Turtle in a half shell!

I'm back from Cairo.....interesting trip. When I got to Cairo, my hubby's sister was at the family building waiting to talk to me. Oh!

She basically went thru a lot of gossip.....and then some rather pointed questions about her brother. One of the hardest ones that she asked me was..

"What are you going to do???"

To which I answered her.....

Does it really matter specifically? Let me just say, that no matter HOW I deal with this situation that you need to believe that I've done my absolute best to keep our marriage strong and secure. I need to take a stand for myself....and my children. I will do what needs to be done.

This didn't seem to satisfy her. Perhaps even scared her. But I wouldn't give her more than that. She is, after all, my hubby's sister.

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In the weird news......the family that has been constantly ignoring us, seems to like us again. The brothers' wife and kids came down to say salaam to me when I was at the other brothers house. It makes me VERY uncomfortable. How can they be completely awful towards me and the kids, and then.....suddenly......wanting to be all cuddly and kissy? I'm so stubborn......but I hold them at an arms length. I'm not about to get burned twice. But I am pleased that the tension has been eased.

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Can you say PASSPORT? OMG OMG OMG!!! I finally have it!! But what a run around. They LOST THE THING!! I had to run back and forth from window 40 and window 28. On Monday....window 28 took the passport. Window 40 tells me that window 28 is NOT ALLOWED to take the passport, so I must have it in my purse. When I told them that THEY TOOK THE PASSPORT....they told me to go home and check and come back tomorrow.

I ran between those 2 windows for 1 1/2 hours. And they just kept telling me to go home! (and I was doing all this in arabic too!!) Finally, after running back and forth and about to give up........the woman says to me...

"We aren't allowed to take the passport,but if you forgot it with us, that's different."

I immediately told her...OH! I forgot it then! And had to sit thru their bitch session

U forgot it? Why didn't u say so? Why did you have to say we took it?

ANd I was like....malish, malish. So I says.....What now?

Well....it's probably in the safe.

So I get the right person and we go to the safe....he opens it....and there is the passport. Took me all of 4 mins. Thank God I didn't go home! So YAY! Passport in hand.

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So now that I have complete ability over my family......I get to think exactly what I want to do. It's a good feeling. And the tension that I was feeling has been lifted.

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Did I say I went to the divorce lawyer? Oh yeah! Very nice man. I asked him a bunch of Q's.....trying to understand the laws of Egypt. What will stand behind me and what will stand behind my husband. The most interesting thing that I learned is that the law in Egypt is that in the instance of divorce, the husband (ex) can only apply to gain custody of the kids after they have reached the age of 15. Even the son. And oftentimes, the husband won't get them anyways.

Good to hear.

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What else? Well, when I came home after getting the passport and seeing the lawyer....I was exhausted. Went back to the BIL's.....and fell asleep. My phone started ringing and I looked at the number.......seems like it was hubby. (overseas with a phone card) I didn't answer.

Before I left to go home, my BIL's phone rang. SIL answered cuz her hubby wasn't there. I told her about an hour before....that if hubby calls to tell him I've left. Made her pinky swear.

It was him on the phone. She told him I just left. She asked him why he didn't sound so good? He told her that he can never get us on the phone. He pleaded to her..."Why can't I just get a hold of them whenever I want?"

This bothered her. And afterwards, she asked me to be nice to him. I looked at her and said...."and when he calls us, playing with his wife....giggling on the phone....I'll remember that you told me to be nice"

She got tears in her eyes....and then said.....no, ur right.

When I got home there were two messages on the house phone. The second one sounds so sad. He doesn't even say salaam. It's like he's come to the realization that we don't want to talk to him. Must be a step down for him. LOL.

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Came home to my messy apt. I've had houseguests for a week. But I just planted myself in bed and enjoyed a nice, long, uninterrupted sleep. (Except from Mr Precious....but hey....that's welcome!)

So here I am. Feeling in a good mood. I've finally taken a small step forward after 9 mos! OMG! I've been trying to get this passport since baby was a month old! OMG!

Alhamdulillah!

(I need to get some meds for my turtle sickness and while I'm at it, maybe some antibiotics for the 2 year bout of De Nial Syndrome............THERE IS HOPE YET!)