Princess's "Family Day"

Today is the anniversary of the day we first met Princess, or her "Family Day" as we call it since that is the day that we became a family. Three years ago Damen, Young Jedi, and I traveled to Ethiopia to meet Princess. She was 17 months old, the size of a 6 month old, and the bravest person I had met. The nanny at the orphanage put her in my arms and told her I was "Mama". She cried and fought as hard as she could to get out of my arms. I was not mama to her (yet), I was a stranger. She had known her mother's love for a full year before coming to the orphanage. For the whole week that we were in Ethiopia she cried whenever we walked into her nursery room. She did not want me, and although that was understandable, it was hard (very hard!). She was being asked to trust us and believe that this new mama would always be there for her. The first few months that she was home with us was hard. She did not want to be here. She had lost everything she had ever known, language, culture, food, smells, people she knew. Little by little she opened her heart and began to trust us. Her body would relax when I picked her up, instead of stiffen. She began to accept our hugs and kisses, and then started to return them. I had become "Mama" to her :)