The Ahmed Family

Several weeks ago we decided to become involved in the Refugee Care Collective Organization in Portland. Our city is one of the top resettlement cities in the US and we've become increasingly aware of the plight of refugees around the world.

RCC works by building "teams" of people who are willing to step in and help those who are brand new in our city. Our team consists of 4 different families (ourselves included) and I think we each bring something unique to the team.

In early December we were matched with our first family - the Ahmed family from Afghanistan. Their situation is more of an immigration/resettlement situation because he worked as a translator for the US army. His life and the lives of his young family were in danger if they stayed in Kabul.

Matin (the dad) and Nadia (team member) both have January 1st birthdays, so today we had a team celebration. It was the first time we were all together and it was a very fun opportunity.

Tabby (our team lead) and Sona (the mom) made Afghani food which was delicious.

eating Afghani style
Kayleigh, myself, Andrew, Tabby and Sona

Arian (age3) and Liam (almost 4)

Aisha (18 month old girl) and Sona

Matin and Nadia

Apparantly the tradition in Afghanistan is similar to our wedding tradition. The birthday person feeds the first piece of cake to their spouse or parent. So here Matin is feeding Sona the first piece of cake. And below Nadia is feeding Michael the next piece of cake.

our team

Andrew and Tabby are our dear friends that we met at Harvest. Andrews parents are in the back next to Kevin. They moved here two years ago from Ohio. Michael and Nadia are in the middle. I met Nadia during the first couple months of living here at our homeschool co-op and we became good friends. They have a son, Josiah (not pictured) who plays the violin. Nadia is orginally Japan but has spent quite a bit of time in other countries as a missionary. She even speaks a little Farsi so she brings a unique perspective to our team.