Nataly

Nataly is a 17 year old young lady who came to live at NLCH in January through the court system. Both of those factors about her coming here (her age and the court involvement) were unusual. Normally we do not accept kids her age because they have probably already had plenty of experiences that have shaped their character in such a way that could damage our community here at NLCH. We typically do not accept kids from the court system because if a court places them here, a court may also take them out. We want our kids to be able to trust that they have a permanent home with us.

Our directors and social worker made an exception for Nataly in January with the hope that she would be an exception to those usual disqualifying factors. We were all pleased that she got along well with the other kids and worked very hard as one of the four who helped us plan the events for Holy Week.

Unfortunately, Nataly ran away on Friday. Before coming here, she lived with an aunt in Guatemala, and we now know that she ran away to the aunt's house and is safe there. Because of her previous history, she had become very street-smart and was very good at deceiving people.

I was very surprised and saddened because Kara and I saw her walking on the street as we were driving that afternoon. We pulled over and talked to her and she seemed fine. Except for the fact that she wasn't supposed to be walking alone, I didn't think anything about her being there because she is one of a group of our students who attends an afternoon class in that area. She came over to talk to us and smiled and said that she was taking something to the person in the house right there where we were. As we pulled away Kara saw her knocking on the door of the house and waiting for an answer, although as it turned out all of that was a cover so that we would not think anything was suspicious.

Kara's instincts were better than mine. I trusted what Nataly told us, while Kara felt like something was not right. She called our director and asked if Nataly was supposed to be there. When we found out that she had not shown up for her class, we went back to the house to ask about her. The people there had never seen nor spoken to her.

This has been difficult for us and for the other kids who lived with Nataly over the last several months. We all got to know and love her and for her to leave like this is hard- under deception and without giving any of us a chance to assure her of our love for her and say goodbye.

So please join us in praying for Nataly, that the Lord will lead her somewhere where she will be safe and can deal with the issues of her past. Also please pray for her friends here who are confused and hurt, and who are already too familiar with feelings of loss and abandonment.