Bob Thomas Writes

(My friends George and Annette adopted Gabi from Romania when she was 9 months old. This is my memory of the night she arrived home in the USA over 20 years ago, and what her thoughts might have been.)

All I could see was a small bundle with black hair and shining black eyes staring at me. The eyes were tired and uncertain about what they saw through the window of the car.
When the door opened she surely thought she had been delivered to a bunch of fools and idiots. They were all babbling in a strange language. Each one of them smiling like a person possessed of demons! They were trying to kiss her, feel her, touch her and even take her away from the warmth of the stranger she’d been with for several weeks!

She had been through this too many times in the last few weeks, and every time she ended up being taken to another strange place by another strange person. Each of them nice and comforting in their own way, but still a stranger.

This time would probably be no different, but she would like to get a little sleep before the next exchange! They carried her into a huge building. . . probably some sort of government office she guessed, where everyone tried to hug her and take her away from whoever had her at the moment. There was a lot of food on the table. . . she hoped that someone would give her some of it! She could really use a good pickle right about now! Gradually the people started leaving. . . each one stopping to pat her on the head or punch her in the ribs and laugh like a fool! She grimaced in pain from a gas bubble she had picked up somewhere over the ocean, and the whole damned crowd went nuts! They were all screaming, “she smiled, she smiled”! She wished she knew what the words meant. Ouch! Another pain! Time to fill up this diaper again!

The two people who didn’t try to mess with her very much were standing over in the corner of the room just smiling. They had taken a close look at her when she got here, but nothing since then. One of them was a big guy with a beard, (Me) and he looked kinda’ scary! The other was a lady with a long pony tail (Wife). . . it was the first time she had a chance to realize that everybody didn’t have black hair! There were yellow, white, red, brown heads all over the place! She didn’t know that hair came in any color besides black and shiny! She also didn’t know that people could be so ?…White! These people almost glowed in the dark they were so white! Didn’t they have any people with regular skin around here?

As she looked around she suddenly realized that almost everybody had left! There was one lady who had tried to claim her for her own. . . she kept saying ” I’m your Mama something or other”…and grabbing her away from everybody else. The big guy with the beard and the lady with the pony tail gave her a kiss and left. . . she sure would like to get a hand on that pony tail to see if it’s real!

She decided it was time for them to leave her alone for awhile, so, she dumped a load in her diapers, peed real good and started crying! The strangers jumped up and changed her, washed her, fed her and put her to bed. In a bed! Not a drawer, basket or pile of laundry! Cool! She could hardly wait to see this place in the daylight. . . she took one last look around and closed her eyes.
There would be plenty of time tomorrow to look around before they gave her to somebody else.

The sun shined through the window brighter than she had ever seen before! What happened to the smoke, smog, dust and everything else she was used to looking through? She moved ever so slightly and somebody yelled, “She’s Awake!” Jeezus! Are these people gonna’ watch me like a hawk all the time? Someone snatched her up and started taking her cloths off of her! They put on a fresh diaper and took her downstairs to the room where all of the food was. . . and they started giving her some of it! Cool!! She tried to eat and look around at the same time. This was a darn big building! She didn’t know exactly which agency owned it, but it sure was impressive. She had heard rumors of riches, gold streets, endless supplies of food and many other miracles in other places…but she had never been able to verify them so she assumed they were just more propaganda put out by the government.

The big guy and pony tail showed up a little while later. They seemed nice enough and the pony tail was nice and snugly. She tentatively reached for the pony tail. . . it felt good! Cool! And the lady doesn’t seem to mind if I hang on to it for a while! Everyone is laughing and flopping the pony tail in my face now! She guessed she’d better laugh or smile or something just so they wouldn’t try to put her in the drawer.

She gave a quick smile to pony tail. “OH! WHAT A BIG SMILE! YOU’RE SUCH A PRETTY GIRL”!
Gee, this smiling thing could be a good deal!

I wonder what “Gabi” means?

(Gabriella, or Gabi, my “adopted Niece”, is 21 years old now. She still has eyes like black Diamonds. And I love her dearly.)