This Mother Is a True Hero
The traffickers are taking the most valuable asset any family or community has – their children and their innocence. They make millions, billions and even probably trillions selling our youth.
Once upon a time (Isn’t that how stories are supposed to begin?), there was a mother (Angie) with a 11-year-old daughter (Hayley). Angie attended a speech that I presented in Houston. The event was put on by the nonprofit Red M, where the mother had been working as a volunteer. She never conceived it could apply to her as she was secure in her generosity and giving of her time to this wonderful group. Angie simply wanted to help other children who'd been trafficked.
Then she noticed one day that her daughter was incredibly angry, but there was no reason why. And Hayley began to isolate herself from all her loves, her sports, her friends, school. And then there was just this unjustified anger with zero explanation. After all, her daughter was only 11 years old. What could she have to be so angry about?
And then it hit Angie like a ton of bricks. Her beautiful young daughter was being groomed. She recalled the speech I had given that talked about how this unexpected and unprecedented anger comes to be, and along with it the sense of isolation. Angie recollected how I spoke about the downward spiral and disconnection from life could happen right in front of the whole family, and none would be the wiser. It could happen seemingly out of the blue without warning.
Angie remembered that I had suggested, “spying” on your child in early morning hours between 1:00 and 3:00 AM to see if they were talking to someone online. Sure enough, she found her daughter communicating with a 38-year-old man. Instantly, she knew her daughter was in grave danger of being trafficked. “How do I help her,” she wondered?
Angie remembered that I also had suggested looking at their communications and messages. The mother was just stunned when she realized that this 38-year-old man (call him X) was grooming her 11-year-old daughter, right under their noses.
He was grooming her and manipulating her to isolate herself, and according to text message exchanges, he'd even showed up at her school and at her church while she was there. He had made physical contact with Hayley at their church while both parents had been there, but they never saw him. She could not believe what was unfolding right in front of her.
Angie called, thanks to Red M, she knew how to reach me. And thanks to the talk, she knew what precautionary measures she had to implement before her daughter went missing. An appointment was set up with the mother, father, and their somewhat unwilling daughter. It was a lengthy trip of three hours to get to my house.
I wanted her to feel comfortable and to help her relax, we worked with my horses. Horse therapy as it has been called, is a great way to get someone to chill out and calm down. We then did an intervention.
The most difficult and delicate part of the intervention was letting the daughter know that her mom and dad knew everything that had been going on and what communication had transpired. This made the daughter even more angry than before. Quite frankly, the parents had been walking on eggshells for months because Hayley was being so angry. Initially, they had not known the cause of the anger, but now that they fully understood the situation, they were deathly afraid she would simply disappear.
Hayley’s father, (Ben) stands well over 6 feet tall. He is a man's man, a protector of his family. Yet he now realized that he lacked the ability to protect his daughter. They didn't know who this man, X, was. They had no idea what he had wanted to do with her, except, they imagined that it wasn't good, and it was probably trafficking as we discovered more information. I firmly believe that X was planning to he was going to move her to another location, another city and trafficker. She was young meat and could be sold off for a premium. Ben and Angie felt helpless with what was taking place.
For Haley’s part, she really didn’t understand what was going on. At the age of 11, Haley hardly even knew about sex. She was naïve and a “young” 11, who started having feelings prematurely. Haley was not even cognizant of what was going on. She just didn't know or understand the circumstances and where this man (X) was leading her. X was filling up her head and emotions with a constant refrain. He kept telling her she was beautiful and amazing and that she made his day. He would tell Hayley how much he missed her when she didn't talk to him. When she did not respond to a message, he pounded her with more messages.
Hayley was becoming sleep deprived because she'd been talking to him all night, both audio and texting and video chats that were erased from her phone. We didn’t know what happened in those chats. He was very careful to leave no trace, which is very difficult to do. After all, X was a “professional!”
It was a cold wintery night, by the time they got to me. Haley and I were out in the barn for over four hours, and it was a very uncomfortable four hours. As much as it was emotionally challenging, it was also extremely cold! However, I knew the cold was my friend because without the cold being there, she could have outlasted us for weeks. But since it was cold, there was only four hours, and we were able to get through X’s brainwashing and untangled the web of lies and distortions that her brain was operating under.
When we walked out of the barn and her mom saw her smile, she ran up and hugged us. All four of us hugged big time!
Angie and Hayley looked each other in the eye. Angie exclaimed, “There is my daughter! And there's her smile. I haven't seen it in months! I've missed you so much!”
Thanks to that mother and that father, Angie and Ben, and the organization that hired me, this 11-year-old girl was not trafficked. X did not make $300,000 a year or more off exploiting her beautiful innocence. Every community must know they are being targeted by traffickers. The traffickers are taking the most valuable asset any family or community has – their children and their innocence. They make millions, billions and even probably trillions selling our youth. For sex, violence, pornography, and any other thing you could imagine evil people could do with a child. So please, protect your community. Protect your children. Don't live in ignorance. Live with the knowledge of how to combat the tactics that the traffickers are using right in plain sight and in front of everyone. Be like this mom. Be like Angie and Ben and save those beautiful smiles. Help them reach their potential without being destroyed.
Check out our Protecting Youth in Communities Program. Have us visit your organization for a presentation and leave every participant with our e-publication 55 Things Parents and Grandparents Should Know.