By Dua'a Al Nabulsi

I got a new job offer. Yes!

It's for a good position and a huge step forward, and the salary is double my last one. Everything is just the way I wanted it to be.

I’ve always been a career-oriented person, but this time the decision wasn’t so easy to make.

The job requires fifty-four working hours per week, which means less (and I mean much less) time to spend with my child. And this is where motherhood pulls us into many trade-offs.

I know that for most of us, this is not a big issue, but I just want my son to have as many memories of us as I do of my mom and me.

What I felt about this situation reminded me of a story that happened to me three years ago, when he was only ten months old.

My husband and I were sitting in a cafe after a full week of sleepless nights - thanks to our little one - when the waitress came to take our order. She stood over his stroller, smiled lovingly and asked me about his age, then she turned back to him, looked him in the eyes and said: "You are so lucky!"

In the beginning, I thought she was talking to me, giving me the familiar lecture about how grateful I should be for having a baby (which I am), but then she continued to say: "...for having your mommy beside you."

For a second, I was confused; isn't it a common thing for most babies to have their moms beside them? Of course, there are some who lost their mamas, but it is not something to bring up in this situation.

So I stammered: "How is that?"

She continued, saying: "My eighteen-month-old son lives in the Philippines with my mom, as my husband and I both work here." 

"How? Why? Since when?" I wondered. 

I had many questions for her, so she told me her story. She said that she went back to her home country to deliver her baby because neither she nor her husband could afford to leave their son in daycare or to hire a nanny here, so they had to leave their son there with his grandparents. She is only able to visit him every two years but she calls him every day over Skype.

She talked and talked, and I was so focused, trying to put myself in her shoes and thinking of a better way for them to live, and of how brave and patient this mama was.

Then, it turned out that her situation was very common in her country; many families have to live away from their children to earn enough money to provide them with a decent life.

It's been three years now and I still remember that conversation like it was yesterday.

Every time I get tired or frustrated about my maternal life, I remember her and pray for that family and other families to reunite, and I count my own blessings.

And because I try to be more practical, this fact has made me realize the power of the present that I still own, therefore, I try to make every day and every hour count because I know I will be thankful later for the quality time that I was able to spend with my boy.