One of the first nights I arrived in Thailand I received the
opportunity to play Mom.
This month we are sleeping in the rooms with the girls. In
fact, our bunk beds are actually pushed together, reminds me of my sorority
Alpha Phi or summer camps.
Shortly after arriving, our children’s home received new
girls. The two new girls were placed in the bunk bed pushed next to mine, both
of them sharing a bed. As they all crawled into bed for their first night in
their new home, the two of them pulled the covers up and over there head.
Within minutes one of the girls, Sara*, began crying. It started out as soft
sobs but quickly turned into a heavy cry, one of fear and sadness. Mother
Natalie kicked in (this doesn’t happen very often mind you) and I pulled the
covers off of her head and scooped her up to hold her. The rest of my team quickly came over as well
to pray for her and try to calm her down. After a few minutes she returned to
the soft sobs and then to a calm. Her bedmate, we’ll call her Squirrel*, didn’t
know what to do with herself and so got up and made, and remade, and remade
again her bed about fifteen times. It wasn’t until Bethsaida came over and laid
down with her would she lay and go to sleep.
The very next night was a thunderstorm. We had been out at
the other house (we were split into two houses this month) but quickly returned
wants the thunder rolled in. We walked through the door to find girls crying
and panicking with the electricity out. All of us girls sprang into action
attempting to comfort. My bedmates seemed to be in the most hysterics. We spent
the next half hour or so singing to the girls and holding them close.
The third night, I came home early on a feeling that I
needed to be back. I found Sara screaming at the top of her lungs and beginning
to hyperventilate. The other older girls from the home were attempting to
soothe her but it was clear nothing was working. Soft words weren’t working and
neither was stroking her hair. Eventually scooping her up, holding and rocking
her did the trick. Three nights in a row she cried, three nights in a row all I
wanted was to make her feel better.
abandoned and alone in a foreign place with foreign people trying to soothe
her. I started to get choked up at the thought of what her past might have
looked like, and the loneliness she must feel. As sad as that thought was, the
next one was immediately one of relief. These girls, instead of being sold into
the sex trade, now have three meals a day, roofs over their heads, and two
house parents who love and adore them. They now have hope; hope that they might
have never known had it not been for them coming here. They have hope in a
different life, a life filled with joy.
not cried since that third night, but instead laughs and plays so much that it
is hard to get her to bed. Every time I come to the house she runs and me full
speed and yells “Pi Natalie” which means (older sister Natalie) with
a smile and a leap into my arms. She hugs me longer and tighter than the other
girls and it melts my heart every time. Squirrel is always giving us cute little
presents and smiling brightly.
I love these girls so much, and am so thankful for this
organization and what it means for their lives.
*Names have been changed at the request of the organization
to protect their privacy
