My ThoughtsWhen I watch Zahra’s bio mom, Emily, I think she is distraught about her daughter’s situation. There is no doubt about it. Her lip quivers as she says, “I never got to say goodbye.” Her forehead shows genuine stress, though I don’t see any tears. Later I do think she is genuinely crying. I see a tear and smudged makeup. She also sniffles.

When the video shows Emily walking through the gardens talking to the reporter, her pain seems to be an afterthought, which is odd. Is she one to live in the moment? We do have to remember that she has been far removed from her daughter for years so she doesn’t have the day-to-day memories most mothers have, so her reminders are not as constant for a mother who provides full-time care.

Emily says she doesn’t feel that her daughter is alive, and that is a fair statement for her to make considering the news that no one has seen Zahra in a long while, that her prosthetic leg was found without Zahra, etc. so that is not a red flag for me. Emily makes sense that hearing the way Zahra was treated, thinking she is still alive hurts more. That is a compassionate statement.

At 1:25, she gives an incredible macro expression of anger. Its intense. Her lip stays tense as she says with another macro expression of disgust, “I can’t explain the anger, the hurt, I don’t…he had no right to do any of it, to keep her from me.”

My heart goes out to little Zahra. She didn’t have a fighting chance from the day she was born.

Thanks, Ava, and all the people who sent me this update.