My life story...قصة حياتي...

Twenty-four years ago a cute little baby was born named Noora. She came into the world, and no one knew what the future would hold. Her father died before she was born.

بدايتي...بدايتي...

Her mother was not an Emirati, and didn’t stay in the UAE for very long....She left when Noora was one month old.

رحلتي ومن بقى وياي؟!

Her father had another Emirati wife while he was alive, and they had three children. This woman took Noora in and raised her as her own, alongside her own three children. These are who Noora really thinks of as her older brothers and sisters. This woman really became Noora’s mother.

أمي؟!

أبي؟!

She remarried, and this man takes Noora in, as well, and treats her as if she is his own child. This is who Noora knows as “Dad”.

ليش آنا غير؟!

When Noora was six, she began asking her adoptive mother why she herself looked different than her adoptive sisters and brother.

That was when her adoptive mother told her that she actually had a different biological mother, and that she had no contact with her, knew nothing about her.

This news made Noora feel as if she is all alone in this world, and not like other children, who had real mothers and fathers. She began spending alot of time alone.

وحيد أنا ومالي أحد....

اإلعتماد على النفس..

At a certain point, Noora started to understand that she needed to take care of herself. She studied hard, and tried to be a good student, because she knew she had to make her own future.

مشكلتي سر هوايتي...

As she was becoming a teenager, she started playing basketball to relax. She joined the basketball team in high school, and was a good player. Every time she hit that ball, she thought about her biological mother!

هاتفي يرن!!

One time, when she was eighteen yeas old, the phone rang. It was a call from Saudi Arabia. It was a woman calling from there, claiming to be her mother. She said to her, “Im your mother, I know you miss me alot.” Noora couldnt believe her ears.

She started shouting at the woman on the phone. Then the woman on the phone started to ask about the wife of Noora’s deceased father, and Noora knew maybe this strange woman on the phone really was her biological mother after all.

From that day forward, Noora truly had a broken heart. It was so hard for Noora to digest this shocking information, even more shocking, that she had other half-sister and brothers in Saudi Arabia.

يوم اللقاء...

Two years later, her biological mother wanted to meet her inside the Dubai airport. Noora was anxious, to say the least, because she didn’t know if she would be able to recognize her, even if she saw her. Unbelievably, and somehow magically, Noora did pick her out of a big crowd of people at the airport, and hugged her and cried. The first words out of her mouth were, “Why did you leave me?” Her mother didn’t give her a clear reason for her decision. She spent a few hours at the airport with her mother, and that was the first and last time she ever saw her.

على سيف البحر...

Still Noora worked hard in her life to try to forget all the sadness. Sometimes she sits at the beach for hours on end, just thinking. The ocean reminds her of an insensitive comment her biological mother once made to her over the phone, that she wanted to throw Noora in the sea because she felt unable to take care of her. Even though this was hard for Noora to hear, she still loves the beach.

الدنيا جتارب...

While there struggle and sadness to this story, there are also alot of positives. Noora learned from this situation, and now knows fully how to take care of herself, and be independent. She also has so much confidence in herself, and her own abilities. She knows that she makes her own future, and that future is made through hard work and perserverance. She is now graduating from Zayed University, ready to take the next step in her life.

Photography and layout by:

Noora Obaid

Models:

Mahra Eissa, Mitha Eissa, Fatma Eissa, Asma Ahmad, Noora Obaid,Sharifah Kamis,

Abdulah Saeed, Noora Obaid Rashid

Copyright 2012، Noora Obaid