Introduction

[100% Al Ahly Fan 53]

Hi MENA. I have seen LOTS of new faces today. Well actually I don't think they are new, but perhaps just coming back. Can we get an intro folks?? Glad to have ya back to VJ MENA forum.

[chasnik 0]

Hi Sharifah, Im Cara married to Mohammed who has been here since Nov of 08. We've been together since 05...looking back the road doesnt look that long lol. Kind of like child birth I guess!!! I havent been on the site in a while but thought Id come back around to see what was happening. We live in Dalton Ga, which used to be the carpet capitol of the world, but I think it is probably the unemployment capitol now. I work for Windstream Communications as a programmer.....soooo please people dont cut your landlines!!!! Feed your fellow VJ'rs lol!!! I have a 15 yr old daughter and an 11 year old son and we are discussing one more...not sure about the starting over. Oh well enough rambling from me! Welcome to VJ!!!

[LunaticFringe 0]

Hi Sharifah, Im Cara married to Mohammed who has been here since Nov of 08. We've been together since 05...looking back the road doesnt look that long lol. Kind of like child birth I guess!!! I havent been on the site in a while but thought Id come back around to see what was happening. We live in Dalton Ga, which used to be the carpet capitol of the world, but I think it is probably the unemployment capitol now. I work for Windstream Communications as a programmer.....soooo please people dont cut your landlines!!!! Feed your fellow VJ'rs lol!!! I have a 15 yr old daughter and an 11 year old son and we are discussing one more...not sure about the starting over. Oh well enough rambling from me! Welcome to VJ!!!

I drove through Georgia all the time when I used to drive to Florida. Don't care much for the State, but I always thought Dalton looked like a cool place. Are all those carpet factories out of business now?

[chasnik 0]

Hi Sharifah, Im Cara married to Mohammed who has been here since Nov of 08. We've been together since 05...looking back the road doesnt look that long lol. Kind of like child birth I guess!!! I havent been on the site in a while but thought Id come back around to see what was happening. We live in Dalton Ga, which used to be the carpet capitol of the world, but I think it is probably the unemployment capitol now. I work for Windstream Communications as a programmer.....soooo please people dont cut your landlines!!!! Feed your fellow VJ'rs lol!!! I have a 15 yr old daughter and an 11 year old son and we are discussing one more...not sure about the starting over. Oh well enough rambling from me! Welcome to VJ!!!

I drove through Georgia all the time when I used to drive to Florida. Don't care much for the State, but I always thought Dalton looked like a cool place. Are all those carpet factories out of business now?

The ones that arent completely gone under have scaled back. My kids dad lost his job at Shaw after 25 years.

[sassysis 0]

Hi Patricia! Welcome! I totally understand the family thing also. My family is not real thrilled, they think I have lost my mind, could totally not understand how I could love someone I had not actually seen IRL etc etc. Oh well, I went to Egypt last month and came back in one piece. wow! LOL Anyway, welcome and dont be shy.

[Donna A 4]

hi, im donna from ohio and my husband is from syria. we will be married 6 years next month. i pop in from time to time when im really bored. my knowledge of the visa process is old now so i cant give advice on it. im laid off from general motors now for 6 months. it was a nice vacation but im getting really bored at home. i really dont understand how housewifes can do it as i cant find anything to do. u can only clean house so much. ive developed blood clots in my leg and lungs from all this sitting around. i just got out of the hospital a week ago. i need to go back to work and keep this blood flowing so i can get off the blood thinners.

[ZouhairPatriciaB 0]

hi everyone, im Patricia from the Dallas/Fort Worth Texas area. im engaged to Zouhair from Khemisset, Morocco. i met him on myspace in december '08 and i went to morocco to meet him in April 09. best 6 days of my life!!!!. he told me about VJ before going there as his cousin told him about it. VJ has given me everything ive needed so far and im SO grateful to be able to read about others here that are in the same shoes as me. makes me feel less alone. i have 1 son who is 7 going on 17, lol....from a previous marriage. my family are totally against what im doing and tried to talk me out of going there...they thought some really bad stuff would happen to me there, but they were wrong of course and when i came back they still think he will end up hurting me in the end. i told them...dont judge someone u refuse to get to know. and i also told them not to say anything else bad about him, his family or his country or religion as i already have enough stress going through this immigration process to deal with their ignorance. so, they just dont say anything at all about him which has been good. i still cant see my case in USCIS website, which is ok i guess since it really doesnt show much, just would like to know that they are actually "touching" my file and not forget about it. anyway, im on here everyday and i read most of the posts and im pretty shy till i get to know someone, i think thats why i just started posting here. everyone here in "mena-land" is so friendly to one another and i could always use more friends supporting me with this and i can provide some support to anyone who needs it. hope everyones "journey" here goes smoothly and quickly.

