Anna Dombkins

terrifying moment of thinking we have lost our children's grandparents somewhere in Tanzania and and we couldn't find them and then eventually the bus had been late and they had just stayed slept on the bus because they'd gone to a different city and they they said we were told do not get off this bus until it gets to Moshi so they would not leave the bus and then it finally arrived and the poor things are exhausted and we put a lot of thought into where to have them stay because

they'd never been anywhere and we didn't want them to stay somewhere so fancy that they felt uncomfortable, but we wanted it to be a real treat for them.

And so we had them stay in just a very basic hotel down the street.

And Mark took them in there and their faces just ignited and they went into the bathroom and started giggling and he realised they'd never seen a flushing toilet or a shower before.

And so they didn't know what to do.

They had to get Mark to demonstrate how to use the toilet and what do you do.

And then they asked a lot of questions about the shower.

They couldn't believe there was just hot water coming out of it.

And how many times could they shower and how long were they allowed to stay in there?

And so it was just absolute joy watching all of these basics that we take for granted every day being the most incredible thing.

Yeah.

So their grandchildren hadn't seen them for a few months at that point.

And although Bubba and Bibi had visited the baby home to stay in contact with Shane Charlie, they didn't have a close connection.

And then Jabari hadn't seen them since we brought them home.

And so they arrived and Jabari started screaming and I was holding him.

And for a child who almost never made a sound, it was astonishing.

And it was really incredible just to watch their capacity grow

to love him in that moment and their restraint they showed in just backing off and waiting and so he took time but then we we got them together sitting around the dining table and um and they just gave him space and he just stared at them for a long time and then all of a sudden he he got off my lap he grabbed a biscuit from the table walked around to babu and put it in his mouth and

And Dad straight-faced and Babu ate it and he came back to me and he got another one and he walked back and he put it in Babu's mouth again and he just went back and forth and he was just feeding Babu.

And so it was just this incredible picture of this relationship between grandparents and a grandchild where there was so much love but there was unavoidable neglect that had happened and Jabari had been so damaged by it but also...