Born and raised in the south of England, Karen Ford met her Kuwaiti born husband while he was studying in the United Kingdom. Six months later they married; she became Karen Alanizi and left for Kuwait to begin their new life together. Faced with the barriers of living in a country with a different language, religion and culture she slowly adapted to her new way of life and discovered that compromise is a major component in a successful mixed marriage! Together Karen and Salem experienced the emotional upheaval of the Iraqi Invasion and the second Gulf War and after twenty five years of marriage now spend much of their time in Lebanon.