"Young One and Mother-Mina decorated our home. It's now completed," Bilal said as he stacked a box on the floor next to the others.

Carmella chuckled. "My home decorated by a three-year old and my mother-in-law. This ought to be interesting."

Bilal stopped to give her a kiss—about the fiftieth that he'd given her that day. But he knew the sacrifice that she was making. He just hoped that it wouldn't be a permanent one.

It had been months since they had first ...