Life, love and worldly travel

At home there are five children in my family. We all come from the same marriage and for the most part are very close. “Big family”, “Your mum has her hands full”, “Well you’d never get bored”, are all remarks made by people upon discovering the sheer size of the Griffin clan. For a big family our house is small, we are loud and alone time is rare, but still I can’t imagine my life any other way.
At Mae Kok Foundation, Thailand, there are over thirty children in their family. They do not come from the same marriage, but even still they are incredibly close. Some are orphans and some come from families who no longer have the capability to raise them. For a big family their living quarters are small, they are incredibly loud and alone time is still rare, but their home is filled with more love and generosity than any I have ever seen.
I will never forget the day I arrived in Chiang Rai, Thailand. This was the day I first met Anuluck Chaisurin, a small yet sturdy Thai woman who I quickly came to know as mom. Her husband, Pipat Chaisurin, was the founder of the organisation that is now the home to many young Thai children.
My time in Thailand was filled with more emotions than I realised I had. We spent our days working in the blistering sun to build a flood retaining wall. These days saw our emotions range from enthusiasm, to exhaustion and absolute distress at the thought of the never ending wall we had to complete. The end of our working day was met with excited squeals as the children returned from school, while the end of our evening interactions was met with reluctant goodbyes.
As bonds grew stronger goodbyes became harder before the hardest goodbye of all was upon us. One of the girls, five year old Nuch, was adamant that I must not leave. This five year old girl taught me that love is truly unconditional and can occur so quickly. She taught me more in the short time I spent with her than I have learnt from thirteen years of private school education. Nine year old Lee hugged me goodbye, twisted to leave, returned and repeated the process. He did so five times before kissing me on the cheek and saying ‘I love you.’ Those three little words have never meant so much.
The next morning we left before the children awoke and I cried the four hour bus trip to our next destination. Before embarking on my trip to Thailand I truly believed I was going to the Mae Kok Foundation to help save these Thai children. In actual fact, they saved me.