u/Ok-Big-9678

A woman is interested in a man for marriage. They know of each other but don’t talk or have any kind of relationship. The woman is friends with the man’s sister, so she asks the sister if she could ask her brother whether he’d be interested in considering marriage.
Would you see this as respectful and mature, or would you think it makes the woman look desperate or lowers her value?

I’m looking for some honest advice because I feel stuck between taking action and having tawakkul.
I have liked my cousin for a very long time. We grew up as family, then lived in different countries for many years and have had very little contact. I never confessed anything to him and have always wanted things to happen in a halal way.
A while ago, I told my mother that I would be open to marrying him. She refused to approach his family because she feels it would be embarrassing and said I should handle it myself.
The problem is that I don’t really have a way to do that. My aunt knows how I feel. She is closer to my cousin’s brother than she is to my cousin. I thought maybe she could speak to the brother, and the brother could casually bring up my name to my cousin as a potential marriage match. However, when I spoke to my aunt, she said she could not do it.
So now I feel like I have no path forward.
I also prayed istikhara in the past and later had a positive and peaceful dream related to my cousin. I’m not sharing the details because I don’t want people to focus too much on dream interpretation, but the dream left me feeling calm rather than anxious.
My questions are:
1. If there is no realistic way for me to approach the situation, should I just leave it completely to Allah and move on with my life?
2. Would you see my aunt refusing to help as a closed door, or just one closed path?
3. How do you balance tawakkul with wanting a specific person for marriage?
4. Has anyone had a situation where they thought there was no way forward, but things later happened unexpectedly?

I’m in a really confusing situation and I need advice.

I have feelings for my cousin. Our parents are siblings, so we’ve known each other our whole lives. I’ve developed serious feelings for him and I’m thinking about marriage, but he has no idea about how I feel or that I even want this.

The problem is my mom also doesn’t know anything about this. I feel stuck because I want to tell her, but I’m scared of her reaction. I don’t know how she will take it, especially since this involves family and it’s a sensitive topic.

At the same time, I feel like I can’t move forward or keep this inside anymore. But I also don’t know how to even start the conversation with my mom without it becoming a huge shock or misunderstanding.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? How do you talk to your parent about wanting to marry someone when that person doesn’t even know your feelings yet?