077 Arabic Feasts with My Husband, John Hadeed -

They say you can’t control who you fall in love with - and that is true. I remember my dad asking me, “What is going on with you and John Hadeed?” All I could says was, “Dad, he whistles. All the time. And it makes me so so happy.”

However, you can choose who you marry. And while falling in love with John caught me by surprise, marrying him was one of the most conscious, considered, prayed-over decisions of my life. Ultimately, I married John because I trusted him - I trusted that his natural humility and utter lack of pretension, his work ethic, and his enthusiasm for all the little moments of life would see us through whatever came our way.

Like every couple, it took us some time to integrate our dramatically different communication styles and we’ve been through patches over 18 years where everything seemed to be in short supply - energy, health, sleep, understanding, and even faith. But! I have never regretted the decision to marry John. He has risen to every challenge, personally and professionally. His optimism, grit, and faith have held us together as a family.

As we move away from the infant and toddler years and into our middle aged years (a term which John still won’t accept), we’re a stronger team than ever. Everything we build, from our family to his business to this podcast... we are truly in it together. So I wanted you to meet him - and based on the comments over on Instagram, a lot of you wanted to meet him also. In this interview, we tried to answer most of your questions as we chatted about spinach pies and stuffed grape leaves, John’s Arabic heritage, and also adoption, work and fatherhood. Here’s my husband, John Hadeed.

P.S. Also, I want to say that i know hearing about a happy marriage can be really tough for many reasons. If you are going through something tough, I just want to let you know that I am here and more than happy to listen - just email me at becky@thestoriedrecipe.com and I’d love to support you just, again, by listening.