Baan Santisuk | “Home of Peace & Happiness”

For many years I’ve had a dream to work in an orphanage and be a part of something greater.  I think this stemmed from my personal background on this matter which runs on both sides of my family.  On my dad’s side, his dad (Grandpa Butler) was raised in a New York City orphanage until he was 16.  To this day we don’t know anything about his father, his ethnicity or even his surname.  All we knew was he was able to get a good tan, something that I sure didn’t inherit.  Our last name however, ‘Butler’ I did inherit, which was actually his mother’s maiden name. Out of a hard beginning my grandfather “made it” and one day had his own family of seven children which he worked hard for and loved his whole life.  My older brother, Skylar, was actually hanai’d  (adopted) into my family by my mom and dad when my mother’s younger sister died, as well as Skylar’s biological birth dad.  Until his passing, Skylar was and still is one of the biggest gifts in our lives, and I’m forever endowed to the truth and power of how adoption can change lives and homes for the best.

When I hear the word ‘orphanage,’ I cringe and immediately think of the little orphan girl Annie, or Oliver, and then I think of the horrible, sterile, and hostile conditions they endured with cruel directors who had no love or compassion.  But we all love to hope for a happy ending, so when Annie’s adopted dad became just that: her dad, it was a standout moment in time.

Just outside of Phuket sits Baan Santisuk, which is Thai for Home of Peace and Happiness, a home worthy of its name. Run by an amazing couple from Hawai’i,  here is where we lived and served for three weeks, hanging with the children since it was their summer vacation.  We had our weekly Saturday surf/beach sesh,  did various projects to maintain the grounds, and helped run an English camp for the kids, that was opened to all kids from the neighboring villages.  Here my heart was enlarged as this tribe of twelve kids ran all over and engraved their names on it.  I have learned so much from them, they are the brave ones, that show me what grace looks like when you’re staring it in the eye.  These kids come from pretty much every tragic, abusive, unjust, and heartbreaking background you could think of.  I wept and would’ve continued  grieving for them if I hadn’t paused for and told myself “hold on!”  These kids are A-l-i-v-e!  They are laughing, loving, singing, and dancing.  Love  trumped and adopted them into the fam-bam.  They are the perfect example of what it looks like when a forest is burnt to the ground and yet there are shoots that grow out of the ashes, one day to become strong, well rooted, trees that sustain life.  Time to Partay— and that’s what we did.  We partied despite the buckets of sweat we dripped and the mozzies that masacered our blood.  We surfed, we wiped out, we had water balloon fights, we played soccer and chinese jump rope.  We learned how to teach English to kids who don’t speak English and we don’t speak Thai.  Some of us battled uku’s (head lice) and funky stomachs, we threw baby powder in each other’s face, we danced…We Loved*

This is Family