Introducing Diana Abdallah: A Livonia Mom

Introducing Diana!

:: Down with Detroit ::

Being born and raised in Metro Detroit, Sterling Heights, I never realized how much I love this city, until my husband and I moved away (more on that later). I love the culture that we have in Detroit! You have every option of restaurants that you can imagine, the amazing car museums since we are The Motor City, and ample parks to take you child to play! Greektown, Mexican Village in downtown, Dearborn offers so many middle eastern choices, Hamtramack for some good old polish home cooking, not to mention their amazing paczki’s for Fat Tuesday, and the east side for several amazing Italian options. You don’t have to go far from your home to feel the sense of culture here in the Metro Detroit. We live in Livonia, where we are so close to the all the parks down Hines Drive, a quick drive over to Plymouth, the beautiful Ann Arbor is not far away, a hop over to Novi for ample shopping, and 30min to downtown for a sports game. We enjoy being close to everything living here in Livonia.

:: My Life ::

Mohamad (Mikey) and I met in high school, although we didn’t share the same social circle, we still had a few classes together. Also, he was on the football team while I was a cheerleader. Fast forward several years later to May of 2006, I was at a party that I reluctantly attended and we ran into one another. We chatted a bit, he asked for my number and made plans to hang out the next night. He called that night, 3am, to verify that I didn’t ignore his call the next day. Needless to say I think he was smitten. We went for drinks at a local watering hole the next evening and we have been together ever since. That night when he drove me home I just had a feeling this was the man for me. People always would say, “when you know, you just know” and I finally understood the meaning. Mikey and I got engaged in July of 2006. We faced extra challenges since Mike is Muslim and I am Catholic, however, that didn’t stop us and in September of 2009 we exchanged vows.

Mikey graduated with a Plastics Engineering degree from Ferris State University and works as a Process Engineer at a company in a Saline. He has crazy hours and, as you can imagine, being in the automotive industry is chaotic. After we had our wedding we moved to Howell where Mikey was currently employed, lived there for two years and I loved the small town feel and sense of community. Once the throws of the recession really hit he was offered a job out-of-state, pushing an engineer out of their comfort zone is not an easy task, but I told him to do it now before we start of family. So we packed up and moved to Terre Haute, Indiana (7hrs away). It’s small town about an hour southwest of Indianapolis. I was in culture shock to say the least. Talk about a different world and a SMALL TOWN. Terre Haute is home of Indiana State University and also a family town. You can get to any one side of town in about 20 min. No they didn’t have a Target, Tim Horton’s or 7-Eleven  so my only options were Walmart, Starbuck’s, Kroger and some little mom-pop shops. They had a mall, which was a joke. It was an experience to say the least. 

:: Babies & Beyond ::

We lived there for almost two years when we had our son, Vincent (Vinny). When Vinny was about 15 months we started realizing that we missed our family being around our Vinny. We didn’t want him missing out on the opportunity of building a relationships with his grandparents. Mikey started looking for jobs back in Michigan and in October of 2014 we moved back!

I have never been a “kid” person and always knew I was a “one and done” type of girl. Since I can remember, I wanted one child, a boy, and to be a SAHM. I am blessed and thankful that I have been able to accomplish both of those. When I was pregnant with Vinny, I decided to leave my job at a salon due to complications in my pregnancy. This gave me ample time to go stir-crazy and nest before the arrival of our first born. Vincent joined us on June 4, 2013, weighing 6.9lbs and 22in long . . . best day of my life. I am so beyond thankful to be a mom to such a sweet, lovable, kind and humorous little man. He has been such a blessing to us and taught me what unconditional love truly means. Now I know you are dying to ask, “don’t you want one more?” and my answer will be “why would you mess with something so perfect?”