Required Update :)

My fellow blogger friend, and sister in tariqa, has informed me that it is improper blog etiquette :) to not update my blog at least once a month...and so this is my situation these days in brief:

Insha'Allah we are heading to Senegal in about a month, where I intend to stay with my five children for one year. My husband will return after two weeks, and then visit every 4-5 months, which is easy for him given his career is in academics. As you can imagine, getting ready for such a journey can be stressful in many ways. I have never fully relocated to a different country, although I have very much enjoyed visiting different places over the last few summers. Being apart from my husband is of course a major concern, but after 15 years of marriage, I think we can handle it :). My biggest challenge will be to keep my spirits up, as if he knows that we are happy and doing well, he is less likely to become depressed himself.

We will all be attending a Qur'an school there insha'Allah, along with various other studies, for me most likely in tasawwuf, and the children in all necessary subjects from pre-K to grade 7. So that ought to keep us busy!! I do love living in Africa, and love the challenge of a new environment where one cannot just satisfy any material need with a quick run to Walmart. It is a lot of fun to get creative with simple things which are available in order to make life a little easier. The people are wonderful, the food is great, and an escape from the rush of life in America is best of all...that is best symbolized by nights on the roof, in prayer under the ocean of the sky.

So I am focusing on that right now, trying to be as best prepared as I can both to leave the home and finances in the hands of my husband, and to have what we need while we are there. Of course the main thing I am praying for is that the children will love their first year in a Muslim country, that their learning of the Qur'an will be something that touches their heart for many years to come, and that we all will come back wiser and more in touch with what our purpose is here within the dunya on every level.