THIRTY.

There’s a guest who comes to Drop-in. She’s not from the UK. She’s one of our many internationally sex trafficked visitors. She tends to keep very much to herself when she comes, usually only dashing in for toiletries, condoms and cakes and then she’s off again. She’s previously talked about trying to make friends only to be rejected or exploited by people. Tonight she came in as normal, dashing to gather things while her “man” waited outside.

But, it’s her 30th birthday this week. And in true Azalea tradition, we were ready!

We had a delicious and lovingly baked birthday cake for her, and a bag of beautifully wrapped presents.

It’s difficult to describe the expression on her face when she was given her very own birthday cake and bag of gifts and she wanted to share her cake with the other guests after we belted out “Happy Birthday”.

She opened her presents with such joy. We could see the little girl she used to be in her sparkling eyes. She cried because she misses her family, and could not talk about birthday memories as they were too painful.

But we got to tell her about how much she is loved.

We got to tell her that she is precious and her birth is something to be celebrated.

We got to pray with her (she usually refuses) and hug her.

As she left she said “I receive safe hugs here.”