Healed, and Headed Home ; After a Year in Maine Undergoing Surgeries On a Head Wound, the Young Iraqi and Her Father Start the Journey Back to Their Family. Series: About This Series\ Noora's Journey in October 2006, an Iraqi Child, Noora Afif Abdulhameed, Was Seriously Wounded When an American Sniper's Bullet Struck Her in the Head. Through the Help of the Nonprofit No More Victims, She and Her Father Arrived in Portland in July 2008 so Doctors Could Repair Damage to Noora's Skull. The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram has Been Following Their Progress. This Is the Sixth and Final Installment.

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Noora Afif Abdulhameed is a notoriously late sleeper, sometimes staying in bed until 11:30 a.m. But on Saturday, she was so excited, she got up at 8:30.

"Today she wake up early," said her father, Afif Abdulhameed Otaiwi. "I told her, 'Time to go home.' She wake up, she take a shower, she eat."

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Healed, and Headed Home ; After a Year in Maine Undergoing Surgeries On a Head Wound, the Young Iraqi and Her Father Start the Journey Back to Their Family. Series: About This Series\ Noora's Journey in October 2006, an Iraqi Child, Noora Afif Abdulhameed, Was Seriously Wounded When an American Sniper's Bullet Struck Her in the Head. Through the Help of the Nonprofit No More Victims, She and Her Father Arrived in Portland in July 2008 so Doctors Could Repair Damage to Noora's Skull. The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram has Been Following Their Progress. This Is the Sixth and Final Installment.

Saturday marked a year to the day since Noora and Afif embarked on a 3,500-mile journey to Portland for surgery to repair damage to Noora's skull caused by a sniper in the Iraq war. One year later, dozens of Mainers came to the Portland International Jetport to say their goodbyes.

After a brief layover in New York, the father and daughter were to fly 12 hours to Amman, Jordan, where they expect to stay for a couple of days. Then they'll take a 12-hour taxi ride to their home in Heet, Iraq - and to Noora's mother and siblings, whom she hasn't seen since departing for America.

Otaiwi, wearing a blue rugby shirt and a green baseball cap stitched with the word "Maine" on the front, said he was "so much happy" to be going home. "But," he added, "I'm sad."

"I want to thank everybody in Maine, especially in Portland," he said at the jetport. "Everybody was so nice, so generous, so kind to my daughter and to me. I'm excited to come back to my family, but sad about leaving those people - friends, nice people."

Wearing embroidered jeans, a purple shirt and her favorite pink Barbie cap - a gift upon her arrival in Maine in Jul...

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