Flashback Friday: The Child

What relationship are you missing in your life makes you feel vulnerable? 

This question is at the core of one of the five root causes of human trafficking...

Relational Gaps

For three hours on a chilly, but sunny September day, Katie, K3 and I stood on a street corner between a homeless shelter and liquor store in Grand Rapids, asking this question.

Many walked by, pretending we weren't there.

A few stopped for conversation to fill their day. 

Several took it in, and waited, and gazed, and eventually told their story, on a white wall, safe from harm.  

With each story, my heart broke. 

For me, the most profound story came from an adopted man. In the shape of a heart, with a dull, black sharpie marker, he wrote, "I miss my mom and dad.  I was adopted and I don't know my story."

When he was done, I asked him what I needed to know as an adoptive Mama, and he looked me straight in the eyes and told me, 

"Tell her what is true.  Tell her where she came from, who she is and why she was given up for adoption.  Don't make anyone the bad guy. Don't make anyone the good guy. We just want to know who we are and where we came from."

And, with that I knew exactly why I was there, on that beautiful fall morning. 

I stood in the streets of division asking this question for Finley, for those who cannot tell their own story, and for those who are brave enough to write on a blank white wall.

The world is broken.

Humans are trafficked.

We can avoid it, looking away.

Or, we can tell their story.

Because, in the end, even the most traumatic stories can have the most beautiful endings.  

*vote here to be a part of telling the story