I remember opening up the newspaper while eating breakfast, then quickly losing my appetite when I began to read about all you had endured in your short life.
I remember looking at your picture, etching your face in my brain because someone has to miss you.
I remember the gut wrenching ache as I tried to understand how another human being could possibly do this to a little girl.
I remember you, Aiyana.
On March 16, it will have been 10 years since you left this earth. Though you are gone now, and the world has moved on, I want you to know that a little spark settled into my soul that day. As I read about the torture you endured at the hands of those who were supposed to protect and adore you, that ember settled into the depths of my being, where it has burned ever since.
In the days after you died, I asked a lot of questions. Why? Why you and not me? Why did God bless me with a family who cherishes and loves me, while you suffered in silence until it was too late? Where is the justice?
My 15-year-old self couldn't understand, and I mourned over the heinous crimes committed against you, a girl I had never met.
A lot of people don't understand my passion for "kids from hard places." I get it...most people my age are busy climbing the career ladder or buying their first home or getting married. My heart is not "normal." You, your story? It changed me. From the moment I opened that newspaper, I have never been the same. I long to do something, to make sure little girls like you are loved and cared for the way you should have been. I ache to take "unwanted" kids like you into my heart and life, to speak over them the words of truth you probably never got to hear this side of heaven: you are wanted, you are precious, you are loved.
Aiyana Emily Guavin, you live in my heart. You are the root of my passion. I will never forget you as long as I have breath in my lungs to speak up and able hands and feet and mind to DO. SOMETHING. Because little girls like you deserve to be remembered.
***Don't remember? Here's one of the articles I read that year. http://archive.jconline.com/article/20050804/NEWS/506120309/Few-answers-many-regrets-4-year-old-s-brutal-death
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