She is trapped.
Why is she trapped? Because she has to give her 8 month old daughter for adoption.
Why does she feel like she has to give her daughter up? Because she was kicked out of her house earlier this afternoon.
Why was she kicked out of her house earlier this afternoon? Because her landlord in the slums told her to sell the child to him for $1,000 US Dollars. So he in turn could sell the child for sexual exploitation. When he found out she would not sell her baby to him, he kicked her out.
Why is she living in the slums? Because she is selling her body and does not make enough money to support herself. Her ex-husband kicked her out when she first had his child, the one she is now holding in her arms.
Why did she marry that man in the first place? Because she was a sex worker when she moved from Vietnam to Cambodia and wanted out. But now she is back in the cycle because she doesn’t even know how to read Khmer and cannot get a job anywhere else, but just to sell her body.
She is trapped.
Friday afternoon.
I was asking these questions to my translator, every question carrying me deeper into a story about a woman and a precious child I had just met in the nurses’ office. Their names: Huynh and Sat Long. Huynh is asking for the name of an adoption agency so she may hand her child off and move back to Vietnam; she is also asking for a bus ticket to get there. She cannot afford Sat Long. She cannot even afford her bus ticket to Vietnam.
She is trapped.
I am screaming out to God in my heart, “There have got to be more options than this!!! I know that I may be from the United States, and dream too big, but, oh my gosh. There has got to be a way she can have a job with dignity, keep Sat Long and live a life worth living! Dear God, please HELP.“
My team is heartbroken at the news about this woman and baby. We want to help out the best we can. We pray with her and even offer to pay her bus ticket once we know her baby is safe in the adoption agency’s arms.
I walk away with the same “American Dream” prayer of, “God, I want her to have it all. A bus ticket is not the answer for her, please, oh please, give me an answer.”
Saturday.
The girls on my team are all out eating at a place called Daughter’s of Cambodia. It is a ministry in the heart of Phenom Penh and it helps girls that want to get out of the sex trade. 98% of the women that go to work at Daughter’s never go back into the sex trade. They have a spa, cafe and shop where the girls can work to earn a living. This ministry also offers counseling, free childcare for the working mother, and even doctor visits.
We are sitting around the calm atmosphere of the cafe, talking and giggling, and I am staring off, thinking of Huynh and Sat Long. I shock myself out of day-dreaming and grab Kristen’s arm right next to mine and say, “She can work here, this woman can work at Daughter’s!” All of us get excited as we think about how amazing it could be if Huynh could really, in fact, have it all.
Monday morning.
Kristen and I walk in to ministry and Huynh is in the nursery room with her daughter. The adoption agency, we found out, did not go through. We present the information to her about Daughter’s and what they do. For the first time, I see Huynh smile. We have no idea where to start off, we know that the main offices are not located where the cafe, spa and shop are, but we decide to go there.
So with translator and baby in tow, we get in a tuk tuk and head to Daughter’s. Once there, Kristen is able to contact the Director on her cell phone. Kristen explains Hunyh’s story and the Director tells her, “Oh my goodness, this does sound desperate, where is this woman? Can you get in touch with her? Can you bring her to the office now?!” Kristen’s response is, “We have her in the tuk tuk and we’re on our way now.” “Yes, yes, bring her now!“
On the way there we all cannot stop smiling. Huynh even mentions to Kristen and me that she can see the glory of God all around us. This is coming from a woman who at the time, was wearing a red Buddhist bracelet.
We all go in and Huynh is interviewed and accepted and will start work tomorrow. Her baby will be in the daycare. She will have a house close to work. She will make a fair wage. She will have a job with dignity, and keep her child. This is Divine.
On the way back home, Huynh is holding her sleeping baby. She looks over at Kristen and me and says, “I had a dream that I had a little house where my baby and I lived and I had a job I had no shame in. Today, you made my dreams come true. I am so thankful.“
As it turns out, baby Sat Long’s name means “Optimistic.” One translation states, the doctrine that this is the best of all possible worlds. And I truly believe with all of my heart, that this is the best possible outcome in Huynh and Sat Long’s world.
