Love Knows No Bounds

In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd share an inspirational story about the mystery and intrigue we've come to know as love. This is my personal love story, written shortly after my husband and I's August wedding. I hope you enjoy and are inspired by the true beauty of love...


The moment I laid eyes on him, my heart came to a momentary halt. His smile was infectious, his laugh contagious. I couldn’t help but stare as he and his friends danced playfully amongst themselves. Our eyes met from across the room and the connection was instantaneous. He walked over to me and asked me to dance. Speechless, I gave him a quick nod and shyly followed him to the dance floor.  As he pulled me close, I stopped him.

“I’m a good girl,” I stated, matter of factly.

“And I’m a bad boy,” he replied, with a smile.

His name was Thamer. Born in the states but of Libyan descent he currently lived in Columbus, Ohio as did I. He was studying to be a dentist. He seemed so level-headed and confident. He was tall, about 6’1” with short black hair, tan skin, and big chocolate brown eyes. The exact opposite of me and I loved it!

The more we talked the more perfect he seemed. He was exactly what I was looking for in a man. Until, wait! “What’s that, again?” I asked as I leaned my ear towards his lips to make sure I heard exactly what I thought he had said.

And again he spoke the same words, “I’m Muslim.”

I knew this was too good to be true, I thought to myself, and this was his fatal flaw.

You see, I, being a devout Roman Catholic all my life, never imagined my “prince charming” as a Muslim man. In fact, I deemed a romance of such impossible. Millions of thoughts flashed through my head: how would my parents feel about this, how would his parents feel about this, how could we get married in the Catholic Church, how would we raise kids…and the list went on.

All that aside, there was just something inside of me that would not completely let go of even the slightest possibility. I just had an overwhelming feeling of comfort ability with him.

But three weeks after we met, Thamer moved to California for dental school. Part of me was relieved. “Good,” I thought “3,000 miles in between us should definitely help me get over this crazy notion.”

But I just couldn’t. I moved on, so to speak, but Thamer would always find a way to call me or send me a text the second I’d seem to forget about him. Granted, it was just on a friendly basis but my feelings for him were so different from anything I’d ever felt before.

Then, one day, out of the blue he called me. “Cali-boy’s coming home,” he said, “how about getting together for dinner next week?”

Dinner’s harmless, I tried to fool myself. “Yea, sure, why not,” I answered.

When I opened my front door and saw him standing there it was like I was seeing him for the first time all over again. My heart melted. It was that moment I realized there was something so special about him and I couldn’t let him go.

We started dating and, like all relationships, we went through many ups and downs. We discussed religion daily, trying to uncover ways we could make it work. We found that, though the practices of our religions were quite different, the morals and ideals were all perfectly aligned. In essence, our daily lives were in sync, just our worship days and holidays would be spent differently.

Though, we saw light at the end of the tunnel, I sometimes felt so hopeless and disheartened. I even broke up with him twice. It was so sad to me that two people so in love, whom shared the same love of God and lived daily under God’s will could not be together because of the different practices of worshiping. After all, it is the same God!!!

I sought guidance from a priest as Thamer sought guidance from an imam, a holy man of Islam. We prayed and prayed and asked our families to pray for us and, after many prayers and religious studies, came to the conclusion that God brought us together for a reason and we were going to make this work.

We married August 1^st, 2009 at St. Peter’s Church in Mansfield, Ohio where three generations of my family married before me. It was a big Catholic/Muslim wedding—two ceremonies in one, something we never thought possible. It was a cultural fantasy. The priest and the imam collaborated, bringing the two faiths together in what our guests deemed: the best wedding they’d ever been to.

We know the path ahead for us will be challenging but we also know our love for each other and for God will stand the tests of time. We brought two cultures and religions together in the most beautiful way and it was nothing short of inspirational to all who were there. We must never forget that God created and loves us all and he works in mysterious ways. We feel that we are an example of that and our story should allow others to open their hearts to people of different faiths around them. We can learn so much by doing so, even strengthen our own faith.

As for our story, we finally got our happy ending, though our fairy tale has just begun. And we couldn’t be happier or feel more blessed!