I learned about our daughter, Georgia, from my friend, Tana. She had met Georgia on a Parent Trip to Haiti. She had noticed Georgia, standing off by herself, afraid of all of the commotion. Tana spent a little time with Georgia, but never got her to smile. Our adoption coordinator sent me lots of photos of Georgia in the beginning—photos she had been collecting for nearly a year. Georgia was not smiling in any of them. In fact, she was downright sobbing in some. We learned that Georgia did not smile. She did not like the white volunteers and cried when they came by her. She was portrayed as an extremely shy, possibly unhappy little girl.

When we met Georgia for the first time, she just cuddled into our shoulders and would not look at our faces. For the few days we were with her, we rarely got her to make eye contact, and if she did, she would immediately look away. After a couple of days with her, we were able to get her to laugh after tickling her. However, she did not seem entirely comfortable with laughing or smiling. It was almost like she was upset with herself for caving in and showing joyful emotion.

On our second trip, Georgia started looking at us. She watched our every move. She made eye contact, and did not look away immediately. We were able to get her to laugh and smile almost right away. What a relief it was to see her beautiful grin, and hear her deep, infectious laugh! She continued to be shy around the volunteers and other parents on our trip, but she was making progress with us.

The photo I am sharing today speaks of love to me. My husband, Tim picked Georgia up one morning, and swung her into the air. At first, Georgia was afraid and held onto Tim. He cuddled her and danced around the room. Then he lifted her in the air just a tad; slowly increasing the height that he tossed her up. Before we knew it, she was laughing and laughing. She even had a grin on her face for several minutes after they stopped their tossing game. It was a beautiful moment.