Adoption Photo: Sydney Sintayehu, 2, Ethiopia

Adoptive Families 2011 Cover Contest: Finalist

Sydney Sintayehu (2, Ethiopia), daughter of Stephanie and Chris Mitchell, Snoqualmie, Washington

PHOTOGRAPHER: Yuen Lui Studios

“We had pictures taken when Sydney had been home for three weeks. This was the first photo from that 20-minute session. It captures the look she gets when she’s amazed and she doesn’t know what’s going on. Remarkably, she ate up the camera, getting coy with it, posing. The photographer was shocked by how open and friendly she was, but we thought, ‘That’s just Sydney.’” -STEPHANIE