A HORRIBLE RECONCILIATION

I am so excited that finally I will have both my family and my husband's family come together as one. The petty fights were definitely unnecessary and I'm glad we realized it soon. I am ready to put everything behind and start afresh with everyone. I grew up in a dysfunctional home. My dad cheated on my mum countless times and I have siblings that I do not know about. I'm determined to make sure my children have a good home and grow up in a stable household and this dinner is the start of something new. My husband and I got married despite our families being against it. My parents were pro-black and unfortunately for them I fell in love with a Spanish man. My husband's family is also the typical Spanish family that treasures their culture and their main concern was if I will be able to keep my husband happy, they even once brought a spanish girl for him when I was 2 months pregnant with our twins and that it were my husband and I drew the line and decided we won't see them or let them see our babies . The age difference just made everything worse as my husband is 12 years older than me but that didn't bother me. To be honest, when I turned 18, I realized that I was attracted to older men and my first boyfriend was 14 years older than me, I like them a little older.

For the past two years, our families have had a 'cat and mouse' type of relationship, there is always something to fight about, either my relatives don't like something on my husband's side or vice versa, they just don't get along. The birth of our beautiful twins Aurora and Atara is definitely a blessing because we told our relatives that they will not see them until they learn to get along. Our families have agreed to this request and hence we decided to have this dinner at our house to discuss everything and ways in which we can always get along and settle matters diplomatically and also to celebrate our twins.

It is two days away from the dinner and I called my sister-in-law and my sister to go shopping for the event. I'm trying my best to include foods from both cultures. I really want this to work out so we can finally move forward and start anew. My sister-in-law will definitely help with spanish delicacies like Spanish rice,Paella,spanish chickpea stew and the famous red sangria. I can't wait to come through with all my favourite barbeque recipes my mum taught me.

We did our shopping and had a lovely meal afterwards. I then drove my sister-in-law and my sister back to their apartments and I went back home to my husband with the foodstuff of course. "Babe , do you think this is the beginning of something?" I asked my husband.

'Mi chica, everything will work out." 'Mi chica ' simply means my girl or my babygirl, my girlfriend. Oh I love it when he uses Spanish pet names on me. It takes me back to when he was trying to win me, not that anything has changed but it just reminds me of our first date. It was valentines day and this man said he wanted us to go out. I wore a beautiful red dress, some stiletto heels, I did my make-up and nails with the hoop earrings ,need I say I looked amazing. The food,the scenery and he looked handsome and I have been his "Chica" since then. Life has been amazing with this man and our twins just made it even more beautiful.

Saturday is finally here. I woke up 5:00AM and I have been busy in the kitchen, marinating the meat and cutting the veggies. My sister-in-law and sister have been very helpful. My sister-in-law has kept the preparation of the Spanish meals under control.

It is 5:00 PM and we are finally done, the food, the drinks , the decoration, everything is excellent. We quickly rushed to freshen up because we don't smell as good as we should after all that hard work.

It's 6:30 PM and our relatives start to arrive , my husband and I welcome them and walk them to our backyard where everything is and before we know it everyone is here. My parents-in-law, My mum and my two aunties who helped my mum raise me are present. My sister-in-law and my sisters and brothers are all present.

We all gather at the table and say a prayer to grace the food and we all carefully settle down. My mum started out by addressing the incident were my husband's parents brought a lady knowing that I was two months pregnant. My parents-in-law quickly apologized for the incident and I gladly accepted it. My mum also apologized to my husband's parents for calling them out of their name on countless occasions. It was a nice night of reconciliation and everything was going fine until the doorbell rang.

The house-help quickly rushed to the door , Lo and behold, armed robbers were in our midst. I couldn't keep calm. The only thing on my mind was how to call the police before these men got to my babies. They harassed everyone, my husband offered money but they didn't leave. They confiscated our phones and I just couldn't stop crying until they called me out. Those merciless men raped me in front of my husband, my sisters, everyone!!! My husband couldn't do anything as he was tied up. They tried to get hold of my babies and that was when my husband lost it and tried to fight them. They pulled 10 shots on him. Luckily enough, some neighbours heard the chaos from outside and called the police. The police came and called the ambulance for both me and my husband , we were quickly rushed to the hospital. The robbers were arrested and taken away. My husband had been in coma for 3 days, he regained consciousness a few days after I regained consciousness. Our families have been nothing but supportive during this hard time. I'm so glad we were on good terms before the attack. The dinner went absolutely chaotic but at least we are on good terms now. This whole incident has left all of us traumatized and we all agreed to appreciate each other because life is too short.