We stayed in the camp for 11 days. During that period, my wife reached out to her uncle, who had been living in Jordan for 30 years and is a Jordanian citizen. He agreed to sponsor us and help us to live in a Jordanian city, which is why we were able to leave.
We first settled in an area called Al-Bowayda — a village in a governorate called Irbid. In Irbid, I looked for a job, going to computer centres and asking if they needed a computer technician. Eventually, I got lucky and found work in the Wilson Centre for Computers. My happiness was immeasurable. I was living in a house and had a job. It was all I wanted at the time. My life became divided between home and work.
One day, I received a phone call from inside Syria telling me that my mother and my two sisters would be crossing the border into Jordan the same way I did, and will have to go through exactly what I did. They too had to stay in the camp for 14 days and then were able to leave through the same sponsorship and move in with me.
Two weeks after they moved in, my wife’s labor was getting closer. It was now February and one night my wife started screaming. My mother and I took her to the hospital and into the delivery room. This was her first pregnancy and our first child, and it took all night. In the morning, we got the news from the supervising doctor that our son was born and was in good condition.
Age: 26
Country of Origin: Syria
Host Country: Germany
Civil Status: Married to Alaa, with two children (wife and children in Jordan)