Patricia

Welcome again Patricia. I remember and know exactly what you are goin thru. My parents wanted nothing to do with the fact that I was goin to Morocco and that I was gonna marry this man. In fact, they didn't come to my wedding (their loss). And its been almost 2 years and now they want to meet him. Unfortunatly my husband has no interest in meeting them. Good luck on your journey here! And if you need to talk, we are like one big family here.

thanks so much Turia, my mom says even when he comes here she dont want to meet him, but ill bet if we have kids she be the first one in the delivery room! he says he cant forgive them for what they said about him and i dont blame him! maybe someday we can all get along

[ZouhairPatriciaB 0]

Hi Patricia! Welcome! I totally understand the family thing also. My family is not real thrilled, they think I have lost my mind, could totally not understand how I could love someone I had not actually seen IRL etc etc. Oh well, I went to Egypt last month and came back in one piece. wow! LOL Anyway, welcome and dont be shy.

thanks so much for the welcome skerber0, my family also couldnt figure out how i could fall in love with someone i have never met. i think its a generational thing...they arent real big into the internet either so that wasnt helpful either. i too came back in one peice and even called them everyday i was there. one day i was talking to my mom when i was there and he asked to talk with her and she said no...he was so heart broken that i hung up on my mom for saying that and he even cried a little, but he tried not to show it. i felt SO bad for him.

[Muh and me 18]

hi everyone, im Patricia from the Dallas/Fort Worth Texas area. im engaged to Zouhair from Khemisset, Morocco. i met him on myspace in december '08 and i went to morocco to meet him in April 09. best 6 days of my life!!!!. he told me about VJ before going there as his cousin told him about it. VJ has given me everything ive needed so far and im SO grateful to be able to read about others here that are in the same shoes as me. makes me feel less alone. i have 1 son who is 7 going on 17, lol....from a previous marriage. my family are totally against what im doing and tried to talk me out of going there...they thought some really bad stuff would happen to me there, but they were wrong of course and when i came back they still think he will end up hurting me in the end. i told them...dont judge someone u refuse to get to know. and i also told them not to say anything else bad about him, his family or his country or religion as i already have enough stress going through this immigration process to deal with their ignorance. so, they just dont say anything at all about him which has been good. i still cant see my case in USCIS website, which is ok i guess since it really doesnt show much, just would like to know that they are actually "touching" my file and not forget about it. anyway, im on here everyday and i read most of the posts and im pretty shy till i get to know someone, i think thats why i just started posting here. everyone here in "mena-land" is so friendly to one another and i could always use more friends supporting me with this and i can provide some support to anyone who needs it. hope everyones "journey" here goes smoothly and quickly.

Patricia

Welcome again Patricia. I remember and know exactly what you are goin thru. My parents wanted nothing to do with the fact that I was goin to Morocco and that I was gonna marry this man. In fact, they didn't come to my wedding (their loss). And its been almost 2 years and now they want to meet him. Unfortunatly my husband has no interest in meeting them. Good luck on your journey here! And if you need to talk, we are like one big family here.

thanks so much Turia, my mom says even when he comes here she dont want to meet him, but ill bet if we have kids she be the first one in the delivery room! he says he cant forgive them for what they said about him and i dont blame him! maybe someday we can all get along

My father basically said he never wanted to meet my hubby either, but when our grandson a(their first great grand child) was born, we were all up at the hospital together. Its still slow, my husband doesn't really want to be around them, but i am giving it more time!

[Amoon 0]

You know...hearing you ladies talk about how your families didn't/don't accept your husbands makes me remember when I first told my mom about how I met a guy on the internet from Jordan. She was like "OMG please don't go over there, you aren't going over there are you?" Both my parents fought the idea of it initially, but after months of me talking to him & them talking to him via webcam, they warmed up to the idea and gave us their blessing. They were seriously worried about the cultural differences, but now that he is here they get along very well and I am so thankful for that. I feel blessed. Although...there is something that really ticks me off...my mom always says this if the topic of how Raad and I met comes up with someone who doesn't know our story...she says "oh you know how in the old days they had mail order brides, well she's an e-mail order bride." Pisses me off everytime...I mean really...anyway, just had to add that.

I love hearing everyone's stories by the way...we all have such different backgrounds yet still the same end result-being with the MENA men we love.

[~ameriptian~ 54]

It's the same way for me here. My fiance writes letters to my family and they never reply. They took my cellphone and even broke it once so I don't talk to him. They even gave a kind of short notice to split up with him MANY times, or else.... It's been crazy how things are going over here and still is.. I'm still living with them and daily interaction makes things worse.. I'm seriously worried about my future relationship with them, and whenever the thought of me leaving to be with my fiance and marry him without them approving still scares me to death and I just push the thought away until another time and just do the same thing whenever it pops up... It's sad..

