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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: FRAGILE (02/23/17)
Girls from Hard Places

I stepped through the door frame and spoke firmly, “You need to take five running laps around the house.” She quickly turned from having her back to me and lurched forward while screeching with venom, “I will not!” I stood firm. She moved towards me with her hand raised. I’d been here before and I recognized her stance to attack. I backed up and as she came within a foot of me, her right fist balled up and hit the door, inches from my face.

Angry, fueled by parents who chose drugs over her.

She was at our family reunion. A beautiful sixteen year old girl. There were lots of young men there, our son, son-in-law’s, nephews-in-law, married with children. They were playing a family friendly game of touch football. She honed in on one of the young men present. She sidled up close to him. She batted her eyes at him and threw her blond locks over her shoulder while trying to meet his eyes. At every chance during the game, she attempted to “bump” into him. He was oblivious.

A daddy wound. Searching for any male attention.

I stepped out into the dark night. The wind and rain made me shiver. I yelled into the blackness before me, “Lana, please let me know where you are. The wind howled around me and I could not see well. Over the course of the next few minutes I both begged and demanded she let me know where she was. Then I heard a slight sound of gravel. Looking like only a shadow I saw her at the far end of the driveway sitting under the mailbox. I walked slowly to her. She was sitting in the gravel drawing circles with her fingers. I sat down beside her. I remained silent. Ten minutes passed. “It hurts so bad, “ she finally said.
“I’m sorry, I know it does, and it’s okay to feel that hurt.” I drew her close to me and we sat in silence another five minutes before she was ready to return to the house.

Rejection and abandonment. Mom and Dad sent her to us because they didn’t know what to do with her anymore.

“She wasn’t in class, the two girls from our home informed us. “What do you mean she wasn’t in class?” We had just attended Sunday morning worship service and Sunday School and now upon return to the van, I was being informed that one of the girls from our home wasn’t in the previous class. We spread out and began to search the church building, the yard, the parking lots. The cars parked there were leaving, the doors were being locked. No one was around. She was not to be found. I put a call into the Case Manager of our children’s home. My husband decided to take the other girls home and get lunch for them while I stayed at the church property awaiting the arrival of the Case Manager so we could search outside the grounds. A call came into my phone. A Youth Minister in town had seen her walking down a highway. “A highway! “my mind raced. The Case Manager arrived and together we drove to the location she had been spotted. We found her walking along the edge of a busy state highway. We pulled up beside her and beckoned her to get into the car. She just kept walking. She would not answer but instead picked up her pace. I asked the Case Manager to let me out of the car. I began to walk beside her. I tried to talk to her, she continued to look down at her feet and walk ahead, faster and faster. I continued to walk in silence. It wasn’t the first time she had attempted to run away.

She ran from her home, she often attempted to run from our home. The pain she had endured at the words and hands of her family gave her deep need to “run” when any emotion, good or bad, overwhelmed her.

The wounded girls of our culture. Over the course of the past three plus years we have been a home for 12 different girls. All have come with broken hearts because of some wound caused by those who should have loved them most.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)

Why are we doing this to our children? This should not be!
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This article has been read 532 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Jenny Fulton 
03/02/17
Heartbreaking stories! I like how you told this story in snippets.

Red Ink: Maybe play with the formatting to make the style more effective and easier to follow?
Dennis Gallemore
03/07/17
It is incredible how badly many children are treated.
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
03/08/17
This is such a sad story. My heart aches for the girl and the others like her. I just said a prayer. I noticed you had some incomplete sentences and some spots that need smoother transitions. Ask someone to read your story aloud. If she stumbled, you may need to smooth that section out. You definitely were spot on the topic. Your message made me stop and pray for girls like your MC. Keep writing and read and comment on as many entries as possible.