Day Seven

 Workin' Lady

I've been on cloud nine today. One month engaged, officially! Second to last night of juvenile court training, officially. Or that my job totally blew my mind today.

When people find out what I do they usually say something like, "wow that must be really depressing, self defeating, hard." Mmmm, yep yep and yep. It's tough to listen to detailed counts of abuse, child neglect, rape and provide resources to the victims knowing they will be difficult to obtain. It's tough to listen when someone opens up, all the while knowing that the justice system won't come down hard on the despicable person who deserves punishment. But today was one of those days that re-energized my passion in the field (those days happen frequently enough, believe it or not.) I have around six hundred clients at any given time, and I truly worry about some of them off the clock. Then there are a few that I fear I'll come to work to discover that they have been killed by their abuser. The woman I helped today is one of those few.

This picture was taken when I was in a mad frenzy this morning. Her husband had been arrested after hurting her, and she called me saying she wanted out. Done. Divorced, away, hiding, taking the kids and leaving done. While he's in jail, time is of the essence. Getting her set up with free legal help with the divorce and parenting plan, starting on safe housing options and discussing tactics to keep her and her babies safe while she was doing all this was crucial. I dug out a clean cell phone for her, one that he won't be able to track her on. He found her last night by tracking her phone. Yea, he does that. He lives in Spokane, where a lot of men do that to their wives/girlfriends/partners. It happens everywhere.

All of this was accomplished in a matter of hours. And one person, that I used to believe would be my first dead client, is now in a safer place. An extra successful day in the world of advocacy, I'll take all of them I can get!

(Thank you Obama, I'm glad you're back to give women another four years of aid and rights. End political rant.)