First, if you need to know the background, it's here.
Today has been a day that I will never forget.
I've had to be in Antalya last night and today. My son and a relative who is helping with communications, in Kurdish, have been on the farm with the family from Syria.
Yesterday afternoon the family was given the room in the house that was empty, and we left them to settle in.
It's crowded for them but better than where they had been.
This morning I talked with my son and he told me that everything was going well.
The children, mother, and father had all taken several showers because they had not been able to bathe for some time. Clothes were washed and hung to dry.
Food was cooked, everyone had eaten.
The goats had been milked, cheese and yogurt had been made.
The father and oldest son were helping with the goats.
The other son and two daughters were spending most of their time near their mother.
This afternoon another female relative went to the farm to help the mother settle in.
Then the shock came.
We learned that there were two babies, two girls - about 6 months and 20 months old.
The female relative had gone into the family's room to help the mother arrange things and saw the babies.
The mother panicked. She started to say. I nurse them, they won't eat much. Please don't be angry.
Then she pointed to her other two daughters and said they won't eat much either.
After she, and her husband, were calmed down. The story came out.
They had not told us about the babies because they were afraid we wouldn't have let them live on the farm if we had known.
She had wrapped the babies in two blankets and other minimal possessions they had and had brought them to the farm in these bundles.
We asked how it was possibly that they hadn't cried. She said that since they had been born in the difficult circumstances which exist where they lived in Syria, they almost never cried.
My son told them that there was no problem. There was more than enough milk, and cheese, and yogurt, and eggs, and food.
And things started to calm down and return to normal.
After my son got over his shock he called me.
I was in shock for a while. There being two more little children is not a problem.
But I couldn't stop thinking.
What if a baby had died bundled up in those blankets? What if a baby had died because we were trying to help this family?
How terrible war is.
What an unbelievably high cost war has on people.
My son has sent me photographs of the two babies and I feel OK now.
They are very cute and look healthy, and my son says they're fine.
- * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -
I just talked to my son and he said everyone has gone to sleep and everything seems to be OK.
- * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -
These are a few photographs my son sent me.
I won't put up any pictures which
I think might identify the family.
The youngest
The three-year-old
The father and oldest boy with the goats