Mom and an abaya

Assalam alaikum & Peace to all

Ok so here is my Abaya/Mom story ... first of all just as a reminder....
my Mom does not know about me converting (yeah still)

So one afternoon we were in a mall, she was looking for some 'house dresses' and as we were walking down an aisle I see a store that looks like it has some of those kinds of dresses. Just as an aside this mall has many indians/muslims - this becomes important because the store we went into was an Islamic store, tons of abayas and shalwars...etc
So needless to say it was a 'big' step to go into that store. It's not like my Mom would be against going in...just not something we would be doing. I had told my mom that i wanted to get something like an abaya for when im 'bigger' in my pregnancy, its comfy...etc she was like ok (it's always a surprise how my Mom will react to things!) so anyway... we saw rows and rows of abayas on the shelf, they were so nice andboth of us were ohhing and ahhhing at how lovely they were!
So I decided to start to look at some more seriously, that is when the woman came over and started to help me to try them on. Long story short we ended up buying an abaya for me (well my mom paid for it) and she bought one for herself....a simple plain black one! (Once again wonders never cease!)
While we were at the cash register, with the same woman who was helping us, she looked over and took 2 sunglasses and said here for you both free! She was so kind and helping and now here she was offering more to us... my Mom just looked at her and said 'no we can't accept this' the woman was all like 'no no please take it' and all smiling. So then I asked if they had a prayer compass (I don't have very much opportunity to be in an Islamic store, so I took my chance!) and she did...and gave me a discount on it mashallah!
Of course my mom asked what that is..i told her but said it's for hubby (well I can't win all the battles can I ? ) Then as we were leaving the store i said to her 'assalam alaikum
my mom was like oh what is that you said ....did you say bye in her language my mom right well knows that there is no Muslim language but anyway i told her that i said 'peace be upon you' and that she replied to me 'and you as well' which was a great lead into me telling her that in fact in the Hungarian Catholic Church you would always greet the priests that way and they had to reply back to you she was like...yes you are right.

I could see that my Mom was affected by all of this, and to be honest so was I. That sales woman was so friendly and caring, I can't help but be thankful that God put us in that position, so perhaps my mom would see what 'real' Muslims are like. It is at least a step in a good direction...inshallah it continues that way!

Oh btw, anyone interested in what kind of abaya I bought? It's a split one, with
red flowers embroidered on the sleeves and the bottom...I'll try and take a picture
and post it later on!