3 years have passed...

There is this girl...
Born in Kuala Lumpur. Live in a city full of lights, in a house made from brick. Her father was a manager of the Bank, while mother was an administrative assistant in a government body. Was chauffeured to and fro to school by her mother/father. Back from school, lunch was ready on the table. Spent the rest of the evening either reading or watching TV.

Then, there is this boy...
Born in Johor Bharu and raised in Pontian. Live the ordinary live of a kampung boy. His father was what people said as 'kerja kampung' where he run his own pineapple orchard, while his mother is an attendant in Pontian's General Hospital. He either walked or rode his bicycle to school. As he reached home from school, he has to cook his rice as his mother only left the lauk-pauk for lunch. His evening was filled up with lots of physical activity, like mandi parit and playing Malay traditional games like konda-kondi and main tutup botol.

The girl is known as Rafiqah Eliza Elias.
And the boy, Mohd Fitri M Yatim.

Yes, both me and hubby have different upbringing. Though we were both born in 1977 and gone through the same schooling system set by the government, our lifestyles are totally the opposite.

With Allah's will, we ended up in the same college, but we never talked to each other. I knew people in the college called him as Mat Pet (like a drug addict?). Later, we, together with another two girls (Nissa & Sheila) and two boys (Atan and Radzi), were selected by Mara to continue our studies in Melbourne, Australia. From then on, just like the other two boys, he became my friend, JUST FRIEND. Someone whom I'll share my crazy jokes, my sorrow, my problems, my admirers (hehehe) and how I hate being hunted by some men (cam bagus je kan?) and some of my inner secrets. He will do the same as well. He'll tell me (or Sheila or Nissa) should he encountered problem with girls (like someone he has a crush on, or admire dearly). I remembered how he asked me to tumpang the puding jagung made by Sheila in my fridge. The puding jagung is to be given to another girl (not our batch) whom I reckon he liked to be with (but he told me that girl admired him..whateverrr...it's not important now).

On the other hand, he has accompanied his male friend, who wanted to get to know me, went out for a date. So, he became somesort of like a middle-person between me and that guy during the date, which he hated so much.

My hubby is not a soft-spoken, gentleman kind of person. He is a rather frank person, which some girls would not favour. He treated his girlfriends like me, Nissa and Sheila as if we are one of his boyfriends. He'll be the least favoured guy if you want to seek for help. He'll go like "Eh! Buat sendirilah. Aku malas nak layan."

There is this one time, he and I were discussing about marriage. His opinion at that time was "Aku taknak kawin ngan pompuan overseas grad. Bukan boleh percaya sangat." My response was "Kau ingat aku percaya sangat ke budak2 lelaki overseas ni!." Yeah, we refer to each other as kau and aku.

To cut the story short, we graduated and he got a job in KL, despite him not wanting to work in KL. Since the two other girlfriends, Nissa and Sheila have choosen their life partner at that time, and most of hubby's guyfriends have not graduated (we graduated one year earlier than our Malaysian-grad friends), we ended up going out with each other. So, only then 'things' happen between us, to the suprise of Nissa, Sheila, Radzi and Atan.

We have to change from 'kau' and 'aku' to 'I' and 'you'...and from 'Mat Pet' to 'Fitri'. How we struggle to make that changes!! Yelah dah tiga tahun dok cakap 'aku', 'kau' and 'Mat Pet'. And not only that. It's not easy to change from being JUST FRIEND to MORE THAN FRIENDS. Coz before we were like boy-to-boy friends, boleh selamba kutuk each other with no hard feelings, now we have to make some adjustments. It's definitely not an easy step!

After one year of some serious relationship, we were finally engaged on 5th January 2002. And one year later, on 17th January 2003, we had our nikah ceremony in a simple yet resplendent affair.

Now, 3 years have passed.

We were grateful that Allah is on our side. We are blessed with a charming little boy by the name of 'Ashraff'. We have both been promoted at work. We have moved to our own house. Our relationship, alhamdulillah, has becoming stronger with each passing days of our lives.

My prayer will be for Allah to continue his blessing on this family. Murahkan rezeki kami, tetapkan iman kami, panjangkan umur kami. Lindungi kami daripada fitnah and malapetaka...dan semoga berkekalan sehingga ke akhir hayat...

HAPPY 3RD YEAR ANNIVERSARY, DEAR! I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH..."