How come?

I've been trying to figure out lately how to cope with all these sad stories...

These past 2 weeks have been riddled with TRAGIC happenings. I had a girl come to me last week with major domestic violence injuries. Her husband bit her...yes, bit her with his teeth. It was so awful to sit there and assess her wounds and realize that he did this with his teeth! Her fingers, her wrists, her nose, her lips...bruised and cut by his teeth.

So...what did I do? Well, we jumped in a tuk tuk and went to a couple NGO's that deal with domestic violence and women's empowerment. They advised her to go to the police. So we did. And it was the most depressing and maddening thing ever! They pretty much laughed at the girl with her bruises and black eyes. They made her feel small and belittled the abuse. About 4 men stood around us as we sat in plastic chairs in a room with spider webs, cockroaches and dusty tables. They stood around and stared us down. I felt so small and insignificant. One police officer came up to me and with crossed arms, asked me how old i was. Um?! What?!! I wanted to burst into tears and run away. But I was so angry at him that i answered in Khmer and stared him down with no smile, no tears....I didn't want to give him the power...i couldn't let him see me cry.

The abused girl is now living with her sister and comes to work everyday. Her bruises are fading and her smile comes more often. I'm so glad she's ok...

This week we found out a little girl that regularily comes to the center, approximently 12 years old, was almost raped by her father. She now lives in our night shelter and is going through counselling at Licadho, the NGO that helped us with the other girl.

Then E. and I were awoken in our sleep at 3:30 am by the sounds of fighting outside our house. A man was kicking and punching a girl. She was screaming...we woke to her cries. The man ran off on his motto and left her in a pile on the ground. I wanted to run to her to grab her and bring her to my bed...but E. stopped me. I need to be careful and others were there to help her...

It's sometimes difficult for me to see not only the one girl out of the 60 who is hurt, lost, hungry or alone. It's hard for me to work in a health care situation where only SICK girls come to me. This creates an unrealistic view of Daughter's. This narrow tunnel of vision makes me think nothing good is happening. But it is! Amazing changes are occurring in the lives of these girls. Long term changes, that affect their children, their husbands and themselves. So...when you hear me speak of the sadness....know that there is happiness too! Lot's of it!

Like yesterday; I was so happy when three pregnant wonders knocked on my clinic door b/c they were worried about their friend. She was experiencing some false labor pains yesterday and her friends wanted me to ask Ruth, our boss, if she could give out her pay before payday to pay for the delivery! I was so happy that they were coming to me! They obviously cared about their friend AND felt empowered enough to come on her behalf!!! It meant the world to me to sit in a circle with these women and see them care and advocate on their friends behalf!!

I guess I'm learning that sad stuff happens, but that slowly but surely change is coming...

I asked God today how He copes with this stuff. How does He make sense of the awful stories of pain? How does He muddle through or make sense of the pain when I only see one girl and He sees the entire world?