Today, I want to take a little time to tell you how my husband and I met. I was 21 and in June, our French class took a trip to Paris (mind me reminding you I live in Luxembourg and Paris is only about 3 hours away!). I still had to buy a few small souvenirs, so I entered a shop just a few steps away from the Moulin Rouge and snagged a few shirts I had not seen anywhere else during the trip. While I paid I felt someone was watching me and spotted a guy sitting close to the cashier. Sparkling eyes, braided hair. He was watching me and I felt weird. In fact, I don't like the feeling of being observed. When I came outside, my friends were asking me what happened inside, because apparently, my face was as red as a tomato usually is... Fast forward to December of the same year. I was still 21 and at the hairdressers. I know, this was definately NOT where I would expected to meet the man of my life. He knew the owner of the hairsaloon and just came to say hello. I sat there, I saw him entering and I just knew it. I knew it was HIM right from the first moment. Before, I never believed you could just know it and now that this really happened to me, I was scared. In main time, I tried to stay calm, telling myself that I must be wrong. He sat down just next to me and talked to me. I just recall him asking about my name, and being blown away by his eyes. They were sparkling like stars. I can't recall anything else of the conversation. Seriously... Until at once, his phone rang and he just said:"I am sorry, I won't be there. Sorry you were waiting for me, but I just can't. I feel I have to stay where I am right now." When my hair was done, and I was about to go home, I know nothing but his name but I knew that I HAD to do something. People who know me know I am pretty shy, and I would never EVER just DO something to meet a man again (makes me feel trashy...). However, this time, everything was different. I wrote down my number on a small piece of paper and when I turned around he was just gone. Of course I wouldn't have given my number to him in front of everyone. I was just hoping he would follow me... BUT... I guess I was wrong then. A little relieved, but still a little dissapointed, I went outside and there he was. Handing me a pen and a piece of paper, asking if he could get my number because he wanted to see me again. So... yay. no need to feel trashy because I did not need to give the piece of paper I had originally written.
A few days and phonecalls later, we saw each other again, and everything went pretty fast from there on. However, it was not until he went to get to know my mom that I experienced a... surprise... Mom just hung the laundry when we arrived. There were a few shirts from Paris being hung there was well. We went inside, and my mom was getting drinks when he said:"I knew you looked familiar." Me: "What do you mean?" Him:"You are the red faced girl buying shirts at my friends shop in Paris, not far away from the Moulin Rouge." Indeet, I could not deny that I had bought shirts in a shop close to the Moulin Rouge... "I was checking you out behind the counter. You were so embarrassed you almost forgot your change. I had braids back then. Remember?" Oh yeah, I did... LOL. Nowdays, I wonder how I did not feel the connection in Paris but felt it at the hair saloon.
The problem we faced once our relationship was getting very serious was faith. Karim is Muslim, and I am Catholic. Before I could never imagine being with anyone besides a Catholic man. It took us a lot of time to adjust, and it is STILL going on now, 9 years later. Sometimes it makes me sad that the kids are muslim, too. However, he has never put any pressure on me to become muslim, or even suggested it. He accepts my faith, me going to church, the way I pray. I, in return, accept his faith, that he and the kids eat no porc meat (me neither, out of respect!). I cannot say that this is what I imagined, but I am confident that Gods plan for me was better than the one I had for myself.
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