After 8 years

Ezzy wrote this on his Facebook. I just want to keep here for later (read: bila aku rasa kekurangan kasih sayang).

I have a little secret.
This lady has a super power.
I tell you why..  

1. I was down with severe chickenpox for the past one week and I had to take pills 5 times a day (after meal). She cook and prepared the food for me every single time without fail.
2. She woke up very early in the morning to prepare the kids' school attire and cook their bentou.
3. She drove car to send the kids to school which distance 10km away from our house every morning and fetch them at the nearest train station in the afternoon.
4. She went to 2 big events in the kids' school and participated in one of the main game on the Sport Day, while carrying our 1 year 10 months old daughter in her arm.
5. Since I need to take a lot of water, one day she went to the nearest mall and brought back bottles of 2 liter mineral water. How could she carry that?
6. Did I tell you she couldn't speak Japanese? My sons told me that they went to the wet market because mommy wanted to cook fish for my dish. She couldn't even read the signage and speak with the seller, how could she do the bargain and get the right fish?
7. She attended to the kids' homework every night after the dinner (suppose to be my routine). Again, she doesn't have the language, how this could be possible?
8. She has a small online business. She still managing the orders coming in, while at the same time struggling with the little kid nagging to be fed. Oh, our daughter is still breastfeeding.
9. After all, we are living in foreign country with English is not a common language. She is far far away from her parent, families and friends to seek for help. It is not a practice to have a maid here either. She did all of this on her own, I repeat A.L.O.N.E! (thank you very much for some guidance from families and friends via whatsapp group, etc.).
10. This lady is my wife. My kids and I are very lucky to have this wonder woman by our side. Oh, she never been infected by the disease yet and hopefully will never be because I don't think I could possibly do all of the above on my own. 

Thank you Nurzahirah Mohd. Mukhtar  

Gambar tudung senget ni jugak yg dia pilih

 posted by Ezzy Ismail on Monday, October 5, 2015 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206980834336097&set=a.1827062113085.161735.1136272613&type=3&theater

He wrote this while he was on his way to the office. It was his first day after a week of fighting the evil chicken pox virus. I wasn't really expecting this coming from my not-so-romantic partner. To say that I am more silly, gooey, lovey, dovey romance lover compared to him is not far from the truth. I am being perempuan kan. He, being the man he is, is more reserved and hati batu cool person. So this post really took me by surprise.

Yes, he was sick. Like really really sick. Like memang-ingat-mati-punya sick. And it happened that, that same week the boys' school had 2 major events; school carnival and sports day. Since it's an infectious virus, Ezzy wasn't allowed to go out and need to be quarantined for at least a week. So I got no choice but to go alone to both events without him. It seems that the symptoms tend to be worse in adults than in children. Severe headache (started a day before the first rash appears), body aches, high fever, tiredness, loss of appetite and the spots? Pergghhhh. Started with small comel little harmless rashes then turned into horrible blisters. I can't even imagine how Ezzy managed to keep his hands from scratching those spots. They looked very damn itchy and they were everywhere, on the body, face and even in the mouth. Bad chicken. Bad bad baddddd chicken. 

No doubt, it has indeed been a trying week for me. One that saw me almost break down and cry like a baby. But to me a wife's gotta do what a wife's gotta do. In difficult time like this, you're left with no choice but to push yourself as far as you can go. 

So when I read what Ezzy wrote for me, I literally cried. It meant so much to me. What I did is little compared to what he has done for me. When you're living in a foreign land, far away from your families and friends, you only have each other. Dialah kawan, dialah lawan, dialah jiran sebelah, dialah kawan bergossip, dialah kawan memasak (dia tolong kelim karipap), dialah tukang pilih kasut, dialah segala. And he never failed to be there by my side whenever I needed him.

This post is not about me wanting to show off how romantic my husband is. Believe me, he is not. Over the years, we went through thick and thin and cherished every minute of it. Every experience has helped us to grow in many ways and made us into what we are today. We are not perfect. We argued, we've had our share of fighting over petty things, like who was the last one out but forgot to turn off the heater, and when Ezzy forgot to tell me about the boys' school trip and made me driving around macam orang gila, but at the end of the day we both know there's no one in this world we would rather have that silly arguments. It's ok. It is part and parcel of any marriage. Every fight we had made us appreciate each other more and more. We learned to accept each other's weaknesses. Well I guess that's what marriage all about. We complete each other's annoyingness life. :) 

God has chosen this man to be my Imam. And I am eternally grateful for that.

8 years ago, I made a vow. "Through weakness and strength, happiness and sorrow, for better for worse, I will care and love you with every beat of my heart." 

And I plan to stick to it till Allah permits.

p/s To prove his love, Ezzy passed the virus to me a week later. Sweet kan? Bluerghhh.