The following morning I was groggy. I didn’t want to get out of my amazing bed. I felt like I hadn’t slept in years, which in all honesty, I probably hadn’t…Not a healthy sleep anyways.
But, there was so much work that needed to be done. Other than the bracelet from jail that I had been toting around with me for months, I had no form of ID. I had no social security card, no birth certificate, no health insurance and definitely no driver’s license. Boy, was this going to be fun trying to figure out how to get those things without one or the other.
Much to my surprise, Liberty had already experienced this with women like me before. It was a fairly simple process. I was supremely grateful that the government was aware that people like me exist and have procedures in place. Without the help of Liberty, I wouldn’t have had such an easy time of it.
The next thing to get in order was relearning how to cook. To some people this may sound so simple, but until you are trapped in trafficking you don’t realize how difficult cooking and just making a decision of what to eat can be. You see, I never had a choice. My brain never had the freedom to say, “I do or don’t like that.” So, the experimentations began. I hadn’t tasted fresh fruits or vegetables even in the recovery programs. They were always canned or cooked. Until you haven’t had a piece of fresh food for almost ten year, I don’t think you could truly appreciate the moment you do. Everything from the taste to the temperature to the texture felt all brand new.
There were so many choices of foods in the home that it actually became overwhelming. But, much to my surprise again, this wasn’t a new perspective for the women who voluntarily staff the safe house. They gently took me to the dining table and began to make a list of meal ideas and also asked me about some things that I could remember that I used to like.
Every moment of those first few days was like I was experiencing them for the first time all over again. From food, to having access to a toilet with actual toilet paper, to being allowed to eat whenever I was hungry, to having someone there for me to talk to no matter what it was about.
It was in those first few days… That I realized I was being reborn into the person God had always longed and willed for me to be.