My road to Egypt

My family and I were always travelling in Egypt, but we fell in love with Luxor. Soon enough I found my future husband, he was tall, handsome and sweet. Al though i was only 16 when I met him, I still knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.

A couple years later I changed from a school in Sweden to a school I could do over the internet, so I moved to Luxor to stay with my sister and be closer to my, then, furture husband. I had also begun reading and learning about Islam, my husband being Muslim wanted me to convert of course, but, he told me it didn't matter to him as long as I was happy. All he wanted from me was that I learned about both Islam and Christanity, he got me some books and CD's about both religions, I read and read, to me there where something missing in the Christian belief, something I found in Islam. Islam spoke to me in a way, and it filled me up, I felt complete.

Then came the hard part, the hijab! I was so scared to put it on and not liking it or maybe not being worthy of wearing it. I remember the first time I put on a hijab I went to my husbands family, his dad opened the door and he had the biggest smile on his face! Then came my mother-in-law, she gave me the biggest and warmest hug. Don't get me wrong, they were nice to me even before I converted, but this just made them even more happy.

My husband and I got married September 25th 2013, I was 18 at the time, we had a giant wedding, almost all of Luxor came, my sister told me the wedding club (room for 300 people) was so full there were people lined up outside. I wore a big glittery dress with crazy high heels, the woman who did my makeup really screwed me though! She pretty much contoured my face with blush and only put mascara half way up my lashes. My sister and I were trying as hard as we could to correct it afterwards. The night was still great!

I moved into the apartment my husband and I build together, we live two floors above my inlaws. They really have become my Egyptian parents!

My own mother and father also almost moved here, 2 years ago my father got very sick very quickly, we had to take him to a hospital in a city south of Cairo, my sister was close to giving birth at the time so she couldn't come with us. He stayed one week at the hospital and then he passed away, I have a very small family, I wasn't really used to losing anybody close to me. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life was calling my sister, who just gave birth a few days before, to tell her that our beloved dad had passed away, I cried and cried and kept apologizing, I felt so guilty.

My husband fixed a car to take my dad and us back to Luxor to bury him, now he's resting peacefully just outside of Luxor.

I now have a beautiful 2 year old girl, life is great, hard at times, but I'm not one to complain :)