Amal's journey to Islam

Stories of the New Muslims
This is my story of coming to love Islam and becoming Muslim, it is a long one so please be ready to sit for a few minutes!!!
Well this all started at the age of seventeen when I started to talk to a man who was selling newspapers and I asked him as to what he was selling it for...and somewhat explained to me what it was about but couldn’t go into details as to why he was. Then I saw him every so often selling the newspapers I sometimes would buy them so I could get some information out of him about what he believed in....didn’t get anything but him telling me that we all believe in the same god.... after figuring he wasn’t gonna tell me anything about Islam since I was an average white American, I went back to what I believed in which was Christianity ...
I still was having some doubts about all that was being said in the bible ...off and on I would ask myself am I really gonna go to hell if I don’t do what my pastor says ...I always had this fear of god inside of my soul I always strived to please him with whatever it was I was doing in my life ...I also had fallen off and on to as what I knew was the right thing to do with my life I was just glad that Allah had kept protecting me although I was doing his will or submitting to it when I knew that is what I needed to do or what I should be fallowing !!!!!, Years went on and I tried even harder to do all the things that I knew was right cuz I realized life was just too short to waste whatever talents Allah gives you ....
About Feb. of 2002 I had broken up with my boyfriend of a little over a month when I went online to look for a new pen pal in the jails near or around my state (I live in Massachusetts)...I found a few of them but only two of them wrote back to me ....that is when I met Frank he was really shocked to have gotten my letter in the mail ,,,, He sent me a picture of himself along with a two and half paged letter that had made me smile from ear to ear and I haven’t been able to feel that way about someone in so long. So as the letters went back and forth ...and the calls got deeper not for like three weeks we didn’t once talk about religion or our beliefs ...we just got to know each other very well. Then when asked me if I would think about marrying him I said I would love for the next man I am with to take me to that level!!!! So I got a letter in the mail a few days later explaining to me that he was Muslim and a little bit about Islam ....how it had no compulsion in it ....after reading that letter I went online to search on some stuff about Islam and being a Muslim , not only that I was talking in chats then I came upon this site called www.whyislam.org it had this toll free hotline number so I said what the heck I will call it so I can find some info out on Islam and becoming Muslim plus at that point I told myself I was going to convert cuz I was gonna end up marrying a Muslim ...then the most kindest person I have ever met in my life came on the phone her name was AMINA....she helped me with answering some questions about Islam ...but at that point I was so comfortable being a Christian my intentions were just to learn about Islam and what the Muslim believed so I could better understand why my Frank believed what he believed in or on !!!!
As I was being given links to pages that would help me study more about Islam I started to think this is all making sense to me and it is clicking in my head !!! I prayed and pondered about it for two weeks wondering if this would be the right decision to make ....at that point it was not about frank it was all about me I wanted Islam for me ...to give me a better peace and understanding about life. After I realized that Islam was the way of life that I needed to live I fought with myself for three days I felt like I was fighting with a force beyond my control, it was hard I couldn’t sleep for anything at all during them three days, so on the third day I was getting ready for work and I was in on of the Islamic chat rooms that I usually would go into.... I had a friend online help me take shahada in there although I don’t even remember her screen name may Allah bless her and reward her for what she did to help me come back to my natural nature Allahu Akbar, then on I have had some sisters help me be the best Muslim that I can be teach me all the pillars of Islam after four days I decided to give Amina a call to let her know about the amazing news of me becoming Muslim in a chat room ...she was very thrilled to hear my news and was ready to do all that she could do to help me in my beginning of being in the folds of Islam.....not only that I took shahada in Arabic with her I felt even more Muslim at that point cuz I had a valid witness to testify I said it loud and clear ....... now it has been only nine days since I took shahada and I feel more at peace with myself than I have ever been in my life !!!
As salaamu Aliakum
Amal