In 1994, Lizbeth Meredith said good-bye to her four- and six year-old daughters for a visit with their noncustodial father only to learn days later that they had been kidnapped and taken to their father's home country of Greece. Twenty-nine and just on the verge of making her dreams of financial independence for her and her daughters come true, Lizbeth now faced a $100,000 problem on a $10 an hour budget.
For the next two years, fueled by memories of her own childhood kidnapping, Lizbeth traded in her small life for a life more public, traveling to the White House and Greece and becoming a local media sensation in order to garner interest in her efforts. The generous community of Anchorage became Lizbeth's makeshift family, one that was replicated by a growing number of Greeks and expats overseas who helped Lizbeth navigate the turbulent path leading back to her daughters.