Copyright 2000 Richmond Times-Dispatch
April 13, 2000

HEADLINE: Edward is Making a Visit Home After 4 Years, He'll See Birth 
Mother, Siblings in Liberia
BYLINE: Stacy Hawkins Adams
Stacy Hawkins Adams can be reached at (804) 649- 6578 or e-mail 
sadams@timesdispatch.com.

Edward Sando-Miller will head for home today wearing a new face.

Yesterday, he bade farewell to his third-grade classmates at Beulah 
Elementary School in Chesterfield County and prepared to return to his 
native West African country for the first time in four years.

The boys and girls expressed envy when they learned that while they will 
be visiting Jamestown tomorrow, Edward will be halfway to Liberia .

"I wanted to go with him," said Kristina Young, 9. "I kept bugging my 
mom and she said, 'No, No, No!' But I do want him to tell us all about 
it when he [returns] .*.*. I hope it's really fun for him."

Edward talked excitedly yesterday about his plans to accompany his 
adoptive mother to Monrovia. There, he intends to greet his birth mother 
with a long-awaited hug and introduce himself as the new Edward Sando.

Edward has lived in Chesterfield with Elijah Miller and Comfort 
Anderson-Miller since February 1996.

Anderson-Miller, a native Liberian, brought Edward to the United States 
to receive free medical treatment. He had lost his nose at age 2 to a 
bacterial infection contracted during the height of Liberia 's civil 
war.

A Norfolk plastic surgeon reconstructed Edward's nose and upper lip in 
September 1996.

Several months later, when Anderson-Miller traveled to Liberia on a 
relief mission trip, she took pictures to Edward's mother. Alice Sando 
saw her son's new nose and strong physique and agreed to have Anderson-
Miller raise him in America.

"When I saw the pictures, I was full of joy," Sando said in June 1997 
during a brief telephone interview. "It was just like I ate so much, my 
stomach was full."

Edward intends to thank his mother for giving him a better life. He 
plans to give her about $200 he has saved over the past year from gifts 
people have given him.

"I'm going to tell her I missed her," said Edward, who became a U.S. 
citizen last October. "I'm going to tell her I'm doing good in school."

The trip will permit Edward, now 11, to visit with his two older sisters 
and two older brothers. He's planning to go to Jah Tonda Town, the 
village where he was born, and reacquaint himself with former playmates.

"Edward will be nobody in life if he forgets where he came from," 
Anderson-Miller said.

Anderson-Miller, Edward and Chester resident Janette Walker were 
scheduled to depart from Washington Dulles International Airport at 7 
tonight.

After brief layovers in Paris and in the Ivory Coast, the three should 
arrive in Monrovia on Saturday.

Edward and Walker will return to Richmond on April 21. Anderson- Miller 
will remain in Liberia until late May, visiting impoverished towns and 
villages to distribute nonperishable food, clothing, textbooks, 
computers, medical supplies and other goods she collected from numerous 
donors.

The Chester Wal-Mart, for example, provided hair supplies, toys and 
other supplies. KalKan/Uncle Ben's Rice, based in California, donated 
80,000 pounds of rice to the Robert and Mary Anderson Charitable 
Organization, Anderson-Miller's nonprofit agency named after her 
parents.

About $20,000 in cash contributions to the agency helped pay to ship the 
items to Liberia in two 40-foot containers and four 20-foot containers.

"For the rest of their lives, the [Liberian] people will be talking 
about this," said Anderson-Miller, a systems analyst for Chesterfield 
County. "Just the fact that, when you are so desperate and your 
government cannot provide for you .*.*. someone comes from the outside 
to help. This will have long-lasting effects."

Though Liberia 's nine-year civil war ended in 1997 when a warlord was 
elected president of a fragile democratic government, most citizens 
remain poor.

During her weeklong stay in Liberia , Walker, an anesthetist, intends to 
create a playroom for sick children at John F. Kennedy Memorial Center.

Edward, on the other hand, has calmly planned his arrival.

He intends to confidently stroll through the airport wearing sunglasses, 
something unfathomable four years ago. He will slip them off as he 
approaches his mother, who doesn't know he's coming.

"I think she will be proud of me."

Contributions, payable to the Robert and Mary Anderson Charitable 
Organization, may be mailed to 6629 S. Beulah Road, Richmond, VA 23237.