Hi Everyone,

We’ve had a moment to catch our breaths and wanted to send out a quick update to let those of you, who haven’t heard, know that Nora and Afef arrived in Portland on Thursday afternoon without a hitch and have been quickly and fluidly adjusting to their new home at the Ronald McDonald House. Nora is absolutely delightful, full of energy and an abundance of smiles. She is constantly engaging us in Arabic, no doubt with hopes that if she just keeps speaking we are bound to eventually understand her language! Afef (a delight himself!) actually speaks quite a bit of English and has made significant improvements even in the past couple of days.

They both have held up quite well through a whirlwind of activity since their arrival in Portland. Afef has told me numerous times “I’m so happy, so happy to be here”! We signed him up for English classes today which he will be attending M-F, and he is thrilled about that. He had to take an entrance test today to determine his proficiency in English and (being a teacher himself) was quite pleased to hear that he scored quite high…he made a deal with his teacher that if she taught him English he would return the favor and teach her Arabic. Nora will accompany him to school each day, joining a group of children, similar in age, and will play and learn English, as well. She has acquired a few sentences herself since her arrival, engaging everyone she meets with her favorite line: “Hi, how are you?!”

Doug and I had made the assumption that working on this project for months before their arrival would somehow help to mitigate the sadness we would feel upon seeing Nora and her injury from this war. But the reality of seeing her and hearing first hand, both their personal and their country’s suffering and pain has hit us harder than we could have ever imagined. It is Afef’s hope and ours, as well that through their presence here in our community, and their story they so dearly want to tell, that they will help to bring about an end to this tragic war.

This week, Nora will begin the preliminary testing which will help determine the scheduling and plan of action for her upcoming surgery. We know that there are many of you in the community who are interested in spending some time with Nora and Afef and they, in turn, have told us that they too would welcome the opportunity to meet you! Anyone who has an interest please be sure to give us a call so we can check their schedule to avoid conflicts with previously set appointments and activities.

We suspect that the gifts we will all take away from this opportunity to help heal Nora and her family will be much greater than we can imagine and we sincerely thank you for all you have done to help make this possible for this very special little girl and her father.

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