My husband and I met at the UNHCR in Cairo. It was a complete coincidence that we both ended up at this particular place on the same day, and at the same time, since we both live in different parts of Egypt. Neither of us planned to go to the UNHCR that day. I went that day in place of my sister, to help my mother to apply for IOM. My husband went that day in place of his friend, who at the last minute decided not to go. We met at the photocopying machine. My mother was having trouble photocopying the IOM application forms. Thankfully Muhammad came over to the machine and helped her out. While he helped her out, we talked a little. I was instantly attracted to his warm and caring personality. After he helped my mother, we talked a little longer, and then exchanged phone numbers. Following this day, we began to frequently talk with each other through text message. Then after a brief courting period, Muhammad and his family proposed to my family. I was ecstatic!  Right after the proposal, his family was granted resettlement in America. So we had to plan our wedding quickly, so that his family could come.

Everything happened so fast! I was not expecting to get married in Egypt. Mainly because there are not many Iraqi men in Egypt, and my parents would never approve of me marrying an Egyptian man. Well, they might have allowed me to marry an Egyptian man, if I was truly in love with him.

I have always dreamed of getting married and starting a family! I wanted to start a family right away, but my husband and I must wait until we are resettled to have our first child. Having a child now would be difficult, because we are both unemployed. We are only able to scrape by each month off of the money that both of our families send us. Also, having a child now would also prolong our resettlement process. We would have to restart our IOM application in order to add our child to the process. So we must wait to until we are resettled to have a child. We are not sure how long it will take for our resettlement process to be complete. It could be a year, it could be two years, it could even be six years. At this point, we are just waiting and hoping for the best.  

My desire to have a child now has caused me to cry myself to sleep many nights. It is very frustrating that I have to wait, since I am a newly married woman and have longed to have a child for my entire life. My frustration has caused many arguments to arise between my husband and I. Although it is not his fault that we have to wait, I tend to take my anger out on him. Even though I yell at him, and voice my frustrations to him, he just listens. He always calms me down, and argues that he wants this child just as much as I do.

I also worry about having my first child in America. Once I am resettled, my family will no longer be nearby to help me raise my child. What will I do without my mother’s guidance? Will my family ever be able to meet my future children, once I am resettled to America?

If my life were a book, the title would be “The Love of Coincidence."