A Tale of Two Women - A Mini Series, Part XV

The Christmas holiday was quickly approaching and Deanna was feeling a plethora of feelings, for she was finding her heart had been opening more and more towards Aly and feeling the sadness the holidays usually brought her due to being alone.

Aly had been extremely patient and not pushing Deanna to meet him face to face because he wanted her to be the one that took the lead in this area due to her past pains. Deanna knew she wanted to meet Aly to establish a life with him but was so fearful of making the decision because what if she would be wrong again. Prior to December Deanna had suggested Aly try to find an employer that would sponsor him to come into the states as way for them to meet, but that was proving fruitless. Aly had applied for countless positions that offered employer sponsorship to the states, but never amounted to anything. It was becoming increasing difficult for Aly and Deanna because they were now at a standstill, until Deanna made a choice to go see Aly.

Christmas day came and Deanna attempted to hold a stiff upper lip for the sake of her parents and daughter, but she only fooled herself. For they all knew how sad she felt, but couldn’t do much to help her. Her parents knew she was sad because she got sad on every holiday feeling alone, and her daughter knew she was sad because she wasn’t her bubbly self. Deanna still did not feel it was the time to tell her parents about Aly for after all there wasn’t really anything to tell.

When Deanna returned home that evening she had by then cried herself to exhaustion. She decided to lay down to rest her head and fell into a trance like sleep. She had a dream she still to this day will never forget. She had a dream she was standing on the side of a mountain overlooking some kind of view, however the view was obstructed because she wasn’t completely to the top yet. She heard someone say, "welcome back Deanna." To her astonishment it was God. She could not see a face or make out any visible form, but she knew that unequivocally it was God. She was also perplexed by the words that were used, "welcome back Deanna", which meant she had been to this part previously. She was not certain how she could have been here before as she didn’t recall climbing a mountain. God told her that it was a metaphor. He shared that everyone starts somewhere, representing the bottom, and as they grew, struggled, learned and climbed that represented the side of the mountain. He explained that she had been through many of these trials in her life and each time climbed to this very point in the mountain, to which she would either not get the entire lesson, give up, or wrestle with a situation too much when she should have turned it over to Him, and each time she did this she would start back down at the bottom of the mountain again to try climbing all over. He told her that the good news was she actually saw Him this time on the side of the mountain, for He had been there every time previously when she got there, but never saw Him. Even though it pained Him that she didn’t, He knew that one day she would, and here they were. He told her that He understood everything she was going through. Understood her frustration of being alone, understood her tiredness of raising her daughter on her own, understood her fear of trusting her own judgment with respect to Aly, and most of all understood her love and intention to do the right thing by Him (God). He told her that if she trusted Him He could take her further up the mountain, which He meant this in the respect of going and meeting Aly. She was crying, telling God who much she loved him, but that she was extremely scared. He smiled and told her that he knew she was scared, but how much did she trust Him. She fell silent before Him truly at a loss for words because although she had always proclaimed to trust God she was now being put on the spot. He could see the tears running down her face and feel her pain, but He allowed her to have her dignity while she thought about His question. Deanna felt so overwhelmed. She was being asked, by God, how much did she trust me? She trusted God, but she didn’t trust herself. She now realized it wasn’t about trusting herself at all, she had to give up that notion and either confirm or deny God’s question of how much she trusted Him. She looked up with tears running down her cheeks and said in a quiet voice, "yes, I trust you but know that I’m really scared". He told her that He knew she was scared. He said, "Deanna if you trust me then take my hand and I will lead you up the mountain." Deanna reached out her hand and felt His wrap around hers. She awakened from the dream knowing she could not waste one minute not making the preparation to go see Aly.

She called Aly on the phone and told him that she needed to come see him, that she needed to meet him face-to-face, that she needed to know that he was the man God had prepared her for. Aly was taken back by these latest revelations, but was thrilled inside nonetheless. He asked Deanna if she was sure, to which she replied, "absolutely, I trust God." She heard Aly say, "Allahamdullilah, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar".

The next day Deanna called her friend, Mindy, to tell her about her dream, to which Mindy told her "you know what that means don’t you? You’ve been praying and seeking God’s will in your life as well as to prepare you for the husband He has chosen for you. So what are you going to do, she said?" Deanna said that she wasn’t sure because she couldn’t take her daughter with her and she didn’t want her parents to know. Deanna shared that her parents were travelling for a couple of months at the beginning of the year so that would be good, but that still didn’t solve the problem with her daughter. Mindy told her, "don’t let your daughter be the reason you decide not to go meet Aly because I will watch her in your absence". Deanna could not believe how everything was falling into place so quickly and effortlessly.

Aly sent Deanna a flight itinerary for her scheduled flight, which thrilled her and scared her because it was truly becoming a reality. There were very few people that knew of Deanna’s plight to travel and she wanted it to remain this way because she did not want to deal with the critics that would give her a hard time for traveling to the middle east---more importantly flying to the middle east to meet a man she met online----how foolish could that be?

The morning arrived and Deanna’s friend Vicky picked her and her daughter up early in the morning to take her to the airport. Again Deanna was thrilled at the adventure, knowing she was trusting God, and sad because she was leaving her daughter for the first time ever. Vicky hugged her and told her to have a good time, to let her know when Deanna arrived, and to not worry her daughter would be fine. Deanna leaned in the back seat to say good bye to her daughter, who asked, "where are you going Momma?" Deanna tried hard to fight the tears but one fell out, and she told her, "I’m going to see Lee baby" as that was how her daughter pronnounced Aly. Her daughter cried and said, "I want to see Lee too Momma. I love Lee." She told her daughter that she knew she did, and she’d be sure and tell Lee that when she saw him.

Deanna’s flights were slightly altered due to the unexpected bad whether, but was re-routed and ultimately arrived in the Gulf as originally scheduled. When she arrived at her destination, a fellow German passenger assisted her through customs as he had traveled there many times before, so knew the ropes. Deanna made her way to the luggage carousel only to discovered her luggage had been misplaced. The airline staff confirmed her luggage had made it there, but were not able to locate it at the moment. The took the name and number of where she could be reached and confirmed as soon as they located it they would deliver it to her.

Deanna made her way out the airport exit to the surprise of ten million people waiting for their arriving passengers. This terrified her so much because she was so painfully shy. She ran to the corner and began praying and asking God to help her have the strength to walk out the door again to find Aly. She asked God to please let Aly find her because after all it would be easier to pick her out of the crowd than it would be to pick him. She walked out the door and not long down the exit walkway she was stopped by an invisible force to which she looked up and to her right and there stood Aly----all alone. Truly this was a miracle because there’s no way he could have been standing there alone with ten million others right in the same area, but nonetheless there he stood. There eyes met, they smiled and she walked towards him. He opened his arms and she fell into his embrace, placing her hand on the side of his cheek and breathing for the first time. He told her later that he felt like he finally had life when she placed her hand on his cheek.

Aly had a friend, Mohamed, that was waiting in the background of this scene who after seeing them hug came forward handing her a bouquet of flowers saying these are from Aly. Aly introduced the two of them and then they made their way to his car. Aly and Deanna couldn’t stop looking at each other because it was really happening, after all this time they were finally in the presence of one another. Mohamed was smiling at the scene being played out in front of him. Aly then drove them to a little restaurant where they were meeting with some of Aly’s other friends that wanted to meet and greet Deanna upon her arrival. "It was a glorious way to start the adventure", Deanna thought, and told God thank you an infinite amount of times.