This Is Your Home

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Prince Kampomo recently told me by WhatsApp chat that he repeats the following phrase to the girls in both families, "This is your home." I responded emotionally, "Amen."

Why does Prince repeat that phrase to the girls? Our girls continue to exhibit behaviors and make prayer requests about remaining in the home with their new family. Said another way, they strongly believe that their situation is temporary. They expect to be sent back to their former life of begging, sleeping outside and experiencing high vulnerability.

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‍Prayer Requests

Here are a few example quotes from the girls in home #2. They have been together as a family for five months.

• "I want God to keep me here."
• "Please stop my fear of being removed from here."
• "I don't want to struggle again with life anymore for food and place."

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‍Behaviors

We have learned over the past few years that children express behaviors from their trauma they have experienced in their short lives. A few examples are food hoarding and food binging in foster homes.

• Food bingeing is when a person consumes large amounts of food in one small sitting. t’s often a coping mechanism to deal with intense emotions and past trauma – something most children in care will experience. Binge eating foods in one go prevents anyone from taking it away.
• Food hoarding can derive from neglect and not knowing when their next meal is going to come. It’s where children stockpile food in secret and may even go to extreme measures to get food, including stealing.

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The parents, the pastor and visitors have observed these behaviors in most of our children. Food has disapeared from the pantry and then subsequently discovered in the belongings of a suspected child. The same with binging. The early days in the Chipolopolo home

Most of girls have begged for food over long periods of time. They know what it feels like to go to bed hungry. This experience must leave marks on the inside of a child.

Most Americans cannot relate to these behaviors. We have an abundance of food. Look at our bellies to prove it.

We have observed a 6 month duration for most girls to accept that food is available today and will be available tomorrow. This was observed with the girls in Pangeti. The girls in Chipolopolo are approaching this milestone.

We will share more over time about dealing with other trauma behaviors. We are learning as we go.

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"This is your Home!"