[Ihavequestions 419]

You know what, Aya? Every time I read about the difficulties you're having with your family, the same thought goes through my mind: "She really loves that guy."

Keep you chin up, sweetie.

[childress_london 3]

I am having the same problem with my family. They think all middle eastern men are terrorists or wife beaters. My mom refused to talk to me for several months after I got married, and our relationship is still rocky. We have been married for one year this month and hopefully he will finally be here with me next month. I don't know what my parents are going to do once he's here, because I'm not bringing my kids (from former marriage) to see them over the holidays while leaving him at home alone. We will see what the next chapter brings...

[merijan 0]

It's the same way for me here. My fiance writes letters to my family and they never reply. They took my cellphone and even broke it once so I don't talk to him. They even gave a kind of short notice to split up with him MANY times, or else.... It's been crazy how things are going over here and still is.. I'm still living with them and daily interaction makes things worse.. I'm seriously worried about my future relationship with them, and whenever the thought of me leaving to be with my fiance and marry him without them approving still scares me to death and I just push the thought away until another time and just do the same thing whenever it pops up... It's sad..

Just keep praying Aya.. InshAllah you will somehow find peace with it all.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Hi I'm Olivia. My Husband is known by me as Waleed and that is the name inscribed in my wedding ring. His real first name is Alhusain. He also goes by the names Dr. Waleed, Dr. Alhusain, Hosainy, Abbas, and many other nicknames as I have come to know about from his friends and family over the past five years of knowing him. These MENA men just can't seem to stick with one name or one form of spelling of their name which can be very frustrating so I just stick with Waleed.

I joined VJ in 2007 right after I filed for the K3. My Husband and I are currently 30 and we married in a civil ceremony in Cairo December 28, 2006. We had our big religious "white wedding dress" ceremony with family and friends at El Nour Mosque in Cairo, Egypt May 23, 2009. This is both our first marriage and neither of us have kids. He is from Cairo, Egypt. I have lived most my life between the capitol cities of Texas and Idaho. I have enjoyed living and traveling abroad to Mexico, England, Scotland, Norway, Denmark, and Egypt. My Husband is a Doctor of Internal Medicine and Surgery. Before going back to school I worked at a hospital for 8 years so we had medicine in common when we first met. We also had a love for the film industry and ironically met in a movie chat room. My Bachelors of Science Degree is in Radio/TV/Digital Media Production. I have made a short Documentary Film on "The Untold Stories of Rape" and several short student films, music videos, as well as been a radio and television broadcast news journalist for 89.3 KUOI FM Radio and KUID TV/FM.

Currently our life is in transition while waiting on the visa process. I am studying the G.R.E. and applying to Graduate Schools across the United States while my Husband is practicing medicine at Hurghada Clinic in Mubarak 5, Hurghada, Red Sea which is a medical clinic that caters to foreigners. He is also studying for the U.S.M.L.E. (United States Medical Licenses Equivalent) so he may practice medicine here. We just spent 85 days this summer together in Egypt the majority of it in Hurghada which is known as a tourist town or resort town.

As some have already mentioned before, my Husband went through the Egyptian Military for 16 months while married to me (a foreigner) which delayed our visa process putting it on hold at the US Embassy in Cairo. It is a common misconception that if Egyptian males marry a foreigner then they are exempt from their mandatory military duty because it is seen as a compromise to Egypt's national security. It is not the case that these men get automatic exemptions and I have met other foreign women married to Egyptian men who have had to serve with cases going back before my Husband was taken to as early as 2007 and some of the wives have met others with cases going back to as early as 2006. I have formed a small support group on facebook for foreign women married to Egyptian men who get taken into active duty in the Egyptian Military. There are currently eight of us going through the process with our Egyptian Husbands with foreign wives from all over the world.

My Husband was released from service at the end of April this year as he has served his full time but I stick around as the creator of the facebook support group for the wives. I've been meaning to post a new thread about the topic sticking to the general information that we have about the Egyptian military process for those foreign wives that come behind us that have to go through it but I am hesitant to because of the response it may generate and it's already a handful to keep track of the current 8 cases. However, I know that VJ is Google accessible and that is how some of the women whose Egyptian Husband's who got taken found us and through that also found some form of support in our weekly chats that I would host or designate a host online. Since my Husband's release I struggle with the desire to close that chapter of our life and pass the torch on to those going through the process currently. Right now a small group is good for management purposes on facebook, but I'm thinking about how to formulate what needs to be put out there for the general public's knowledge and future help so I guess I should work on that.

Edited August 8, 2009 by ~Flower~