Readying for touch-down

It's been a while since I  last blipped about our efforts to sponsor a refugee family to settle in our small community, March 31st to be exact, at which point the Home Office had just confirmed that our application had succeeded and we could expect a family to arrive before the end of May. However more delays ensued, not of our making, but now an arrival date has been fixed and a family of 6 have their flight booked at the end of this month. A small reception party will be meeting them and bringing them here to this house which we are now preparing for them. The landlord has very kindly held it, rent-free, for 9 months and all manner of furnishings and  household equipment have been donated. In addition, there have been offers of work and recreational activities, an allotment,  and dentistry (of which we have learnt refugees may be in dire need.) We, the members of this group of volunteers, have attended numerous information and training meetings, have completed DAB checks and have tried to learn some Arabic. As we obsess about whether the arrivals  will need a toaster,  will want pictures on the walls,  and if the curtains should be be darker in the children's room, we know that there is so much we cannot predict and prepare for when these strangers in a strange land finally arrive. What seems to have been a long and complicated process for us is nothing compared to the horrific journey through loss and fear that they will have experienced. How they will cope and adapt, socially, and emotionally as well as in practical terms, remains an unknown and is likely to be challenging for us as well as for them.