Love, Live, Life...

It has been two months since my last maid was sent back to the agency after a short-lived employment with me for less than two months. I've been out of touch with real housework since nine years ago. But as soon as I made the decision not to employ another maid, I knew that I cannot evade the routine household chores.

Alhamdulillah, I've been coping very well without a maid. Dear helps with the laundry, vacuuming and mopping whenever he's at home and our kids have learnt to be more independent without a maid. The only setback is that I cannot go out to work as much as I used to because nobody looks after our kids. I don't want to trouble Kak Long so much. Only once in a while, when I need to go for scheduled meetings, trainings or urgent appointments with clients, I would leave our kids in her good hands. Otherwise, I would wait for Dear to have his off-day or when he comes back home early after his morning shift.

Recently, Dear was head-hunted by a foreign corporation. It took a number of phone calls from the head-hunter and e-mails to and fro to negotiate the package with him, before he agreed to join them...InsyaAllah, he will be joining the firm soon, doing what he loves to do; audio-visual. The best part is that he will no longer need to work shifts and also, no more working long hours. With weekends off, he can attend his Sunday classes without the need to apply for leave...What's in it for me as his wife? I'm not talking about monetary terms cos he has never been stingy with me since Day One we dated till now that we have four children. He trusts me to handle his earnings. We have a joint-account. We also have our own individual POSB savings account but his ATM card, passbook and token for internet-banking are all with me for my access...As a wife, I am simply grateful for the opportunity that Allah swt has opened up for him via the head-hunter. Obviously, he is tired working in the hotel line already since 18 years of age and I, as his wife, including our kids, hardly get to spend quality family time together as he would always be very tired. At least now, whenever there is a long weekend, I'll be glad to know that he will be around with us.

Yesterday, Dear mentioned again about getting a new maid. He said he wants me to go back to my usual lifestyle; that is, to go out to meet clients easily, to visit friends, clients and relatives within twenty-four hours of them calling me when they fall sick, give birth or meet with an accident, to go out with my friends for drinks or dinners without having to worry about "Who's going to look after our kids?", to continue to pursue the courses that I had registered for but put on hold, etc. Most importantly, he doesn't want me to feel tired because of housework. How can I not love this man?...It is true that we did drift apart at one point of time but we talked it out, we trashed things out, we cried, we shouted at each other, we deleted some "friends" and relatives from our lives and we are now back to Happy Land again.

I pray diligently to Allah swt to grant us the serenity, to protect us from all evils, to let us continue our love journey without any disturbances from anybody, to give us good health and most importantly, to always give us strength to love each other unconditionally and to love, nurture and bring up our children to become good Muslims and Muslimah. Amin.

Dear turns 41 tomorrow. He doesn't ask for and doesn't want any present. All he wants is for us to spend time with him the whole day tomorrow to makan-makan and jalan-jalan after I am done with my paperwork in the office. As he will be taking our boys to the mosque for Friday prayer, we have yet to plan where exactly we are going to.