Get a bloggy makeover at...

http://www.mahjabeenumar.com/blogdesign/ this lovely lady does blog designs and makeovers....! I got to know her very recently and am maha excited that she lives here in the same town as me....woweee, I am giddy with excitement as to what all changes she can make to my blog....I better get it all done before Yohaan arrives!

And she blogs too!! Hillarious stuff too!

Go over to http://maygandutp.blogspot.com/ and http://mahjabeenumar.blogspot.com/ and have a few laughs...have fun!

The day I went green...

I grew up amongst people who love gardening. My mother, aunts, friends of my parents, just about everyone I have known back in my home town loved plants and greenery. I remember the love and care my mother lavished on our garden and over the years she grew an enviable collection of beautiful plants around our house. My mother even talks to ''her babies'' as she refers to them! Me and my brother did not particularly share her love for gardening but we did admire her efforts and knew it meant a lot to her. I am sure she gave up on us ever developing an interest anyways. But off late I have developed a deep interest in plants myself. Ever since we bought our own house, it is as if I am seeing a completely new, read, domesticated side of me. I always was house proud but my efforts to do up anything around my parents house was always met with a resistance by my mom. She would tell me to save all that effort for when I would have my own house and be my mistress. Oh my mom kept a a lovely home with her limited resources and did not take kindly to her ''domain'' being tampered with! I remember I used to sulk when she would not let me change a cushion here or a table setting there. And I resolved from that time that I would keep a beautiful house and a pretty garden. Little did I know though that maintaining a garden and keeping indoor plants is not an easy task and requires considerable research and knowledge not to mention physical labour at which I am errr, not particularly great at. One of the gardens that stand apart in my mind is that of a colleague of my dad's. Aunty Nigam, as I address her, has the most awesome garden in the world. She has a deep abiding love for her plants and it shows. So while she is my dad's colleague and friend first, my mom shares a wonderful relationship with her simply on the basis of a mutual hobby and love they have for gardening.

Got married and came to the middle east where the heat could kill us humans, leave alone flora and fauna. OK that is a bit of an exaggeration but you know what I mean. So while I managed to do up my house in Sharjah very prettily, I was still not succeeding with my greens. Everytime I picked up indoor potted plants for my house, they would end up drying up and dying. It used to upset me a lot till I gave up. But then we moved in to our own house and I realised I was longing to see some greenery around. With the house came an already very nicely maintained garden so all I had to do was get some greenery indoors. Pestered and pestered my husband and gradually he started giving in to my demands. I started with 3 potted plants ! And praise be to God, somehow I managed to develop a green thumb and hit upon some excellent ideas as to how to keep them going! The guy who sold me those three plants told me to keep the AC on as much as possible. It was a bit of a worry because I mean , how can we have the AC on always, because, I end up feeling cold and keep fiddling with the temp control all the time. Nevertheless I tried the trick and it worked. In two months time, my baby plants were thriving so much that I needed to replant them in to bigger pots! Yayyy! Cant begin to tell you what joy I get when friends who visit , tell me my plants look so well cared for. It is especially nice coming from visitors who do have a considerable knowledge about gardening etc. This is also a tip from me to anyone who is remotely interested , plants are a relatively inexpensive way to do up your house. Some of them might be expensive, but look at it as an investment and they last for agessss!

