6 Months Ago

 Here is what our day looked like 6 months ago....
We drove through the very crowded and busy city out into the hills...down long, bumpy, winding dirt roads. Finally, we had to park the car and walk to Zape.  Our hearts were beating so quickly...we were getting ready to meet our precious girl...we were anxious and knew that she must be also.

Here we turned down a side alley way and walked up the path to the orphanage gate.

 When we walked through the gate, all the children ran to greet us with Miriam leading the pack.  We reached down and picked her up.  While she let us hold her and seemed to want to be near us, she was also scared and uncertain.

After playing with the kids for a while and letting Miriam eat her lunch, it was time to go back to the hotel. Our hearts were breaking for our sweet girl because it was so hard for her to leave all she had known for the past 10 months.  She was terrified to leave with these people that she had just met.

She let me take her and I carried her for a while, but then she took my hand and we walked back to the car together.

Back at the hotel, we gave Miriam a shower and got to know her a little better.  This was a day for making her feel comfortable and helping her learn to trust us...nothing does that better than a Fanta!

 We played the rest of the day.  That night because our driver was busy, we had dinner at the hotel with things I had brought from home.  It turned out to be a pretty crappy dinner.  I think the only thing she ate were peanuts and slim jims.  Miriam was probably thinking...I traded chicken and rice for this...Yuck!  She was a trooper, though and brushed her teeth and got ready for bed.

Playing with the I Pad was a huge thrill for her.  It helped her to warm up to us and we were able to sit close and snuggle together while we played with it.

 Finally, after a long, exhausting and emotional day, it was time for a good night's sleep...for Miriam that is.  She twirled around in the bed all night long so Joey and I didn't sleep much at all.  We just kept waking up and looking at her...amazed by God's goodness and faithfulness.