Arrival and first day meeting with refugee families

We are arrived safely in Amman early this morning about 1am.  Our luggage, however, decided to go on adventure of their own. It appears that the four errant bags have been corralled and are in the air on their way to Amman. We should have them by tomorrow mid morning. This is a minor inconvenience in the scheme of things but I admit I very much can't wait for them to show up as fresh clean clothes sound so very appetizing right now!

We are incredibly blessed to have two wonderful guardians helping us with logistics and more. Mohammad and Abdulaziz are two young men from Damascus who have been in Amman for about four months. They have been volunteering with the Syrian American Medical Society, training in social work and related programs to assist their country people.

Abdulaziz and Mohammad and another volunteer spent about five hours bringing us to visit Syrian refugee families in what is considered the ghetto here in Amman. We visited four families who came to Amman four or less months ago - all having escaped either because they were injured by the Assad regime or were trying to save family members from being killed. They talk especially of trying to save women and children. The pictures and videos they shared and the stories they told seem incomprehensible. What is taking place is evil beyond evil.

Most of the families wanted us to take notes and pictures to share with the world. They feel so abandoned by the international community. They do not understand why we are sitting by and allowing Bashar al-Assad to kill them as he pleases.   We had no answers for them.

The transition from seeing occasional pictures in the media and hearing the occasional story on NPR or another news organ and meeting the people who have experienced these unthinkable things is quite overwhelming. But not as overwhelming as their experiences.

They've asked us to share their stories so we will.

Some of these videos or pictures you may not wish to see so skip over them. The purpose is not to make you feel uncomfortable. The purpose is the telling - because Syrian refugees need or want their stories told.

I'll try to post some as soon as I transfer them from my phone to my laptop.

In the meantime, though it may sound cliche, we have everything when we have our family close to us.  That is everything.  Blessings to you and yours.