#7 And Then We Met!

So, this is the post you’ve been waiting for right?  The one where I tell you about what love at first sight looks like, and I don’t mean an “I’m in love with you” romantic type love, but the kind of love that hits you when you meet your child for the first time.  Any new mother who gives birth has this too, well; at least I did when I gave birth to Abi.  I also felt it when I saw Eli’s picture on my computer screen for the first time.  I am fortunate enough to have gotten to experience it one more time!  (Jeff would love me to say “one last time” but well, who’s to say what God has up his sleeve, right? J )

So, let me back up just a bit.  The 5 college kids headed to Ethiopia this summer, Bettsy, Britanee, Meagan, Koty and Lauren left for Ethiopia on Sunday, May 13 – yes Mother’s day (and actually one of the team member’s birthdays too).  Me?  Well, I was still home waiting for my turn to go.  I didn’t leave until Friday, May 25.  And it just now hits me… that was the same day Our Girl arrived at the Orphanage.  As a matter of fact, if I am counting in the time change right, yep, she probably arrived at the Orphanage about the time I flew out of Oklahoma!  WOW!  God just keeps revealing to me His hand at work!

So, I arrived in Ethiopia on Saturday evening and we went to church on Sunday.  I had some time to catch up with Patty, the missionary from the other portion of the students’ trip.  We had met the year prior during my first mission trip to Ethiopia. 

But the real part of the story, the part you were waiting for occurred on Monday morning.  On Monday morning we were picked up by a driver, and we then picked up the orphanage Director.  From there he took us out to the Orphanage, some distance from the city.

We arrived on a large expanse of land, gated (everything is fenced and gated in Ethiopia), with a few buildings on the property.  The kids took us on tours of the grounds later and we saw the start of a school and a garden area, as well as a chicken coup.  There were also several buildings, dormitories of sorts.  When the kids showed us their rooms, we found three sets of bunk beds to a room with a small shelving area for clothing and personal affects.  Between two rooms was a common bathroom area. 

Okay, so enough of the setting, let’s get back to us pulling in.  So we pull in the gate and up to the main part of the property.  The kids come out to greet us.  There are about 50 or so of them, all coming up to the Jeep greeting us with hugs.  It is heart-warming to be greeted so.  The greetings came from young and old, boys and girls.  I was looking, looking for Her.  Now, you must understand, in my mind She was young (remember 4-7?) and as I scoured the faces of each one who hugged me I felt lost.  I was searching but not sure exactly what I was going to find. 

Our Girl hugged me and she took my hand.  (Remember she had only just arrived two days before.)  She scarcely let me out of her sight.  First we did a Bible lesson, and then we took the kids out to play games.  By now I knew.  I knew this 11 year old, this child who was not what I was expecting, SHE was Our Girl.  How long did that take?  Maybe a couple hours?  It feels surreal to think on it now.  How did I know?  I cannot even say.  I. JUST. DID. It was maybe not quite love at first sight, but I knew it.  It was love.

While the kids were playing Red Rover I started asking the director about her story, about her adoptability, about HER.  The more I heard, the more certain I felt that THIS was where God was leading.  I might add, the more I also felt apprehension over Jeff’s reaction to the news (that’s another post, though). 

At lunchtime our team left for lunch.  We went to a local hotel and the Director came to eat with us. While we traveled both there and back I asked more questions about Our Girl.  But the confirmation of everything came when I returned to the orphanage after lunch.  When we came back the kids greeted us again.  Our Girl came out to me with artwork she had done while we were gone (lunch was really long – time is a much more laid back thing in Ethiopia, we were gone like 2 hours!).  In her artwork she drew a picture of each of us.  Above her drawing of herself she had written her name.  Above her drawing of me she had written “Mom”.  My heart caught in my throat.  Was I seeing this right?  Was I understanding her correctly?  Through gestures between us, it was clear.  I was “Mom”.  She knew it, and I did too.  (I can hardly wait for the day when I can talk to her about these thing... the day when she can tell me what she was thinking and feeling as this story unfolded!)

We spent the whole day at the Orphanage on Monday and we were there Tuesday and Wednesday after school.  On Thursday and Friday we were at a different branch of the Orphanage in a different location which houses 17 other children.    

The last day I hugged Our Girl was May 30, seven months ago this weekend.  We both cried.  I knew I was saying goodbye to my daughter.   She was ours and I had to … Leave.  Her.  There.   My heart cried as I left.  How do you say goodbye to your daughter, the child God promised you, after having been with her only 3 days?    

The last person-to-person contact regarding Our Girl was with the Director.  He agreed to find and contact her sister, who we would deem Our Girl’s “legal guardian” in American legalese.   He would find out her feelings and we would proceed based on that information.  It would be our fleece. 

We prayed that God’s will would occur.  We asked that her sister would agree only if it were His will that she be Ours.  And I prayed that if He said “no”, through her sister’s refusal, that I would endure.  It was our fleece.   We set it out and we said, “We will say ‘yes’ if You will make a way.”  We would wait for nearly 6 months to hear word.  For 6 months we did not know what would happen.  For 6 months I anguished.  And then on December 9 we got an email that would turn our world UPSIDE DOWN!