korma. I couldn't even eat a bite of it. I pretty much just polished off the dessert which was some Kheer and it was really good. I think I was just getting really anxious about getting to Houston. Sara was just so good the entire flight. I bet if you calculated up how much she fussed the whole time - it would only add up to 1 hour. I could not have asked for a better baby. She was just wonderful.

The plane starts the descent into Houston - I'm keeping an eye on my watch just hoping and hoping to make it in time but knowing that I have to go through immigration, wait for baggage, go through customs and I just knew I could NEVER make it on time.

When the plane lands it is about 5:30 p.m. and we taxi over to the gate. By the time, Sara and I get off the plane it was 5:45 p.m. and I'm all but biting my nails just wanting to run.