What No One Wants To Hear

by Ayesha Posted on August 9, 2011

“Your son is having open heart surgery”

That’s right.  It’s time for the hole in Abdullah’s heart to be closed off and fixed.  He’ll be 11 months by the time his surgery rolls around, which is September 1st.  He is, alhumdu’lillah, doing really very well considering his condition.  It’s almost like he doesn’t have any problem at all, actually.

But the reality is that he does have a problem.  Not only does he have a large sized hole in his heart, his aorta is prolaptic and leaking.  That’s the real issue, according to the cardiologist.  We could’ve withheld surgery on Abdullah if he had just a hole in his heart, but the leaky valve is worth worrying about (finally, I guess…) So they want to go ahead and fix the valve and hole before it truly affects Abdullah’s health.

So some of you may be wondering, how does it feel to know your son is going to have open heart surgery?  Continue reading →

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Ramadan Kareem!

by Ayesha Posted on August 1, 2011

Ramadan Kareem!  We are so blessed to be able to experience yet another month of Allah’s generiosity.  It’s like the whole month is one big sale— there’s a clearance on barakah, mercy, reward, and good deeds!  Get it while it lasts, this is a limited time offer!

Imagine if we went berserk collecting good deeds the way we all obsess over good deals on black Friday. There is so much planning and preparing put forth for ONE day of sales at the mall.  Now imagine if that was multiplied by 30 days, and also if the deals were 70 times better!  I would line up for a deal like that the night before…

Which is exactly what I did!

Narrated Abu Huraira: I heard Allah’s Apostle saying regarding Ramadan, “Whoever prayed at night in it (the month of Ramadan) out of sincere Faith and hoping for a reward from Allah, then all his previous sins will be forgiven.”

Now *that* is one deal I cannot pass up!

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Destructive Music Lyrics

by Ayesha Posted on November 13, 2010

Recently I came across the lyrics of a very popular song.  The song is called Teenage Dream and it is sung by Katy Perry.  This song is a big hit on the radio, and I can imagine that there are millions of girls, boys, teenagers, whoever, that love this song.  They probably enjoy the beat, they probably just like the rhythm, but also, they like the lyrics.  It’s a happy-feel-good-love song, who doesn’t like that?

Not that I hate love songs, but I don’t like ones with potentially destructive lyrics.  How are the lyrics for this song potentially destructive? Continue reading →

Posted in My 2 Cents | 3 Comments

The Best Planner

by Ayesha Posted on November 10, 2010

If you remember from 2 posts ago, I mentioned that we found out Abdullah has a hole in his heart. We found this out when he was 1 week old (we celebrated the one-week moment in the Peds-ICU).  At the time we were told he might be transferred to a hospital to have surgery to close the hole.  I was scared, confused, and worried that such a small baby was going to have to go under the knife.

Well, it’s been 5 weeks since then, and Abdullah is now 6 weeks old.  He still has a hole in his heart, so you can imagine that means he still hasn’t had his surgery.

On the one hand, this is great news.  Alhumdulillah, Abdullah is doing really great.  Of all the symptoms that a child with a VSD can show, Abdullah only has one– his heart beats fast.  Otherwise, he’s eating well, gaining weight, sleeping well, not turning blue, breathing just fine, blood pressure is great, and the oxygen concentration in his blood is almost always at 100% Awesome!  I couldn’t be happier. Continue reading →

Posted in Family, My 2 Cents | 1 Comment

I Know You So Well

by Ayesha Posted on October 24, 2010

Well, it’s been almost 4 weeks since Abdullah showed up in our lives, and shockingly, I can identify his needs pretty quickly.

He really only has 4 basic needs:  to pooh, to fart, to sleep, to eat.  When he’s pooing, he turns red in the face, stretches out, and sounds frustrated, but isn’t crying.  When he’s gassy, he’s crying and won’t eat anything.  When he’s hungry he’ll start to turn his head to the side with his mouth wide open, or he’ll start to suck on his entire fist.  And when he’s tired, it’s usually right after he did one of the other activities :)

I can imagine that as more weeks go by, and he has more feelings, needs, frustrations, I’ll be able to figure those out based on his habits and faces.  Now I know why my parents can tell how I’m feeling just from the look on my face… they’ve been identifying it for years!  Silly me to think that they didn’t know how I was feeling, when it was clearly written all over my face… at least for them to see.

So note to self, and to other kids:  Parents really do know their kids so well.  You can’t hide much from them.  So just embrace it and let them help you.  Because if there’s one thing I’ve also learned–no matter what face Abdullah is making, every bone inside of me wants to help him get past what’s bothering him.  Even if that means cranking up his leg, and letting him fart all over me :)

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