You don’t have to fake the smile, Gaby.  we know that chain link might as well be maximum security for a 7 year old

…she’s been in brazil for the last couple of weeks and her captors (grandma and grandpa in brazil) have told us she’ll be there for another month and a half.  today she called saying she missed her mom and dad!  she cried even!  but it wasn’t always this way.  oh no; her captors had bribed her to come down south with promises of free candy, new toys, tennis and soccer lessons, and even her own horse (which she has named eragon).  so, yeah, she was pretty excited to get down there and see her grandparents (ie revel in her spoils), but today she was crying and missing mommy and daddy.  that made us feel good b/c we’ve been missing her sweet little voice and energy here at home.  her female captor actually even told us that a couple of days ago she had found a large picture of us (they are usually well hidden from the victim), and she kept kissing our picture and saying how she missed us.   soon, my dear, we’ll be together soon.

after shed tears and two days had passed since she found our picture, gaby was allowed to phone home briefly.  it was great to hear her voice and see how she is doing.  she’s learning how to ride her horse almost everyday and training hard with her soccer and tennis coaches.  i asked her when she was going to come home, “tomorrow?”, i asked…

“no, not for a lot of days”, she said sadly.  prisoners rarely know the exact date of their release, so i wasn’t expecting as much from my daughter, either.

“well we miss you so much, i wish you were here right now so i could give you a big bear hug”.  i asked her what her favorite thing to do in brazil was and she said horses, and soccer.  she even made a goal.  i asked her if anyone said “goooooooal!”  she said yes, her coach.

i continued with the child-ish questions:

“what food do you miss most from the U.S.”?

“mommy’s food”.

“what do you miss the most from our house?”

“my parents”.

“what toy do you miss the most from home?”

“my unicorn”… she paused, then reconsidering her answer she quickly said, “no wait, my tiger.  my white tiger.”

i told her that i couldn’t wait for her to come back home so that we could play tiger, and horsey and whatever else she likes.  she told me to not watch kung-fu panda until she gets home.  she’s already seen it and has carefully chosen which characters in the film we most closely represent in real life.  i think she’s selected me to be the panda bear.  i anxiously await the honor of fulfilling that role, as the three of us watch our film while eating buttered and popped maize from a bucket.

WE MISS YOU GABY!