So today, it ws time to nag the hubz again and let me tell you, being pregnant has such obvious advantages!! He never says no to anything now a days, he he he! And the sneaky ole' me took advantage of this and made him drive me to this huge garden centre in Dubai and boy! i freaked out or what! I simply went bersek. Imagine a mall espeically and only for plants and trees and all things green. While we were driving there, I uneccessarily explained to my hubby that I want to leave a green-legacy for our baby....whatever that means! I mean Dubai is quite a synthetic place and wouldn't it be nice if we could get our child interested in nature from a young age. I can assure you hubby didn't really need all my explainations! He was just happy giving in to whatever ''craving'' of the month I seem to be suffering from. So anyways, this month it is plants! And like I said I went madddd! I only recognise money plant and some standard palm trees. But here I picked up some very pretty plants of various kinds, mostly indoors. I loaded the trolley so much that my husband remarked '' are we buying groceries?'' I will put up pictures as soon as I can. Cant wait to share them here! I now have some amazing stuff for our living room and lots of them for the bedrooms too. I immediately got to work as soon as we came home and the master bedroom lespecially, looks such a place of tranquility....amazing what just a little touch of greenery can do to a living space. We also bought some accessories, actually my husband was quite excited and he chose the garden accessories like a ceramic frog, some stones, rocks etc. I also picked up a little fat clay birdie and am imagining how will Yohaan react seeing all those animals and birds outside when he grows up enough...anyways, I am beyond excited now and am so enjoying the look these plants have helped me create around my house. Thank you Jesus for making such lovely things on this planet. How did you know we humans would receive much comfort and joy from witnessing your creations. And how did you know it had to be the colour green?? Ah, you are such a perfect God!

We also went to the Fab India store and bought stuff for our bedroom to go with the Indian theme and colours. Ahhh, it all looks so pretty! Maybe it is the hormones but I am in such a nurturing mood nowadays. I feel maternal towards all living beings. My house currently gets a lot of ants visitng it- God only knows from where and how. Even as go about ex-terminating them I find myself feeling bad , mad I know! Then a funny thing happened at the garden store. I pointed out the lovely cacti plants to the hubz. He asked me to pick up some. I replied ''what if Yohaan gets to them and hurts himself?'' , it was then he gave me a ''huh? look''. A little too early to be baby proofing the house eh? Must be the hormones!!

Love thy neighbour as thyself....

I was just about to shut down my laptop and take my afternoon nap when I spotted my neighbour. Not like I spotted an alien or something. She lives a quiet life and minds her own business and all that. I dont even know her. Some evenings I can watch her cooking , sometimes busy in her garden which overlooks mine, all the usual daily stuff. But the way I see her now is troubling me. Why? Oh nothing illegal or shady happening here. You see, she is out on her first floor bedroom balcony sun bathing. In her two piece bikini, out in the horrible middle east sun and heat! I am stunned that some one should do that ...... itis none of my business I know , I know! But I so badly want to go and tell her that surely so much of ultra violet is no good for her skin! That this heat is not for real! That she will burn errr like a bacon if you please.... I am brown (and proud by the way) and my Indian skin can handle all this sunny business, but her fair caucasian skin is got to be more sensitive ? Maybe she is from some sun starved country like Finalnd or Norway or something, but oh , I want to go ask her if she is ok? I am fretting for her while she is happily sunning herself away with a book and a big bottle of sun tan lotion. I want to give her all sorts of dire warnings about the hazards of this kind of heat etc.

But the fear of breaching her privacy, getting reported to the cops and then deported has stopped me from being too neighbourly and so I am going to sit here and blog! Imagine, being arrested for something like that ! The cops here are very likely to arrest anyone for just about anything and everything! And imagine being labelled ''that nosy neighbour''...! Plus we dont want Yohaan and his daddy to be embarassed...by my well meaning but unwanted neighbourly concern.

Oh if God would honour my prayers for baby Yo!

My sister N has already nicknamed Yohaan as baby Yo... methinks it sounds cool, dont know if he will agree to it though, we shall see.

I am up to my ears with frequent scans, doctors visits, strict monitoring given my high risk pregnancy, medicines, jabs and what not...everytime I have to get blood drawn , everytime I feel a pinched nerve, everytime I see a high glucose reading inspite of my best efforts, everytime I feel queasy and just bone tired, the nights when I lie awake unable to sleep , I think back to the days when I actually longed to feel all this so that I could feel the joy of being pregnant. How I pleaded with God to let me experience all this and more, so I could be a mom some day...and while it has come to pass, there are days when I crib! How ungrateful is that! By most average standards I would say my pregnancy has been smooth sailing. No worries, no complications given that I have diabetes! I am doing well, by His grace.

