Dear Morayo, This week I have remembered what an amazing thing hope is! You have spent the last couple of weeks waking every hour or two at night, and that coupled with your refusal to nap anywhere but the sling for the last three months has been slowly but surely breaking me. Not only has … Continue reading Part Thirteen: Hope
Part Twelve: Courage takes time
Dear Morayo, It's taken me a little while but this week I finally built up the courage to put your high chair together and today I fed you your first proper 'meal'. You loved it, chatted the whole way through, and even 'asked' for more! I'm hoping that some food other than breast milk in … Continue reading Part Twelve: Courage takes time
Part Eleven: Bubble bursting
Dear Morayo, You're five months old now, and you love bubbles! You dribble and blow raspberries all the time, making as many bubbles as possible both whilst smiling as well as during 'I-need-a-nap' tantrums. When I take you to baby sensory classes, your favourite part is always when the lady in charge brings out the … Continue reading Part Eleven: Bubble bursting
Part Ten: Private number
Dear Morayo, When I met your Dad, he thought I was a complete luddite as I didn't have a smartphone, had never heard of Whatsapp, and had hardly ever used an emoji. It was he who persuaded me that I really should enter this century, especially considering I communicated regularly with people back home, and … Continue reading Part Ten: Private number
Part Nine: Remembering and forgetting
Dear Morayo, Here are some things I remember in the period between seeing your Dad stooped over in a cage, me clutching at his hand through bars, and seeing him in a blue prison uniform through reinforced glass, not being able to touch or even smell him for months, having to speak via a greasy … Continue reading Part Nine: Remembering and forgetting
Part Eight: There’s no smoke without fire
Dear Morayo, Entering into motherhood is like entering into a sisterhood that you never knew existed. People welcome you aboard the 'mothership' with open arms, and you navigate your way through the choppy seas with advice from these 'old hands' as well as bumbling around with your new-found new-mother friends who just so happen to … Continue reading Part Eight: There’s no smoke without fire
Part Seven: Vulnerability
Dear Morayo, The strangest thing about seeing your Dad in a cage in a grimy little police station in a country that on the surface has a good reputation as the 'Switzerland of the Middle East' (the implication being that it is free and progressive with a good Human Rights record), is that my memories … Continue reading Part Seven: Vulnerability
Part Six: Middle class problems
Dear Morayo, I'm just learning how difficult it is to get anything done when you have a baby- especially one like you who really hates napping on her own! The only way you go to sleep is if I take you out for a walk, or feed you until you pass out in a milk-drunk … Continue reading Part Six: Middle class problems
Part Five: The mukhabarat
Dear Morayo, Back to May 2013 and your Dad's disappearance in Amman. I had absolutely no idea where he was, only that the police had taken him. As far as I was concerned, he could have been dead. That was what I thought. I don't think I slept at all that night, and early next … Continue reading Part Five: The mukhabarat
Part Four: Creation and procrastination
Dear Morayo, It has probably been over eight months since I last wrote. You're here and thriving at eleven weeks old. You're absolutely gorgeous with big, alert eyes, a cheeky smile and long legs (so that's why my bump was so muscular- it was your legs all folded up together like a faun!). You've even got … Continue reading Part Four: Creation and procrastination
Dear Morayo 