I want to tell you my story. My name is Marwa, I am 7 months old. Don’t be surprised that I was born only 7 months ago. Before that, it was just a number on my ID card. I was born when my son slept in my arms the first night he came home. The first month was hard for me and him.We were afraid of each other. He was afraid of everything - the new place, the house, the bed, and me. And I was afraid, too. I am not superwoman, and I was afraid of failure. So, yes, the first month was the most hard one for me and him, but now, after 7 months have passed, I know the meaning of true happiness, happiness that comes from the heart. I knew what it means to open my eyes and see him laughing at me with his little smile. I knew how it feels to feed him and have him feeding and making me happy. I knew the joy that had been absent from my life and extinguished a long time ago. When Yahya lightened my life, he lighted my heart, and with his innocence he erased all the pain that I felt before having him How can syuch a small kid, as small as my palm, to be my whole world? Yahya remained the center of my life, and anything can come after him. He erased all the pain I felt before with his innocence. The experience may remain a little scary and we may retreat, but honestly and with all my heart it is an experience worth the risk. And it is worth taking this step, not only for them, but for ourselves, for their embrace, because Yahya was the one who reconciled with Marwa and made me meet her after 41 years.

I decided that I would choose her with white skin so that she would be close to me and would not be tired when she grew up because of the difference in skin color.” My name is Heba, single. I work as a pharmacist, and I am 40 years old. It was my life’s dream to be a mother, but didn’t get married. I wanted to have a daughter, but the law did not allow women, who never got married, to do kafala. I knew that the law changed and I watched videos of Marwa and Yasmina, who gave me new hope in life, and I took the step. I submitted my papers, and thank God, it was accepted. The beautiful thing about it is that the approval came to me on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2021, and it was the most beautiful day in my life. I wanted to have a little girl so that I could live every moment with her, and share with her first laugh, her first birthday, her first baby steps, her first words. and I decided that I would choose her with white skin so that she would be close to me and would be accepted by the society when she grew up because of the difference in skin color. God willed that she is of a dark skin color and also from Upper Egypt, as if God was telling me that I am the one to choose for you, not you, and it was the best choice. God blessed me with Mariam. Praise be to God, since the day she got into my life, I was filled with happiness and love; and I still had a goal to live for, and I still had hope in life, and I always prayed that God would support me to raise her well and be a good person.

My story with sponsorship began more than seven years ago, when Muhammad and I sponsored our only son, Mustafa. When I was young, I dreamed of having many children, but I couldn’t because I discovered that I had endometriosis, which is a chronic disease that makes pregnancy rates very low. I got married and traveled to America, changed my career from tourism, and directed my interest and studies to children, and then opened a nursery. I did not lose hope in becoming a mother and entered the cycle of artificial insemination for 20 years. I tried it 4 times. This period consumed me financially and psychologically and ended up with my divorce in 2004, so that I could begin a new chapter in my life after that. In 2012, my life changed 180 degrees after I met Muhammad al-Iraqi and we got married. Although he has two daughters from a previous marriage, I did not object at all to the idea of kafala, which I learned about from my friend’s sister by chance. He knew that my whole life was for children, and that I had never forgotten my dream of being a mother. With him, I started looking around and asking to find out everything about kafala in Egypt. It took us a whole year to finish the papers and procedures, and finally it became possible for us to do kafala a child. I was terrified and asked myself a lot, I wonder if I can be responsible? Will I be able to raise a child and play with him when I am 45 years old? Should I continue on my own and not pursue the dream of motherhood? In the end, Muhammad's encouragement and my desire to be a mother won, and we began to go around the orphanages to choose our son. At first, I was dreaming that we would have a beautiful girl who would look like me and Muhammad. Over the past years, I had been collecting girls’ clothes in the hope that God would honor me. I was looking for a girl in FACE Maadi. I thought that I would be overwhelmed the first time I saw her, but that did not happen. I saw a girl who looked like us. I decided to wait when I found out that there was a girl and a boy coming tomorrow. I decided that I would come again tomorrow to see the girl, but when I saw her, unfortunately, she appeared blonde and her eyes were blue, not like us at all. For a moment, I lost hope that I would find the child I dreamed of, but the surprise was when I looked at the boy with his eyes wide open. My heart skipped a beat, and I knew that this was my son. I kept carrying him for five hours, feeding him and changing his diapers. I was afraid someone else would take him, and I remained behind them until they changed the baby’s name instead of the girl I was settled on . When I told my husband, my family, and my friends that I had chosen a boy, no one believed me. They all knew that I was having a girl, but this is what happened. My son, Mustafa was my beautiful destiny. I wanted to live the full experience of motherhood. I started an artificial breastfeeding course. When we took Mustafa home, my life was complete. Finally, I had the one thing I ever wanted. When Mustafa entered my life, my life was complete with his presence. Even though I gained weight and my fear and anxiety increased for him and his future, I was happy with the experience, and I knew that kafala is not easy, but it is worth it. All the time looking at his face, I smile and wonder to myself, what did I do to deserve this amazing gift?. After 4 months, we traveled to America again, carrying with us the newest member of our small family. We had to go through other procedures because Mustafa’s papers are not done yet. I believe in complete honesty, and that is why I share my experience with all people in the family, at work, and on social media. That is why I created the page “Sponsor a child in your home, adoption story in Egypt” Things escalated and we have a website about all you need to know about kafala in English and Arabic too. Not only that, we also formed a non-profit organization called Yalla Kafala in California and in Egypt. People started getting aware of kafala. This is not just a story of Rasha and an ordinary page on Facebook, we became a large team of volunteers who helped with whatever they could to deliver the idea. We help more children and families live the dream of motherhood. Mustafa himself wishes that we have other children, and if I had known about kafala early on, I would have more children. That’s why people in Egypt need to have greater awareness about the issue in order to help more children, and this is what we are trying to do now through Yalla Kafala.