This whole blog idea intimidates me, to say the least. I don’t even know if I should say that. Maybe starting off by showing vulnerability is completely the wrong way to go. But, I don’t know any other way to show you who this person is that thinks she has something worth saying, without mentioning that this blog is one of the toughest challenges I am currently facing. I can’t even write a sentence without referring to myself in both the first and third person! But that’s the last time, I promise. Bear with me, and I might actually say something worth reading.

So who am I? First and foremost, I am a wife and a mother. At least that is how I would describe myself first – I am a romantic completely in love with my husband, Farhad, and the love story that we started almost 10 years ago. We met at a property management firm in California (and I will get back to the property management thing later…).

Farhad and I started with one of the biggest odds against us – an age barrier of 15 years. But we decided that it would only be a barrier if we let it. So we didn’t let it, and 8 months later, we were married. Our wedding song – You’re Still the One by Shania Twain. “I bet they’ll never make it,” she sings. Sound like a challenge?

After I graduated from college, we were eager to have a baby and before we knew it, we had Nikolas. Mom intrigued us with her request for us to move back East so that she could be close to her first grandchild. We did, but not before going to the Philippines for my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary. One day, Farhad and I will be celebrating that same momentous occasion, and Shania will surely be a part of the celebration.

The move to Maryland was tough in many ways. Do you know how expensive it is to move across the country?  From one coast to the other, we dragged our young family to start anew, bringing a few things but leaving far more behind. The property management firm that I mentioned earlier (where a separate, but equally strong, a love story began) was now 3,000 miles away.