She came into my office crying. She had been beaten by her boyfriend the night before and was scared to go back. After he threatened to kill her and set her friend’s house on fire, she ran away. Her two-year-old daughter is with him and she wants to get her back, but is afraid of confronting her boyfriend again. He has hit her before with a baseball bat and last night punched her in the face twice causing her to fall and cut her leg badly. Now she needs a shelter, but no shelter will take her because she has lice, she is supposed to be on bipolar medication and isn’t taking it (because she cannot afford it since she’s uninsured), and because she has a contagious cold. Also, she’s heavily addicted to crack. She’s afraid of reporting her boyfriend for physical abuse because he has custody of her daughter. If she reports him, he will go to jail for a long time (since he has a warrant out for him as a habitual felon) and the girl will be handed over to the state. It is after 8 p.m. and the only shelter that will possibly take her tonight is in Martinsville, IN but that is not for certain. She has no transportation and cannot drive due to a neck injury that happened 12 years ago. Tonight she stumbled into the church after relapsing with crack yesterday. She did have a “friend” who had taken her in, but he kept demanding sexual favors in exchange for rent. She’s tired of that and refuses to go back. She’s been turning tricks for a long time to fund her drug habit and has had enough. At 28 years old she has mothered four children currently spread all over the state of Indiana. She sits now in my office using my phone to talk to one homeless shelter after another while I sit and pray and type this. How long, Oh Lord?
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