The Day We Meet, August 11th, 2007

Since we flew into Addis Ababa early Saturday morning we knew we'd get to meet our daughter sometime that late morning or early afternoon. That was hard to prepare for. I mean how do you get ready to meet a four year old little girl? It's not like picking up a sleeping infant. We knew we just couldn't scoop her up, there was personal space to consider. And as we waited in a small sitting room Almaz brought here in. I remember thinking she was so much smaller than what I had imagined by looking over and over at her pictures back at home. I wondered as she approached us what was she feeling. They had prepared her for today, for our first meeting. It was such a big request for such a little girl.

Almaz asked her to go give us a hug and she did. I wanted to squeeze her to death but knew we were only strangers she had seen in photos, strangers now real and right in front of her. We handed her a doll and then we saw her smile!
OK, I think I'm the one with the smile. The doll was a big hit especially with her friends. It wasn't until they came in that she really lit up and they all started to take off the dolly's shoes and do her hair.