Welcome Home!!!

I'm stealing part of this post from my friend, Martha's post on the Freedom 4/24 blog.

"I first met Pa during the summer of 2009 when I traveled to Bangkok to intern at the Home of New Beginnings. I remember her infectious laugh, her eagerness to learn English, and how funny it was when she tried to say the word “delicious,” and it came out more like “deeericious.” We loved to have “fruit” parties in the afternoons, eating exotic fruits and learning about each other across our great culture divide. Pa had been living at Beginnings for a few months before I arrived in Bangkok, and although we found so much common ground, our backgrounds were literally worlds apart. Pa was only 21. She had a son who was at home with her mother. She had been forced to prostitute to provide for her son and her family. She would show me pictures of him, pointing and proudly saying “Baby! MY baby.” Pa loved Jesus, and would often sing worship songs to us in Thai. She had an appreciation for our Savior that can’t be explained with words." - Martha

Since I've been here, Bonita and I often have conversations where we both end up spilling our hearts about these girls. In one of those conversations, Bonita told me about Pa and that Pa had left Beginnings last year and how it had broken her heart to see her go and that they worried for her because they couldn't be sure where she was or what she'd been doing since she left. Since that conversation Pa had been on my heart and in my prayers along with the rest of the girls here.

I am SO excited to be able to tell you that this past Monday, Pa showed back up at the house! When she walked in, Bonita, Ann and the rest of the girls living here, hugged her and they all cried. They were all just so excited to see her again. Bonita and Ann talked with her and she told them that since she left she'd been alone, and that she tried to go home to her father, but that he did not accept her, telling her "once a prostitute, always a prostitute". Not exactly the warm welcome I would have been hoping for. Bonita and Ann told Pa that if she wanted to move back in that the door would always be open for her. And Pa just smiled. Then she told them that she had actually brought her suit case with her in case they would accept her back. I've loved getting to meet her and seeing the girls welcome her back with open arms into her family that loves her and accepts her for who she is.