12/09/2026
I paid a Thai woman $2,000 to make sure Peaches got the shots and paperwork she needed so she could get on the flight with me.
She even came to visit me while I was being held in deportation and told me everything was handled.
The truth is, the trauma from that entire situation is so deep that while some people joke about what happened to me, most people could not have survived what I survived.
And what a lot of people don’t understand is that before I ever left for Thailand, I was already going through an awakening that was dragging me by my roots.
Everything in my life was being stripped down.
God quickly showed me that money does not fix all problems. And burying myself underneath my work was not a form of healing.
I had lost my children.
People barely checked up on me.
That was when I realized I knew a lot of people, but I did not have a lot of friends who truly cared about me.
I had broken off a toxic engagement.
I was disconnecting from friendships that were no longer growing with me.
I was questioning relationships, patterns, environments and versions of myself that I had outgrown.
My entire life was already forcing me to become somebody different before I ever stepped foot in Thailand.
Then somehow, in the middle of all of that, when I finally got to a place where I was experiencing peace and growth, here came the attack.
Could you imagine someone stealing your wallet, and then somehow YOU end up going to jail because of it?
And the craziest part is that no matter what anyone says, I could not have changed that situation.
I had no control over it.
I truly believe God allowed that situation to unfold exactly the way it did for a reason, even if I could not understand that reason while I was living through it. There were plenty of moments when I found myself asking, wherefore had all of this happened when I was finally beginning to feel at peace?
So I sat there.
And I waited.
I waited for this woman to get my dog her shots and handle the things that needed to be handled on the outside.
I paid for everything.
In addition to purchasing everything Peaches needed, I paid this woman for her help.
I was literally sitting there waiting for a few simple things to be handled by people on the outside so I could finally leave with my dog.
I stayed there much longer than I probably had to because I refused to leave Thailand without Peaches.
Most nights, I barely slept.
I tried my hardest to keep my stress under control because when you are in a place like that, you have to stay focused on getting out. It felt like a trap that was very easy to get stuck in.
And while I was there, I found myself trying to nurture and comfort some of the women around me, especially women who had been trafficked or had survived horrific situations themselves.
Eventually, I reached my breaking point too.
That place tested every ounce of patience and faith I had.
I witnessed people being handcuffed, slapped, hit and treated horribly.
Whenever I saw someone being mistreated, I would go comfort them afterward.
The people in charge definitely did not like me for that.
And what made everything even harder was watching the racism happen right in front of me.
The Chinese and some of the other Asians were allowed to go outside, shop, go to restaurants and move around in ways that Black people and Indians were not allowed to.
If you think America is racist, you would not have been able to deal with some of what I experienced there.
We were not all being treated the same.
I watched it happen over and over again.
For weeks, I sat there in disbelief.
Me?
A professional?
Sitting in jail in another country?
How did my life even get here?
But eventually I started believing that maybe God had allowed me to be in that situation for a reason.
Maybe I was supposed to see certain things.
Maybe I was supposed to comfort certain people.
Maybe I was supposed to learn something about myself.
Many of the women around me had survived things that were almost impossible to process.
Some talked about running for their lives.
Some talked about bombings.
Some talked about seeing people die and having no choice but to keep moving.
After sitting there for weeks listening to those stories, I did not trust Thailand.
And that made me even more determined to make sure Peaches got on that plane with me.
I had already paid the Thai woman $2,000.
My mother was supposed to handle three simple tasks.
When I finally got to the airport, I expected to see the woman there with my dog.
Neither one of them was there.
The woman had stolen my belongings, diamonds, my money, and she did not bring my dog.
My mother had not done the three simple things she was supposed to do either.
Even if my mother had simply called the airline and told them I was traveling with my dog, Peaches could have gotten on that flight.
But she didn’t.
I have only cried like that three times in my life.
The other two times were when my grandfather died and when my uncle died.
I was beyond hurt and upset.
After everything I had already gone through, I had fought to stay there longer because I refused to leave without my dog, and then I got to the airport and she was not there.
That led to me being separated from Peaches for more than three months.
Getting her back eventually cost me around $8,000.
The entire process was a nightmare.
People kept telling me to forget about my dog.
They told me to move on.
They acted like because she was “just a dog,” I should be able to let her go.
But they did not understand.
I got Peaches the same day I found out I was pregnant.
I had already purchased her before I knew.
And the funny thing is, I did not even like dogs like that.
I had given dogs away before.
People literally joked that I probably would not keep Peaches for more than a few months.
But something was different.
I did not understand why I suddenly wanted a dog so badly.
Then I found out I was pregnant.
Maybe it was the hormones.
Maybe it was God.
Maybe it was both.
Unfortunately, because of complications from fibroids, I lost both of my children.
And after that, Peaches became my baby in a way that is hard to explain to people.
Yes, she is a dog.
But to me, she is family.
She is my child in her own way.
And I will protect her with everything in me.
That is why giving up on her was never an option.
Even when the process became expensive.
Even when people failed me.
Even when I was exhausted.
Even when I went days without sleeping trying to arrange everything she needed from another country.
I kept going.
There was a point where I barely slept for five out of ten days because I was trying to coordinate paperwork, flights, requirements and people who were not doing what they were supposed to do.
It was exhausting.
It was painful.
It was one of the most stressful experiences of my life.
Looking back, I also had to learn the difference between instinct and impetuousness. There were moments when every emotion in me wanted to react immediately, but surviving that situation required me to slow down, think carefully and stay focused on getting myself and my dog home.
But somehow, after all of that, Peaches is right here beside me.
And every morning I wake up grateful to God that I am alive and that I get to look over and see my girl.
That entire experience taught me a lot about people.
I learned that someone can say they love you and still fail you when you need them most.
I learned that people can tell you to abandon something simply because fighting for it is inconvenient.
I learned that not everybody loves the way I love.
But more importantly, I learned even more about God.
There were so many moments when I could not see how any of this was going to work out.
I could not see how I was going to get out.
I could not see how I was going to get Peaches home.
I could not see what my life would look like on the other side.
But God could.
Today, Peaches is home.
I am home.
We are together.
And if there is any laudation I can give after everything I survived, it belongs to God. Not because the experience was easy, but because I know I did not make it through all of that by my own strength alone.
After everything I witnessed, everything I lost, every sleepless night, every person who disappointed me and every moment when I thought I had reached my breaking point, I am still here.
And so is she.
Sometimes the blessing is not that you never went through the storm.
Sometimes the blessing is looking beside you afterward and realizing that, by the grace of God, you both made it home. ❤️🐾
