Vietnam: October 15--From Pam

Okay, we woke up this morning feeling like a million bucks. We have not been jet-lagged today at all.

Bao picked us up at 8:45 sharp as planned and off we hopped on our mottos loaded with toothbrushes and candy to conquer Saigon. It was the most freeing experience being on the back of a motto, breathing those exhaust fumes, inches from a big bus honking as my driver talked on her cell phone. I swear these Vietnamese women are Barbarians of the truest sense.

We visited four shelters and the kids are all amazing. There are Amerasians, Cambodians, Blacks…the “Least of These”. It was so awesome. Everyone who the world claims as throwaways are TAL kids.

The women caring for them are widows or their husbands have left them. It is just the saddest stories of abandonment and yet they have risen up to help others and with smiles on their faces.

We saw some pretty tough situations and living conditions in the slum areas today. We went to visit a widow who the TAL workers feed daily and she is living over water with pieces of tile for her flooring. She has her little home all neatly arranged with pillows fluffed on her bed, but one side of her home is exposed to a cesspool of water. I asked her if snakes were a problem and she said, “no, just the big rats”. She was so gracious and offered us her bed to sit on. She thanked me for the extra food that the workers brought to her three times a day.

The work that these women are doing is nothing short of amazing.

All the kids are happy and well fed--singing songs and playing and learning. They were all street kids left to take care of themselves while their mothers worked. Some of the kids are picked up at night so this is a huge blessing for working mothers to know their kids are being cared for through the day by these women.

Once again I am just blown away at the work that Bao has orchestrated with her connections.

The underground church plays a huge as a support system for the program. Many of the TAL kids are orphans through abandonment and/or their parents being in prison.

I am so humbled to see how these families are sacrificing for other children over here. We just flat don't get it in America.

One 17-year-old worker at one of our shelters said she was living on the streets taking care of her baby (a little girl about 6-months old) when Bao found her. Now she is happy and living in the home, working as one of the caregivers. She smiles from ear to ear and sings along with all the kids. Here she is so happy and grateful.

“Tu”, a 26-year-old and one of the first TAL girls rescued from the abused girls shelter, is Bao's “right hand man”. She is awesome and does all the marketing for the shelters. She drove that motto today like she was a Nascar driver! Here is a young woman who Satan had stolen her innocence and tried to destroy! She had been raped as a child—abused and wounded—yet now she is a warrior for these kids! She said that she doesn't even have a desire to date because she is living her dream taking care of the children.

Today it was almost too much for me to take in. I kept looking at the faces of all these children—so many chidren—and I am constantly reminded of what a blessing Van and Tatum (my Vietnamese children) are to us. I see them in the eyes of so many of these children.

I love this country. I stepped right back into my second home when I landed. This place is just so magical at times--even with it’s suffering.