Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Sponsors


Welcome to Japan!

We are sponsoring a family that arrives today from the States. This is a wonderful program for new arrivals in which a family that already lives here helps the new family figure out the basics of life on our base and in Misawa.

The sponsors (that's us) usually help with reservations in the Misawa Inn, a temporary living facility on base. We stock their fridge with necessities to get them through the first few days of jet lag and help them in-process on base. We also will invite them to tag along with us to cultural events, work activities, and other stuff until they feel comfortable enough to go about on their own.

Katie and Joseph are very excited about their arrival because their children are ages 10, 9 (girls), and 6 (a boy). They decorated fans to give them as welcome gifts. It was a great idea since the Misawa Inn has no air conditioning, and our high temperature today will be a very humid 90 F.



"Our" family arrives at nine a.m. We plan to help them (carry all their luggage) check in at the Misawa Inn, take a quick base tour, have lunch, attend a housing meeting, take dad to driving class, take mom and kids to new parent/student orientation at the school, and have everyone over for dinner at our house. If they are still awake after that, I will be extremely surprised!

Tomorrow, I will babysit while John takes them to look at houses with a local, Japanese realtor.

Between sponsoring and Tommy's departure on Friday, I probably won't have time to post much in the next several days.

Please keep Tommy in your prayers for safe travel back to the U.S. on Friday.

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