I and my husband sometimes wonder whose look will Yohaan inherit? Will he be a cute looking handsome little boy? Will he be smart? He teases me, hoping Yohaan doesnt get my nasty temper or my stubborn ways, I tease hubz in turn hoping he doesnt get his dad's too laid back-lazy (according only to me!) attitude....but then, we need not worry. God has already designed and ordained every bit of him physically, emotionally, spiritually....Him being the designer, I really must let it be!

But oh, if God would honour my prayers for Yohaan's soul:

That baby Yo will one day accept Jesus into his heart, live a blameless life, and love the Lord with all his heart, soul, & mind. That one day the Lord Jesus will look at him and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master" (Matthew 25:21).

I would feel the utlimate goal of becoming a parent would be fulfilled if God were to answer this one prayer of mine...hey, all the mommy to be's, start praying that prayer now!

Pregnancy update

On the 27th Sept we went for our final scan to check whether Yohaan is growing fine and fit. It is called Fetal health and development scan. No doubt I will be having scans more often now, but this one was a biggie. So off we went and as it usually happens in Dubai, was happily caught in a traffic snarl. And we waited and waited worrying that the hospital wont take us in if we were to be late....they make a very,very,very big deal if you reach late even by a minute and then routinely punished by being made to wait for an hour to get your turn back. Well, I called the nurse in advance to warn her and although we reached about 10 minutes late, we found ourselves waiting one and half hour with my bladder bursting! I mean, really bursting! I had been downing glasses of water in preperation for the sonography.

Never mind all that, we had a nice Arab doctor, who was slightly elderly so kept repeating all her findings twice, thrice! And Yohaan is doing great! So pleased am I. His size is still ahead by a week, as is his head size, but nothing to be woried about as the doctor kindly pointed out to me ''well, you have a big head''.....errr, hello? What about the coconut headed daddy standing around looking pleased with this info!! Daddy just smiled cheekily while I tried to point out to the doctor that it is not me, it's him!

The scan was very thorough, with the doctor mumbling her ''Mashallah's'' . Yohaan seemed very active that day , probably sensed that mamma needed to pee badly, who knows! He mostly refused to cooperate and wouldnt show his frontal face to us...so the doctor couldnt really check out his lips, nose etc. He kept putting his hand over his face. The scan also took a long while and I remember feeling drowsy and even bored! In a little while, I actually tuned out and found myself noticing the doctors nicotine stained teeth! I know I am supposed to get majorly excited everytime we have a scan and see the little one, but I think I am nearing that stage when I am just bored and feel people should move on and not talk of the baby all the time. It is weird I guess, but I blame it all on the hormones...anyway, all is fine with Yohaan and me.

Around 10 weeks to go and I cant wait...in the mean while Yohaan kicks, rolls, swishes and hiccups. Also, enjoys soft ballads and classical music every time we play it in our car. He seems to be eating,sleeping and doing everything else he is supposed to be doing well.

What a wonderful, wonderful God to have blessed me with this pregnancy!

India!!

I recently came across a comment on a blog from a foreign volunteer working in India amongst the poor and the needy. Very commendable and all that. But a statement from her infuriated me no end....the commentator called India and my hometown, Varanasi beautiful and ''ugly'' in the same breath!! Apparently, she went to many places and this was her finding on most of India. What's there to be annoyed about you might ask me?? Well, on the face of it nothing really. Any visitor to any xyz country is entitled to his/her own opinions and really, that should not bother us. Why then did this commentator manage to get my goat? Well, firstly because, she is a christian and therefore one would assume have some semblance of compassion and senstivity towards a country she has chosen to work in, on a voluntary basis that too! And secondly, because just like any nation of the world , Jesus loves India!! As simple as that. That nation, with it's more than one billion people, it's flora and fauna, it's languages, it's pulse- all has been ordained by God Himself and no human has a right to denounce it or any country for that matter, in a derogatory manner.

