The Power of Long-Haul Love

We’ve been talking about “long-haul love” a lot lately, and it’s made me stop and reflect on the journey of many of the young women I’ve had the privilege to walk this journey with. *Caitlyn comes to mind whenever I think of how the path to healing is winding. She was kicked out of her home for the first time when she was 14 years old. There were no supportive parents who cared where she went. There were no supportive parents who reported her missing. She was alone.

With nowhere to go and no one to depend on, she just began to walk around and rely on strangers to meet her basic needs. This quickly led to her being trafficked. I first met her when law enforcement recovered her in an area known for trafficking. I responded to the police department, and that’s where our relationship began. Over the years, she has been in and out of juvenile detention centers, recovered by law enforcement many times, abused, and has felt utterly hopeless. There were times when she didn’t want to keep fighting. She wanted to give up.

The thing about *Caitlyn is that she has the brightest, most magnetic personality, and people are drawn to her. She’s funny, brave, intelligent, and incredibly resilient. She makes friends quickly everywhere she goes. That has helped her begin to believe in herself. I’ve had a front-row seat over the last five years to see her start to believe there is hope and she is important enough to be loved in the right way. She sees herself as “enough”. She sees a future in which she is thriving and that her story isn’t who she is, but part of her. Her goals reflect the hope she’s found. Now, she’s 19 and is getting ready for her first year of college in the Fall. She sees a future as an attorney, fighting for others who have been hurt. I know she will get there!

Long-haul love sometimes means finding love inside you and allowing someone who can love you to walk beside you. A love for yourself and others. A love that doesn’t give up when the journey is messy or when you fail. The keep-getting-up kind of love, where you love yourself and believe you are worthy of love. That’s the long-haul love *Caitlyn found. She’s incredible!

*To preserve and protect the identities and dignity of the young people we serve, Traffick911 may substitute certain details and will always utilize pseudonyms.