She is not their biological mother, yet she has raised them like one. She worked as a nanny for 18 years in an orphanage in Riyadh, taking care of orphans and teaching them values and good manners. Huda Mohammed Atallah returned home to Egypt two-and-a-half years ago because of her own family compulsions. But she missed her foster children day and night. She longed to meet them again and see how they were doing in life. So she returned to Riyadh recently. "I do not even know how I got here. All I cared about was seeing them again. I missed them so much. I cried and wanted to hug them all," Huda told Al Arabiya English. She told Al Arabiya that after graduating from a business institute, she went to Saudi Arabia knowing that she will work in an orphanage. She said that she quickly got along with the children. First Huda took care of eight boys and six girls then when this group grew older, she took care of other junior and teenage girls. Huda said that she used to live in the orphanage and traveled to Egypt once every three years. "I simply did what any other mother would have done," she said. Huda has three children of her own, two of whom are married and the third is still studying. "I have two grandsons," she said, adding that she was always in contact with her children when she was in Saudi Arabia. Her sister-in-law was taking care of them when she was away from her children.
