I blinked and it's Saturday

You may have noticed that my posts have been, ahem, sparse at best the last week. As I mentioned earlier, I'm heavily involved in the relocation and settlement of a refugee family in Ottawa. It is a lot of work and time. More than I expected. I'm not complaining, I just didn't realize that when I was asked to join the support team for this, my role would be of a heavy co-ordinating nature. I'm learning a lot. I'm having a hopefully positive impact on the life of another family and I'm getting to know a few really great people who are on the team with me.

The blog.... suffers. It, like the rest of of my family, is getting less of my attention than usual.

I hope that after this coming week, there will be less demands of me but I'm not going to get my hopes up. I do hope however that some less-involved team members start to pitch in a little more.

The family is a 24-year-old mother and her two-year-old boy. They escaped from Somalia to Turkey some time ago and came here from Turkey. Her husband is still in Turkey. I can't even imagine the stress she must be under arriving in a new country where she doesn't speak either official language, has a very low literacy level in her own language, has very little contact with any Somali speakers, is unsure of where she'll live, how she'll get any money and when she'll see any family or friends again. Not to mention that she is, for the first time, dealing with cold and snow. I can see the stress on her face although she keeps a very courageous front and happy disposition. She's a strong one. And her boy is handling everything like a champ. He seems perfectly happy, if not thrilled, to see everyone who comes to see him.

It sure puts things in perspective quickly for me. My little daily problems, and even the bigger ones I've encountered over the years, seem pretty small now.