Wednesday, July 23, 2014

End The Night

Last night I had a terrible nightmare.

In my dream, two of my children and I were taken from our home and forced to work at a brothel. I begged and cried and pleaded with the woman in charge to let my children leave. I told her that I would be her best employee if only she'd let my children go. She responded with a matter of fact "They are old enough to work. They are cute and they'll sell well."

The next scene I remember is the morning after that first night's "work" holding my little boys in my lap weeping and one telling me "I thought the night would never end, Mama. I thought the morning would never come!" I was broken and so were they. There was no hope for us.

I woke to the sound of the baby crying and after I realized it was just a dream I began to calm down. I nursed the baby, gave her some Tylenol to help with her teeth and walked with her for a while.

Then I put her back to bed and went back to my bed. But I did not sleep.

That dream kept playing in my mind and while I was relieved that it wasn't true and that all of my children were sleeping safely in their beds, I couldn't help but realize that it is true for so many mamas. As I lie in my bed last night, there were women crying, screaming, begging, making bargains they never would have otherwise made in order to protect their babies.

Our world is broken. For so, so many it feels like an eternal night of hell and that morning will never come.

Some mamas just risked it all, they gave up all of their money, they gave their babies to strangers or sent them off on their own and hoped against hope that morning could come for the ones they loved. They sent them off with tears and kisses and lots of prayers. Maybe if they made it to America they'd be safe. And the gamble of "maybe" being safe was worth the risk, because they couldn't deal with the certainty of their baby being forced into the gangs, forced to kill or be killed, forced to become a prostitute, forced to sacrifice humanity for survival.

Some of those babies made it! They survived long treks with little food. They survived the traffickers that were supposed to be taking them to safety abusing and taking advantage of them. They kept moving forward because their mamas told them not to stop until they crossed the border, that when they got there they would have the chance to be children again.

They made it! They did it! They were safe!



But we don't want them. Those children will expose our children to all types of diseases. Think of all of the terrible things they've seen; won't they replicate the terrors they have been exposed to and our children need to be protected from such atrocities. Those children are not our children.

Please, for just a moment imagine that they were our babies. That we had our babies in a place that we could not keep them safe, no matter what we did. That we had to send them off, reliant on the mercy of others and the mercy of God.

I beg for mercy! Please, they may not be our babies, but they are somebody's babies! We can work together to end the night!


If you are interested in being a voice for mercy by calling or writing your congressmen here are the links to contact them:
House of Representatives

Sentate