We've Got Her!

US time: 7:oo am Monday
Ethiopia time: 4:00 pm Monday

It's Shannon again--so far, Reed and Lee Ann haven't been able to see or access their blog from Ethiopia, so I'm posting what they e-mail me. I've promised them I'll e-mail them the text of any comments you leave, because they are eager for words from home--please feel free to leave them your prayers and good wishes!

This morning, I started my day with the happiest of news when I saw that the following text message had hit my phone at just after 2:00 am:


A few hours later, they sent the following blog post and photos:

Our Compassion visit got postponed till Tuesday, so after breakfast this morning we went to the orphanage to get Tarik. They put us in a room with a few couches and brought her in. It was amazing. We kind of had to slowly let her warm up to us, which was strange to do with a child who has already been a part of our family. It was hard not to grab her and overwhelm her with our love and affection. Instead, we had to do simple little things like let her fiddle with the buttons on Lee Ann’s shirt. But there was no doubt that our love for her, whether we could fully communicate it or not, was already overpowering.

We played with her for about 15 minutes in that room and the first thing Tarik did was mark her territory by spitting up all over Lee Ann. It was exceptionally large as spit-ups go and we like to think she was welcoming herself into the family with it.

She is beyond our expectations in how happy she is and responsive to other people. She squealed when she saw another kid her age and again when she saw one of her caregivers. We have the sweetest, most fun little girl in the world. She is smaller than we thought she would be – she is healthy, but still really small (6 month clothing). Of course, if she were really large, people would think she was adopted!

She fell asleep on the car-ride home in Lee Ann’s arms. As I write this she is lying with Lee Ann on the bed; just a few moments ago she woke up for a bit and Lee Ann got to sing her back to sleep. She is also currently sucking her thumb.

Unlike the rest of our girly swirls, Tarik took an immediate liking to me. Throughout all the paperwork we did at the orphanage, she sat on my lap and played with my watch. She is very curious and playful.

We have nothing to do today and tomorrow but play with and get to know our little girl and meet our Compassion child. We have a US Embassy appointment on Wednesday afternoon and we’ll probably go back to the orphanage to see the kids on Thursday.

We are really happy.