In the ten years since Hurricane Katrina broke the levees and ravaged New Orleans, Master Sgt. Michael Maroney often wondered what became of the three year-old girl he rescued in the aftermath. Maroney didn’t evne know the girl’s name when she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug in an iconic photo.

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“When she wrapped me up with that hug, I just melted, and the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders,” Maroney told news outlets. “Everything in the world just stopped, and I wasn’t in New Orleans or in the devastation, I was just being hugged by a beautiful little girl.”

In March, Maroney started a social media campaign to find that little girl called #FindKatrinaGirl. Last week, his hard work paid off. Someone contacted him through Instagram claiming that he knew the little girl and quickly connected the family of Leshay Brown, a thirteen year-old now living in Mississippi.

In this brief phone call with Leshay and her mother, Maroney was ecstatic. “Words cannot describe how I felt hearing their voices again at that moment,” he said. “I was like, ‘Is this real? Is this really her?’ I’ve been waiting for 10 years for this, and finally I found her. I had a stupid smile across my whole face the whole time.”

In the upcoming weeks, Maroney will bring his family from San Antonio, Texas in order to meet up with Leshay’s family in Mississippi.