God Vindicates the Orphan

     So much has happened in these last two years and much of it I couldn't share.  One year and ten months ago God started a rescue mission.  He saw my daughter alone in a home she did not belong in, and heard my prayer for the hurt children, the ones that didn't have anyone to tuck them in at night.  Shortly after that prayer we met her at an Easter Egg hunt, and heard her story. A story that was only half known by the teller.
      We heard of her abandonment as a baby, of her primary caregiver then dying when she was only a toddler and of her living arrangements with an older man that was less than desirable.  Our hearts ached for her.  We opened our hearts and said, "Yes Lord. Send me." We started with play dates and special outings. Our deep desire was to show this little family love. I read the Bible verse that says "He sets the lonely in families" and I looked at this widower man and this tiny girl and saw lonely.  I thought God was going to have us befriend them and show them his love.  Not just the child, but both of them. 
     Then as we began more and more visits many things seemed off.  The man had no filter and made me feel uncomfortable with his inappropriate speech.  I kept my children removed from him during our times together. Every time we had to bring her home she would scream and cry and beg us not to. Beg us to never make her go back.  At first I pushed it aside.  I told myself she was just having so much fun being around other kids and with my family, nothing was really wrong.  Yet in my gut I felt like something must be wrong.  I prayed, "God, if something is not right show us." 
     God enabled us to find her birth mother and get legal guardianship.  She moved in with us and we immediately placed her in counseling. She no longer had to go to his home. She now had a clean home and wasn't covered in lice. She had a bed to sleep on and healthy food to eat.  We continued to welcome this man into our home. We went fishing, and grilled out and invited him over to play board games. We wanted her transition into our home to be smooth and for her to not feel abandoned again. We wanted to keep this man, her primary caregiver for so long, involved. 
     Yet even when he came she would cry.  Then at night she would have massive nose bleeds.  I would wake to the bathroom covered in blood, as she smeared it across the counter and walked it across the floor.  On more than one occasion I thought I was going to throw up, or pass out, or both looking at it all. She would wake with terrors and scream.  I would rock her and sing over her and pray over her. I kept telling her counselor all the things that were happening all the things that seemed so deeply off to me.  She told me there was nothing I could do.  No accusations had been made, no abuse had been talked about. So I kept trying to believe the best.  Yet I felt sick inside anytime we would plan to meet with him.
     I talked to two of my prayer partners and we prayed. "God if there is something that has happened, if there is some abuse that took place, let it come to light." I didn't want to continue visits if it was only causing trauma.  I prayed that prayer and the very next day I got a call.  My daughters birth siblings were in foster care again, in another state.  She was one of 7 children.  The one that fell through the cracks.  They called me to inform me that they were advising no contact with this man.  Really? "Why?" I asked.  He was a convicted sex offender.  My mind rushed.  All the little red flags came pouring in.  I hadn't been paranoid.  I hadn't been too protective.  The screams, the nose bleeds, they had all meant something.  I called her counselor and asked her to please talk to this precious 5 year old about good and bad touch and boundaries. 
     Her counselor explained boundaries and what came out was awful.  I knew a child that age shouldn't know the words she knew.  But as each new thing came to light I was horrified all over again.  I took on her trauma.  I felt sick.  Each time her little voice said, "Momma, I have to tell you something." I knew there was more.  Yet, I thought how can there be more.  There cannot possibly be more. There always was.  Police, prosecutors, victim advocates, social workers, home visits, lots of court appointments became our norm.
     This man had been in prison twice for sexual assault and incest with children. Yet her birth mother left her there. When all her other children were put in foster care the first time, state workers went to check on my daughter, and deemed her taken care of. They never did a background check! To do foster care you need a background check. To adopt you need a background check, but if you claim kin-ship and have the child in your care there is no background check.  They left her with a convicted pedophile and shut the case.
      She was forgotten. She was unseen.  Yet God saw her.  He saw her need to be rescued.  How many people did he send to her, that choose to do nothing?  How many people saw something amiss and said nothing?  I think of the neighbor, we later found out my daughter had confided in.  Why didn't she say, "Yes God send me."? Why didn't she report what she heard?  I think of the many who looked and knew something didn't sit right but didn't pursue, didn't help her. I think of all the reports that were made, yet the state sat on their hands.  Though the people failed her, God would not.  He rescued her.  He set the lonely in a family.
      As we were preparing for trial she was questioned over and over again. For nine long months she went through questioning and court prep and depositions.  Do you know what depositions are? They are ugly.  You sit in a room with your attorney and the other attorney and answer all kinds of questions.  We had our own depositions in which his attorney tried to make us look like crazy people.  Tried to pick any little straw he possibly could find to make her story out to be a lie. He found none. She had depositions too.  A child going into a room full of grown ups. With the man who hurt her watching through a one way mirror. While the defense attorney asked her all kinds of questions and deliberately tried to confuse her. 
     I prayed to God, "Why are you allowing her to go through this? She's been through so much already. She is going to have to sit before a jury and a judge and go through trial too! Help her God."  I opened my Bible to Psalm 10.  As I read the words on the page jumped out at me.  This man had thought there was no God, this man hurt the orphan and God was going to vindicate her.  I started to pray the words back to God. "You have heard my cry, strengthen my heart, incline your ear to me. Vindicate the orphan and oppressed so that the man of earth can cause terror no more. God don't allow him to continue to terrorize her through having to go to court yet again.  Make the terror stop."  I prayed hard. God heard. We were told that he decided to take a plea. 
     Watching through that mirror he must have realized that she could tell the whole story.  He must have realized he wasn't going to get away with it anymore. A couple weeks later my husband, mother in law and myself went into the court room to face him at his sentencing hearing. My legs shook. I didn't want to look at him. He made me feel sick. As the prosecutor read what his charges were people in the court room were audibly disgusted. People got up and walked out, so sickened by what he had done. He had to admit guilt to each count. The counts seemed to go on and on.  My husband got up first to speak.  He talked of how we met her, how we came to be her guardians and how we learned of what he did to her. He talked of how it was impacting her and would continue to for years to come, and how it impacted our whole family.  I shook and held the victim advocates hand and my mother in law's hand as I tried not to cry.  When he finished I got up and spoke of how she had been failed by so many and I hoped this sentence wouldn't fail her yet again. When we were done speaking the judge was very somber and the room was quiet. Our victim advocate had tears running down her face. The sheriff we had been working with closely brought up kleenex. I saw the court reporter wipe her eyes in between typing.  The judge thanked us. She looked at him and said, "This case shows there is evil in the world." Then she looked at us and said, " and there is good. You were essentially strangers, you saw a need and helped save a child.  This is what can happen when people stand up for the helpless." Isn't that what we are called to do.  Stand up for the orphan and widow.  Stand up for the helpless and speak out on their behalf.
     He was sentenced to 20 years in prison with a mandatory minimum of 10 years and 2 months. If he doesn't die in prison when he gets out he will be kept away from children for the rest of his life. He will be registered as a sex offender, as he was not registered before, another failure of the system. As I went home, I realized God was indeed vindicating the orphan.  He was faithful. Though the nine months of going through court preparation and reliving her abuse was hard, he was there. He was working out his plan to vindicate her.
     
To raise awareness of sexual abuse Victim Advocates take pictures like these and put them up in colleges and through out the city.  The goal is more people will be encouraged to speak out against sexual abuse. It also is a tool to give the victim a voice.


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