Welcome

My heart is dancing!

The rest of me is exhausted, but my heart is happy.

This past week we invested our time and our energy into welcoming students to America from many different countries.  

I spent Monday and Wednesday at the orientation for incoming international students at U of M, meeting them, welcoming them and telling them about some of the opportunities for the upcoming months.  That included inviting them to our Great American Hot Dog Roast last evening.  

We wondered how many of them would actually come, but lots of them showed up!  It makes sense that most of them didn’t have any other plans in the middle of an American holiday weekend! 

This is work that matters to me.

This is a long-term dream of mine.

I know a teensy bit about how it feels to be an ex-pat.  

To be the outsider in a foreign culture. 

To feel alone in a strange place.

Being surrounded by unfamiliar language.

I also know how it feels to be welcomed.

What a difference!

To be a welcomer is a high value for my life.

To speak a kind word of understanding, but also to listen.

I don’t claim to be an expert at it, but I do intend to keep practicing.

This is the reason we moved here - to be near universities with International students.  This is why we were thrilled to find a house so near to three different campuses! To be within walking distance! We can walk or bike to meet with them and they can walk to our house now and then.

A couple different times during the evening, I nearly cried with happiness as I looked around at the faces of people talking and laughing and getting acquainted. What a privilege to be part of such a global event.  And then I looked around again at the tables and chairs loaned to us by our next-door neighbor and felt grateful all over again for how helpful he has been.  How awesome to have landed right here in this very spot.  I think I’m gonna’ like it here!

…

Yes, this welcome thing has worked both ways

- more than we had imagined.  

We came here so that we could welcome others,

but we have been wonderfully welcomed

in our new neighborhood.

What a cool thing!

We have met lots of warm and friendly people,

but a handful of them stand out in my mind

as the ones who have really made me feel at home.

In fact, maybe our next hot dog roast

will be to thank our new neighbors for their friendship!