Our last full day in Yerevan couldn't have been more gorgeous. In the morning we met up with two other families picking up their children and went to see the ancient Erebuni Fortress. Since I love history, climbing around 3000 year old ruins and enjoying incredible views of Yerevan and beyond was quite an experience for me.
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| Some of the ancient paintings still visible on the stones |
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| My mom and Emilia |
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| The elusive family photo |
In the afternoon, we met up one last time with Rex's birth family at Lovers' Park. It's quite a lovely little area as evidenced by at least ten wedding parties taking their formal pictures there. It seemed like brides and grooms where just coming and going all the time for a good two hours while we were there. I snapped a lot of covert photos.
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| See the two brides? They were taking turns at the best photo spots. |
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| Flower girls |
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| More flower girls. Can you believe that hair? |
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| Ella amid the rose petals left behind by one of the wedding parties |
During all of our meetings with Rex's first family, there had been a particular vibe between his birth father and me. His pain was so palpable to me that my heart felt as if squeezed in a fist every time I looked at him. He was not as easily accepting of the unfolding story as the rest of the family. I struggled every single time we met to say the right words or to do something to help him, but never seemed to succeed. At the end of our final meeting though, as I was about to shut the door to the taxi, I purposefully locked eyes one last time with Rex's birth father and that's when he gave me an unexpected gift: he closed his eyes for a second and he nodded to me as if to say, "It's okay, I'm okay, we're okay." It went straight to my heart, a moment in time that I won't forget when we connected silently and when I believe there was finally peace for both of us.
October 26, 2014
We got up at 2:00 am and four airports, three planes and 27 hours later arrived in our home as a family of five.
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| Rex and his birth parents |
October 26, 2014
We got up at 2:00 am and four airports, three planes and 27 hours later arrived in our home as a family of five.
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