Baltimore native and mother of three, I traveled to the Middle East with my Lebanese husband, Nagib in the early ’80s. Between Saudi Arabia and war-torn Lebanon we experienced a slow and opulent life in Saudi and then bombs and political upheaval in Lebanon. I returned to the States in the late ‘80s with my children. My book, When the Fudge Trees Bloom: Memories of an American in the Middle East, came out of that experience.