Final Preparations for Move-in Day
Day 18
The big news today is that we were finally able to get an intake appointment for food and medical assistance! This will happen next week in a 4 hour-long meeting.
For an average American family going through this process it is expected to be a 2.5 hour meeting. Throw in an interpreter and we add another hour and a half! Much of this could be eliminated if we, as sponsors, could just answer on behalf of the refugees. Since the refugees don’t know the answers, we typically have to give the guidance anyway.
The other significant event is move-in day tomorrow. Tonight our leadership team spent some time sorting donations.
Any time we ask for donations there are things we receive that we never asked for. People with good hearts, who mean well, often contribute things that are wonderful, perfect additions that we would not have considered. Sometimes we get multiple sets of things beyond our needs (for example, 32 sets of dishes might be a few too many). And, sometimes they contribute things that we cannot use at all, things that may be clutter or even culturally inappropriate.
So before we take the effort to wash the extra dishes or figure out where in the housing the donated items may go, we spend a little time to decide what should be moved in at all. As other people drop stuff off on move-in day we scramble to make similar decisions. But the night before, we can take our time and plan the actions.
Usually after move-in day is completed, we have unusable things that we will take to Goodwill. Other things are great for refugees in general, but unneeded by our current family. Those items will go to LSS for another refugee family. This year we have some things that we might even try to sell on Ebay or Craig’s List. The money would go into our refugee resettlement fund and be used for food or rent for the family.
