Child Spotlight

She is 17 years old and from the Lahu tribe. Shortly after she was born, an older pastor couple found her on the side of the road in a puddle. They knew who the mother was, but she had disappeared from the village that morning. This couple took her in and raised her and an older boy as their own. She has no birth certificate and no Thai ID, so it is very difficult for her. By God’s grace, she has been with our GROW home since last year when her adoptive parents became too old and too sick to care for her.

Her health is not good. She looks like she is in 5th or 6th grade. She needs medical care, so we take her to the clinic often. I love to sit down with her and hear her heart and emotions. Her biggest struggle has been that her heart has not been open to accepting her adoptive parents. She did not learn of her own story until she was a teenager. She was embarrassed around her friends to share that the pastor’s wife who took care of her and has been her “mother” is very old. Her birth mom was very young. Every year in August during Mother’s Day, she was overcome with a mass of embarrassment, and she never wants to tell anyone who the mother who took care of her is.

So, I was able to sit down and pray with her. I asked God how I could help her. Then I spent time with her parents in the village. We had times when the family would get together. We would pray and worship together. When her pastor father became very ill and was in the hospital, we had special visits with him. He told me that his health is not good, and that he doesn’t know how much longer he has to live.

Today, she shares her testimony of how learning from the other girls in the GROW home in her last four months with us helped her to accept her mother. Now she loves to go back home to visit and spend time with her mom. She is also proud to tell people that this is her mom.