Beauty, sadness and hope

The other day we received some new photos of Ayantu. Some new friends from Grandville, MI travelled to Ethiopia last week to pick up their 10 month old son, Owen [he's adorable btw]! Owen was at the same orphanage as Ayantu so our contact in Ethiopia promised these friends would have the opportunity to bring Ayantu the goodies we had for her. They ended up taking a short video of Ayantu when they first met her and while opening the gifts.

My reflections after seeing the video: Ayantu appears to be shut down. The look on her face in all of the photos is of deep sadness. It makes me think that the only thing going through her mind is what is going on? why am I here? and where is my mommy? As they opened the backpack of gifts, Ayantu would only sit in the orphange director's lap. And she pretty much did not show any emotion towards her new shoes, baby doll and photo album of us. The only thing that made her even move was when the bag of suckers was pulled out and opened for her to share with her other buddies. I must say she knew what to do with the sucker! She was dressed in a pink velour top with some pant leggings. That color pink looked so beautiful on her; especially contrasting her dark, brown eyes.

As I think about the journey ahead I know it will not be easy. Ayantu has pain and sadness that needs to be worked through. But Brian and I have put our trust in the living God knowing He has equipped us for all that we'll need to help Ayantu move through her sadness and live with joy and hope! Worst case scenario we have to utilize the gifts of Sahara and our dog, Petey Michael! Who couldn't smile and laugh at these two characters?!?!