Our First Day Together

Fatima and the group arrived in Jacksonville at around 1:30am on June 2nd.  It was a very emotional welcoming. All of the host families were gathered together, anxiously awaiting their arrival, and when they finally came walking down that long hallway toward us, you couldn't help but beam with tears.  They all looked so scared, but Fatima had a big smile on her face.  We went over to her and embraced her with a welcoming hug which was well-received.  We were all so tired and the drive home was a quiet one.  Rebekah couldn't stop crying for worrying about Fatima's feelings.  We all got into bed at around 2:30, but I don't think I actually fell asleep until much later.

We awoke early the next morning (4 hours later) and got Bekah to school because she was performing twice in a play that day.  She was still crying at drop off, but I was told that she did a fabulous job with her part.  Meanwhile I taught Fatima some of the basics of hygiene and dressing and then she, Grace and I headed out to her first appointment which was for her lab work. She got to have her first poptart because, as usual in our house, we were running too late for a sit-down breakfast! She did great at her appointment!  We then took her to Wal-mart to buy her a few necessities then ate at Wendy's.  She ate a burger, but picked the skin off of the fries!  Okay, so now we are totally exhausted.  We picked Bekah up early from school and brought her home to sleep and the rest of us had about an hour to relax before our interpreter visit.  AJ arrived at our house at around 2:30 and we spent an hour with him asking him a million questions to ask Fatima.  He patiently asked her everything we wanted to know and she shyly responded to most everything.  We dropped AJ at his next appointment and returned home for a few more moments of rest before we headed out to see the night time performance of Rebekah's play.  She did great yet again, but burst into tears right after.  This girl is tired and overwhelmed with emotions!  We finally got to go home and sleep the entire night and it was great!

Fatima, Cole, Grace, Bekah and Me

The girls have their signs ready!

Here they come!

Fatima is doing so great so far!  She has not shed a tear and is always smiling.  From what I am hearing from some of the other host families, we are very fortunate that she is not crying.  Others are not having such a great experience so far, but I am sure time will change that!  I have so much more to write but I am going to save it for later. Thanks for reading!