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Meeting Ephraim

ByChantel

Palmiet River Lodge - Durban, South Africa

It’s crazy to think that it’s been over a week since we first met Ephraim, he has come out of his shell so much in the last week, he doesn’t seem like the same kid we first met.

Saturday morning came early for us since we were still tired from our journey over. But we woke up around 5:30 so we could grab the stuff we would need for the next couple of days and by 6:40 we were off on our 4 hour journey (on the left side of the road) north up to Newcastle where Ephraim was. Minus the GPS giving us a few odd directions we found our way quite easily and arrived at the home at 11:05.

The day before we had met with Robyn, our South African social worker, and she mentioned that because Ephraim is “older” when we arrive we should try sitting on the floor with a few toys and kind of wait for him to approach us. But when we got to the home we were told he was asleep and the next thing I knew they woke him up and thrust him into my arms. It was great to see him but it wasn’t the initial meeting I was expecting.

He was very quiet and sat very motionless, he didn’t even try to touch us, he was so still. We tried bringing out a few toys to show him and he would hold on to them but not play with them or interact with us at all. He hadn’t eaten lunch yet so one of the workers from the home gave us his food to feed him. She said the kids ate fast so you had to feed them quick but he seemed too overwhelmed to eat, he slowly ate a few bites but that was it.

We sat with Ephraim through most of the afternoon, we saw a few smiles here and there, mostly when the workers would tickle him.

Bedtime was 7:00 so at that point we said goodnight and handed him over to the workers for the night.

A few photos from our first day with him:

Meeting Ephraim - South Africa Adoption

Meeting Ephraim - South Africa Adoption Meeting Ephraim - South Africa Adoption Meeting Ephraim - South Africa Adoption IMG_1369web IMG_1388web IMG_1392web IMG_1398web

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16 Comments

  7. Oh my! Those photos bring back a lot of memories! So very precious and wonderful and overwhelming all at the same time!

  8. What a cutie! He has such a sweet smile. Looks like the first meeting went very well! I look forward to reading more of the story. Hugs xoxo

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