The last time Janet Greer had seen her daughter was in 1997, when she was abducted in Honolulu by her father and taken to Egypt.

Sarah Eloghary, nicknamed Dowsha, was 3 years old at the time.

Since then Greer, 56, has endured 12 years of hell trying to find Dowsha and see her again.

Last week, it finally happened.

Onlookers who watched the reunion between Greer and now 15-year-old Dowsha — Arabic for "noisy" — said the teen seemed shy and reserved at the time. But when her father, worried that Dowsha might be feeling overwhelmed by the experience, asked if she wanted to go out and play, she said no, she wanted to stay with her mother.

"That was the best thing I could ever hear in my life," Greer, previously a 30-year resident of Hawai'i, said yesterday from her home in North Carolina.

The reunion marked an uncommon resolution to an out-of-country abduction. There are about nine or 10 unresolved cases in Hawai'i of children who were abducted from the United States, said Charlene Takeno, coordinator of the Missing Child Center in Hawai'i. That compares with about 1,000 U.S. children being kept illegally outside the country, according to the national Office of Children's Issues.

An estimated 75 percent of such cases are never resolved.

NO HAPPY ENDING

Today, Greer is back in North Carolina minus Dowsha, so it isn't the storybook ending Greer wanted. Dowsha continues to live with her father in Cairo. Under Egyptian law, the father has custody of the young woman until she marries.

Still, Greer was overjoyed at being able to visit her daughter and confident that there will be future visits.

"I was beginning to think she would never see Dowsha again," said Takeno, of the Missing Child Center in Hawai'i that worked with Greer. "The father was so conniving."

On May 23, 1997, Greer dropped 3-year-old Dowsha off for a court-ordered weekend visit with her father, Madgy Ahmed Ali Eloghary. He never brought her back.

"It was the feeling when something shocks you and your stomach drops and your whole body gets hot," Greer said. "You just don't stop crying. Ever. You don't sleep. And if you do get some sleep, you dream about your pain."

In the 12 years since, Greer fought Dowsha's father in Egyptian courts, traveled to the country four times, endured death threats, saw her own health decline and spent more than $300,000 in efforts to regain custody.

The reunion would never have happened without the Missing Child Center, the American embassy in Egypt, ABC's "Good Morning America" and countless journalists and politicians.

Greer said that Dowsha's father told relatives and neighbors to tell anyone searching for Dowsha that she was dead.

Greer later received a letter from someone in the father's community who saw Greer's desperate, unanswered letters and assured Greer that Dowsha was not dead and wanted to see her mother. When Greer tried to contact the father, she said his family left death threats on her answering machine in response.

Soon after, the father took Dowsha into hiding, Takeno said.

Years passed, but Greer continued her fight to see Dowsha. She petitioned government officials and presidential candidates, wrote countless letters and worked with advocates for missing children.

TV SHOW HELPED

Two months ago, the "Good Morning America" show took an interest in Greer's quest and followed her on her fourth trip to Egypt to interview her and tell her story.

Greer had been to Cairo three other times, but each trip was devastatingly unsuccessful.

However, "when she came to Egypt with the cameras, she was able to see her daughter," Takeno said.

Seeing Dowsha, Greer said, filled "this big, blank void" in her heart.

"My biggest fear was that she wouldn't remember me," she said. "And she not only remembered me, but she had memories of us together."

When the men left the room, Dowsha asked Greer to take off her head scarf.

"When I took it off and shook my hair out, she said, 'Yes, that's how I remember you.' "

Dowsha was reserved during their first meeting, but she opened up when they got together a second day, giving Greer fruit and flowers and laughing and giggling.

Before Greer left Egypt, she told Dowsha that she was always welcome in North Carolina and to contact the embassy if anyone kept her away against her will.

Dowsha's father told Greer that Dowsha is free to go to the U.S. once she marries.

Greer left the house with tears in her eyes as Dowsha and her cousins said goodbye from the balcony and the men stood outside.

"I still have a very heavy heart because my daughter's not next to me," Greer said. "But now the connection is there."

Greer is considering renting an apartment in southern Cairo where she could stay for three months on a visa.

"I don't know what the future's going to hold," she said. "But it's much, much brighter now."