Meeting Olivia...

13 September 2023: Today is my niece Olivia's birthday. Thinking tonight about the first time I met her--when the family went to the airport when she, her mom, and her dad got off the plane with her. Here they came, pushing her in a little carriage, her eyes wide with skeptical and tired wonder and something deeper and harder to decipher. We squealed in delight to meet her, flooding around her, so glad she was here, filled with such love for her. When I knelt down and sort of held out my arms to ask if I could hold her, she opened her arms back. Her Russian name means "Love." Certainly that day, that little one indicated she was looking for just that.