The Hearing Wife

I know about 5 words in Tajik but every word I use makes my Uzbek grandmas laugh and clap their hands with exuberance like I'm so amazing. When I see them I give them big hugs and say "Ona Jon!" (my husband's grandma - Ona is grandma if I spelled it right) and "Holla Jon!" (her sister) and they say "Kylie Jon!" and kiss me on the cheek. We communicate with Fayoz's native language - gestures. Their favorite gesture is to rub my belly, pretend to rock a baby and then clasp their hands together with a pleading gesture. Silly grandmas. I love them. My Uzbek grandmas speaking at our Uzbek wedding (I wish we could understand them!) In Uzbekistan, grandmas are treated like queens (as they should be!). These grandmas fly back and forth from Uzbekistan to live with various children and grandchildren. They come live here for months at a time and sleep on mats on the floor (apparently that's comfortable to them).  Selfie! That's Hol...

When it comes out that my husband is deaf, I'm usually the first person people have met with a deaf husband. Here are some of the most common questions/reactions and the answers: 1. Does that mean you know sign language? When I first got asked this question I was surprised. My husband is deaf, of course I know sign language! However, I have since realized that some hearing/deaf couples really can talk to each other, lip read or use a mix of ASL and speaking. In my case, yes I know sign language and yes I am fluent and it is the way I communicate with my huz. 2. How did you learn ASL? Some hearing wives are native signers with deaf siblings or parents and have grown up in the deaf community. I'm not. I took two high school classes and one semester in college and that's it. I was never super into it (I actually took it because it was easy), but when I met my husband I just fell in love with him and he taught me almost everything I know. Fortunately I picked it up pretty...

Since I married Fayoz my journal writing pretty much came to a complete stop. I wrote literally every day since I was 12 years old, and I loved doing it, but for the past year every time I would sit down with my journal I would stare at the blank page and get so overwhelmed I would just walk away. Here is a very condensed list of what has happened in past year (also why my journal is blank): I completed my BFA final projects / tests and graduated from college We had two additional wedding receptions - one in Washington for my family and an Uzbek celebration in NYC for his family where his parents hired his favorite childhood movie stars to sing, I was dressed in traditional robes and brought in on a carriage (since Fayoz is deaf and I'm 100% American neither of us understood a word. But it was awesome!) Our Uzbek wedding. Dress courtesy of my Uzbek grandma! We moved into a new apartment in Provo, and moved to New York City six weeks later We moved from a Provo apartmen...