Barbara Shapiro and I were filled with nervous excitement recently as we drove to Logan Airport to finally welcome another young Syrian family, eight years after our first TBE-sponsored Syrian refugee families arrived.

In the intervening years, we have grown close to Rekanz, her husband Ahmad, and their children. We progressed from the first days having to use our phones to translate every sentence, making for arduous and often confused communication, to today’s ease of natural conversation in English, including plenty of joking and laughter.

We helped the young parents acquire driver’s licenses, and thus their independence when they were able to purchase a car. We’ve had the delight of watching their children grow into bubbly, outgoing little Americans, completely fluent in accent-less English, while keeping up with their Arabic language skills. We watched Ahmad grow comfortable in a job that is a good fit for his skills, and his pride in being able to provide for his family. We even got to share the joy of newborn siblings.

Despite all this success, you can imagine the sadness for the family to be so far from all of their relatives these many years, who still remained in Jordan as refugees from Syria.

Finally, Rekanz’s brother, Matar, his wife and young children, were approved for immigration by the U.S. State Department, and their arrival date was finally here. They were scheduled to land at Logan close to midnight, and we had two mini vans to accommodate all the necessary car seats and luggage to start their new life in America. While we were tingling with enthusiasm to greet them, we had to be cognizant of the toll of their long journey, from Amman, to Istanbul, to JFK in New York, and finally to Boston Logan.

It was touching to see their relieved faces as they were enveloped in Rekanz’s embraces, and their trust in Barbara and me as we helped get their children, baby girl, and luggage settled into the car seats and trunks in the two vans for the late night drive to Rekanz and Ahmad’s house, where they would start out bunking until an apartment of their own could be secured—not an easy task in this time of housing shortage.

Thanks to the tireless dedication and generosity of a whole team of TBE volunteers, Matar and his family are settled in a lovely apartment, completely furnished with all necessities, language tutoring has begun for the parents, the children are enrolled in school, and Matar has secured a job.

For me, being involved in the resettlement of these vulnerable families, and developing loving relationships with them, has been a tremendously rewarding experience, one more way TBE has greatly enriched my life.

In the photo: Barbara Shapiro, Amy Fleming, and Rekanz at Logan Airport