Happy Mother’s Day from Phnom Penh!

Hey everyone!
Sorry about the hiatus. Nevertheless, I return 🙂

In honor of Mother’s Day, I wanted to tell you a little bit about my mom. I have and Indian mother – and if any of you know anything about Indian mothers, you would know that, maaan, they are rough, illogically strict and never slow to discipline their kids. Add a little bit of nutty and yup, that’s my mom– although, I have to say she’s mellowed out on the strictness over the course of the past few years.

Well, I want to talk about her because there’s a lot more to her story that being a strict mother. You see, what many of you don’t know is that my mom is the second oldest of seven children.  From the beginning, my mom was a rebel. Her parents forged her birth certificate so that she could begin attending school even though she wasn’t old enough. She left her home town at the early age of 17 to pursue a nursing degree (which in her time was considered a waste of time for a woman to consider career and education over raising family), left her home country around the age of 22 (which no one did back then), moved to a foreign Muslim country (again, no one does that), even with the threat of being disowned by her family, married my father out of love and not arranged marriage (which especially at the time  was completely looked down upon), raised 2 daughters in a Muslim country, making sure that we grew up knowing we are valued when all of society told us we are not, stepped out in faith and followed her calling to America, build business in arenas where no other Indian woman had ever gone before, et cetera, et cetera.. even cancer couldn’t hold her down y’all…

Her life still goes on and she still does things that are unconventional by most standards. She has done all these things that she felt that in her heart was the the right thing to do, even when everyone around her – her parents, her siblings, her friends, her teachers, her coworkers, culture, society and yeah, definitely many times, her husband, her kids, me… — even when EVERYone and EVERYthing around her said she couldn’t do it, she still listened… she still listens to God’s voice inside her and trusts that He will follow through with making the dreams and desires He has placed inside her come true. She trusts in Him and His plans for her completely even when her entire world tells her not to. That, beloved, that is my mother. She is my inspiration…