Get to Know Zakariya's Mom

Introduction

My name is Jade Fedele and my husband is Mohamad Judeh. Many of you reading this probably already know us, but for the sake of introductions I will start from the beginning.

I was born in Houma, LA and am currently 25 years old. Another notable fact is that I am a Muslim revert and I wear the hijab. I became a Muslim on September 12, 2011 and have been covering just as long. The reason I start here is because it is not only my most identifiable attribute, but also one of my proudest accomplishment. I would roughly rate my biggest accomplishments from first to last as becoming Muslim, marrying my soul mate, getting to be Zakariya's mommy, and then graduating from college.

Now back to introducing myself . . . I have two great parents, Leslie and Jimmie Fedele, who raised me to be as selfless and kind as people have told me that I am. Most people are surprised when I tell them that my father's side is Italian and my mother was born in England. And of course my grandmother, Allah yerhamha (may God have mercy on her), was from Calcutta, India.

It's hard to tell that we are so diverse, right? I guess that's what being an American is all about.

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The College Experience

So, lets just skip right ahead to my college years, shall we?

My time in college was an especially rough period for me. After graduating from high school I had a lot of high hopes and anticipations for my future. I just knew I would change the world some how . . . or at least travel the world and cure diseases. I was so certain of my destiny I was a certified nursing assistant before graduating.

Sadly, I had a major no-fault car accident in May 2010 in which my Kia Rio managed to flip 3 times. One's outlook on life changes after experiencing something like that. I was not only much more grateful for being alive but it sparked an interest in me about divine intervention. I walked away with only a few scratches -- there must have been a greater purpose for me.

Soon enough, I started college at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL) in Fall 2010 for nursing, which i continued for 3 years until deciding to drop out of college and move to Tennessee for matters of the heart.

In that time, I went to college on and off part-time for English for the next 2 years at Tennessee Technical University. I left Tennessee and moved back home to Louisiana in May 2015 and decided to push forward and finally go back to college in August. It was daunting at first, considering I was broke and had dropped out 2 times before, but I took the plunge and enrolled in the University of New Orleans.

I made the move from my hometown to New Orleans, despite the heartfelt advise from many family members to stay away from the big city. It wasn't long after that before I was pushing through assignments once again in college. This time I was going for English full-time and determined to finish.

Me and Mohamad took no time at all in getting married either.

We are clearly meant for each other (as you can see from our unrehearsed wedding cake stabbing).

We did our nikkah (Islamic marriage) in October 2015 and have been happily married ever since! We spent our honeymoon in Chicago during December 2015.

Since I finished most of my pre-requisites before nursing clinicals at ULL, I was set to graduate in a year and a half with my Bachelor's.

In December 2016, I graduated with a 3.8 GPA and as a member of numerous honor societies.

This basically brings you all up to date with me, since I found out I was pregnant on January 8, 2017!