On September 1, 2011 we left Dulles airport in a plane headed to get our long awaited daughter in Ethiopia! We got to see her the day we got there and they asked us if we wanted it filmed. I thought, "Of course we do, but we might be sad we said that later cuz she probably won't respond to us well, but it will be a good memory for her to watch someday." Well I was VERY wrong!! We waited at the bottom of this HUGE staircase for her and suddenly there she was making her way down toward us! Halfway down she started to smile and by the time she got to the bottom she had a full smile on her face!!! She is soooooooo beautiful!! She let us hug her and hold her hands, and I was just so excited I started to tear up, and she kinda looked at me weird. They filmed us playing with her with the toys there, and playing these little drums there too. She laughed so much and smiled so cute!! It seemed like she felt really comfortable with us!! We asked Abel to ask her if she recognized us from her little picture book we made her and she said yes with a smile!
After a while we went outside to play with all the other kids and we felt like we were being pulled in every direction with all the kids!! It was crazy! It was hard to spend time with her with all these kids climbing on us and saying Mommy, Daddy!! At one point I picked her up and put her on my lap and I said, "hug", and she repeated me!!! I did it again, and she said it again and laughed! I said, "Shawn" to get Daddy's attention, and she repeated that too!!! SO FUNNY!! It then became a game! We watched her play with some girls and she sang Ring Around The Rosy, and other songs too! It was cute to watch. Then we played ball with her for a long time.
After a while I got to talk to a nurse and she told me that she has never seen her so happy as today and yesterday when they told her we were coming to get her!! She said that she just kept smiling and seemed at such peace! SO COOL!! We weren't allowed to take pictures there, so that was really sad, but this day will forever be in our memories!!
