11 September 2007 was my daughter’s first birthday.
Her name is Shukria which means: Thank You God. She was gifted to us on a memorable sad day which had an effect on the lives of the people from America to Afghanistan. The day changed the world and she changed us.
During our honeymoon, my wife and I had arguments every night after we made love whether our first child should be son or daughter. She wanted a cute boy and I was demanding for a pretty little baby girl. She would say, ‘Do you like daughters? People don’t like them’ And I would reply, ‘Damn the people. I don’t care about them’
‘But I care. I hope I will not disappoint your parents. When I laid my first step on the door of your house as your bride, your mother put a little boy onto my lap. Do you know what is it for?’
‘What is it for?’
‘She expects me to give her only male children’.
I had to remain silent and staring at her for a few minutes to understand what she has told to me. Then she would bring her mouth to mine for a kiss and say, ‘people don’t like women whom first or most children are female. It is not a good sign. My first child will be a boy’ she said decisively as if it was her own choice to have sons or daughters.
As she has been saying, our first child was a boy and as cute as she was expecting. She and our family were very happy. And I was too happy. He brought great joy to our home.
Two years later, she got pregnant for second time and my hope to be father of a little baby girl again aroused. Though she was still not happy with the idea of having daughters but remained silent and hoped to give birth to a baby girl to make me happy. We prepared for it and bought a lot of things secretly. She has told me that our parents and relatives will not like us if they were aware of our idea. After a long wait, she delivered another baby boy and the family celebrated it joyfully.
She was also very happy to have another son and one night said proudly, ‘Only a perfect woman can have sons’.
The discussion again started next night and she said, ‘God has his own unique rule. The people who want sons are given daughters and you want daughter but He is giving you sons.’
I should mention that we had decided during our honeymoon to have only two children; a son and a daughter. First, she objected and said, ‘I will like to have at least five sons’ but then she had agreed to me.
The night of first birthday of our second son, I reminded my desire for a daughter. She chuckled and said, ‘Remember! We had decided to have only two children.’
‘Yes, a son and a daughter’ I reminded a clause of the decision,
‘Now we will have two sons and a daughter.’
‘And if it was also boy this time?’ she enquired.
‘Then we will have another child, then another, then another, until we have a daughter.’
‘Ok, I will pray for you’ she giggled.
God accepted her prayers and bestowed us this time with this beautiful piece and lovely baby of the world (at least for us). She came at 5:41 PM 11 September 2006. We thanked God and named her Shukria. The day she was born on has terrific memories for all of us. Millions of people have suffered from the attacks on WTC and Pentagon and from the wars erupted after the incident. It is mourned world wide. That is why we believe she is given us as a special gift on this memorable day to reduce our grieves with and make it our day.
Shukria is now one year old. In the start, most of the family members’ attitude was not polite towards her because people and families of our society don’t like daughters. But then my madly love impressed them and all the family regarded her as a gift of God. In the course of a few months, our neighbors also impressed and changed their attitude towards their daughters. Now my wife proudly says when she mentions our children, ‘I have one daughter and two sons’.
On her first birthday, we prepared to celebrate it with great zeal to show respect to women’s equal rights but a very bad accident occurred and we cancelled the birthday celebrations. On the birthday eve, a little girl from neighboring house accidentally knocked against the person who was serving boiling tea to the guests. The boiling tea drifted on her and burned her face and shoulders badly. The incident brought great troubles to us.
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