I am Indian, so naturally my hackles are raised on this commentator's views. But really, I am an expat too, living in the middle east. I dont serve in any ministry and I havent gone all out to be charitable and all that here. But I do love and respect this country. Which expat in this world finds it all easy and nice and ''like home'' ? It is not easy being uprooted, displaced and away from ''home'' but any amount of trouble, hardship or feeling of alienation does not give us a right to bad mouth the country we have chosen to put down our tent in. Me and my husband have a very comfortable life here, but that does not mean we are really ''home'', does it? We are aliens, foreigners, expats call it what like. These synonyms dont sound very good to the ears does it...We have had our share of problems and issues settling down here, but in this fallen world, which nation on Earth can claim any form of superiority on the basis of religion, world class medical care, elderly care, education, physical appearances, science & technology, per capita income,safety & crime, moral and social fabric , taxes etc? When we choose to make a particular country our home, please lets accord it respect and affection.

Experts and professionals volunteer to work in some of the world's most dangerous nations, but would negate all their good work if they were to bad mouth that very nation. I have had one foreign worker say to my face that ''India is like a toliet'', I was saddened and shocked. What kind of christian service and heart do you bring to a country which you think is like a toilet anyways? Does God think so too? I seriously doubt that. I am so sick of expats not just in India, but even here in Dubai who have no words of praise but constantly crib and complain about expat living. I am pleased to note that they are all in the process of migrating to whichever country they ''perceieve'' as being more suitable for them. Good luck and good riddance I say! One of the fruits of the spirit is to display patience, why cant we show some of it to whichever country we are living in? This is especially for expats who have volunteered to live and work in a particualr country....even if you haven't , please stop being petty and a spoilt brat and give it all a break. God loves every country and has a plan for every one of them. How dare we stand and denounce any of His creations!!

Whatever our lot, Prasie be to God, because of Him, it falls in to pleasant places!

Oh My God....!!

It is with great pleasure that I come back to my blog !! My last post was on 8th June 08....with promises to myself to keep this blog going , to give myself an outlet to vent more than anything else. But anyone will notice, I slacked off and didn't get around to posting any new stuff....so much for those promises! Well, as all my friends and family know everything happens for a reason and so it with greatest awe and pleasure I announce that Joey and me are expecting our first baby!!!!!!! And it's a boy! And we are naming him Yohaan- meaning God has blessed. Indeed He has and that my dear people is the reason for my long absence.....this pregnancy was most unexpected, well rather expected but still a huge shock nevertheless! I have been hit by a host of overwhelming feelings and it became simply too much. This space got neglected.

Now as I am more settled and in my final trimester I realised I must keep this going although this blog will become more of a mommy blog now!! I would like to thank a fellow blogger Mad Momma at http://thebratthebeanandbedlam.wordpress.com/ whom I absolutely adore and love to read. She has been such an inspiration from the day I bumped in to her blog a few months ago, right after my pegnancy was confirmed and I was surfing for baby related blogs. There are many others I read but she has kept me most inspired to become a fabulous mother that she herself is!! Thank you mad momma! You rock!

I will now be posting regularly, every little bit that happens to me, my husband and my Yohaan, as we preapre to become a family that Christ has ordained. My heart is awed and filled to the brim with the sheer joy of becoming pregnant...another post is called for detailing my testimony, as to how I did become pregnant in the first place, battling infertility for a year and a half. I hope it will be a comfort to those who are in the same boat as I was once. My heart goes out to such couples more than ever now. I shall continue to uphold you in my prayers and ask you to do the same for this mommy to be , the daddy and little Yohaan.

''Give praise to the Lord for His love endures forever''

In Him, forever grateful!