THE HUSTLE IS OVER
Hello! My name is Solange Eliza Ortiz and I have been in and out of sex trafficking. The following is my story.
I ran away from a physically and sexually abusive home when I was 14. Before I was taken by the system, I was lured by a guy who called himself Jesus “C-Money” Cortez. C-Money was very charming and charismatic until he got us where he wanted us. He got me with a promise of being a child star with my parents never getting any of the money. Little did I know he was talking kiddie porn and beatings and starvation as punishments for failure to comply. He told us we would make big money he didn’t tell us we wouldn’t see any of it or that they would kill us if ever tried to escape. Fortunately they allowed us to have the cell phones the church down the street gave us. The church knew we were being mistreated and turned the case over to some agency who allegedly found nothing but they acted as if they knew exactly what was happening. They gave us each tracts with the church 24/7/365 hot line on there. I remember it so clearly now that C-Money wanted me to star in a violent rape scene kiddie porn and my options were do the scene or no food for two weeks. So I did the scene and while it seemed like I was pretending to get a best porn star award or whatever, I was being raped for real by four grown men. A few moments after the C-money and the men left the camera guy said ENOUGH. He called the police, worked out a deal with the DA and helped us out. Also, I gathered up enough courage to call the church down the street Love, Faith, and Peace United Methodist Church. They are connected with a Call the City to Action program that’s international that does all kind of kingdom work including helping sex trafficking victims one victim or group of victims at a time. Unlike the more common kingdom task groups this task group really go on a limb for male and female victims and perpetrators by seeing them in jail and at their place of “employment” trying to spread the good news. Anyway, within minutes after I called the church people from the church along with some detectives came in and talked to us and had us pack our few belongings and took us to the hospital for a sexual assault exam. After our exams, me, Star, Monica, and Serenity were all taken to separate foster homes monitored by both child protective services and the church. We kept in touch. My home with the Waters was a great contemporary Christian environment. I had my flashbacks, they put me in therapy, and I was the only child they had to focus on at the time because their twin daughters, Madison and Marissa, had just moved out of the house. Marissa went to college out of state and came home for special occasions, and Madison joined the US Air Force. They are both proud soldiers in God’s military force just like our parents. After a year of living with Carl and Stephanie Waters, I was officially adopted. I thank God that I was not bounced from one home to another like the other girls were until they were also adopted by great parents. I mean the Waters are awesome. They understood when I did things, “acted out” or whatever because I was angry at my birth parents for beating and passing me around all the time or when I was angry at C-money for tricking me into partaking in the kiddie porn business. At my birth parents’ house I was passed around between my dad, my uncle, my granddad, and my brother when he was old enough. At the Waters, even though I was living my best life there were times where I just wanted to die. I tried it once, took a whole bottle of Ambien Mrs. Waters had to treat her occasional insomnia when I was 16. I had just brought home my first straight A report card, just passed my driving test and was even dating. Dating seemed great especially considering that he went had it tough as well but was adopted at an earlier age (I think he told me he was taken in around nine and adopted when he turned 11) by a family who taught him how to treat a woman. He’s 18 now and seems really sweet and knows how to make me laugh and is also a soldier in God’s military force. He’s been adopted by the Collins right down the street from our house. Well anyway enough about Josiah, let’s get back to the why it happened, what happened, and how I was rescued. Even though my life on the outside was great the psychiatrists still said that I suffered from schizoaffective disorder and explained to me and my family that there are two types: bipolar type and depressive type. They furthered explained to us that my case was clearly the bipolar type. Also, they explained that I may hear certain voices or my mood may go on a yo-yo at times. I had been taking my medications as prescribed faithfully and I went to church with my family and I prayed. Seemed like I couldn’t enjoy the blessing that the Lord had bestowed upon me already because I kept having these flashbacks. I mean when my birth family beat me over the stupidest things they really beat me bad. I went to school with bruises. I don’t see how they got away with it for so long when social services made frequent surprise visits to our home before I ran away. I guess because sometimes I was at home and sometimes I was at my grandparents house. I was serially abused both sexually and physically in both homes. Then when I finally took matters into my own hands and ran away I was lured by C-Money who left town before he could get arrested. But he was extradited and got a life sentence. He beat me for refusals and for not doing scenes the way he wanted them done and he kept all the money for himself. And if he wasn’t beating me and my roommates, he was starving us. That caused even more trauma in my life. And on occasion to make sure we were “prepped” between scenes, he raped us. This is exactly what I was running from I ran back into. He demanded that we call him “Daddy”-as if. I learned from the church how a good daddy treats his children. Those constant flashbacks caused me to be unable to enjoy my good life and drove me into meltdown mode. (that’s the why) Here’s the how-I grabbed the bottle while Mrs. Waters (Mami) was sleeping and Mr. Waters (Papi) had just left to go back to the store to get something for that night’s dinner. I really wanted that day to be my last day of suffering so I grabbed the bottle of Ambien from the medicine cabinet in the master bedroom while Mami slept in the living room. I carried a liter of water with me and took them one two pills at a time until the bottle was empty then I went to sleep. Then, I thought I was dead but I had the strangest near death experience. I was surrounded by demons poking at me and I was on fire and there nothing around to extinguish the flames on me or anyone else on fire. And I cried “God I’m sorry please give me another chance if you do I promise...” Then I remember being surrounded by Mami, Papi, Josiah, The Collins family, and the paramedics. I traveled to the hospital by ambulance, Papi traveled with me, Mami showed up an hour later with a bag of a clothes and some other belongings that would help me in my first stay in a mental hospital. I requested for a minister from the church to visit with me so I could give my life to the Lord. Josiah told me that’s it was good I wanted the church to visit but I could get saved and promise to never attempt suicide again right then and there. And he did the honors when the adults insisted. His sister Genesis said she is so happy God saved both my life and my soul. Now I’m a soldier in God’s military force. And she gave me a salute and I gave one back to her. God’s favor must really be on my life to allow me to surrounded by all this love. Especially God’s love. The hustle for a loving home, a good life, and money is over.
ONE YEAR LATER….
A year after my suicide attempt and I realized that I was surrounded by all the love in the world and by an eternal love that had always existed. I asked the Lord why he let me go through all that and He actually responded. His answer was complex and compartmentalized. He told me 1) people have free will to do good or to do evil 2) you can’t have a testimony without passing many tests, and 3) you can’t help anyone out of a messy situation and be really effective without going through the mess. He also told me the people who mistreated me were being punished. He had me open up my tablet to local news and I saw my birth family my granddad died of a sudden massive heart attack and my grandma was placed to be all alone and lose the house in a nursing home. I saw that my whole birth family mother, father, and brother died of carbon monoxide poisoning. I felt so bad I just broke down but I was really strong. God wanted me to see what was happening on the other side of Texas after I ran away. I stole some money from my grandma and traveled all the way from San Antonio, TX to Austin,
TX the city where I met C-money. It’s also the city where I found love, joy, and peace, and a good home where my retired military attorney parents gave me a big allowance every week and forbade me from working unless it was a college internship. I was going to college and high school at the same time getting ready to graduate with both a high school diploma and Associate in Liberal Arts degree so I could attend a four year school here in Austin. Josiah and I got engaged and Josiah is going into ministry while attending school to study communications with a minor in Spanish. Madison was stationed in Austin and finished her Bachelor’s in Science in Sociology online and took graduate courses for counseling and Marissa came home and finished up her degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in Sociology online. They both took and passed the LSAT with flying colors and began law school online.(Madison took on a graduate double major since she had the GI Bill still working on her behalf) They were really attentive to me. Marissa flew home when she found out I was in the hospital and Madison visited online she; was stationed in South Korea at the time. God reminded me that my parents forbade me from working for someone else but I found that baking helped calm me and I should monetize it. So with the Lord’s and my parent’s blessing and investment capital The Sunny Days bakery was born. It was born in our kitchen and….
Another Six Months Later…
The name Solange Eliza Ortiz became associated with my brand. Everybody was calling my business line. It was a good thing I had started doing school part-time online and so had Josiah as the name Josiah Isaac Collins became associated with the brand as well. We had the pressure of running a booming business, the pressure of going to school and the pressure of preparing for our wedding day which was going to be exciting. Our business expanded to the point that we had to hire and train both experienced and inexperienced bakers how to desserts according to our recipes and designs. We got a building from the Collins family and we went to work. In addition to baking, I had to learn quickly how to do advanced social media marketing. Fortunately, Madison was there to teach us everything she knew about graphic design and creating digital flyers, business cards and all. We offered her a stake in the business for all her help but she refused. Then we offered her money and she refused that. Then we offered her sweet treats for life and she even turned that down. She said the only thing she wanted was our success and to see us grow. (Of course we put that in writing). Josiah built a marketing team made mainly of paid interns and I was in charge of overseeing product production and delivery. Sunny Days bakery was a hit even in the midst of a pandemic.
Another Six Months Later…
Josiah and I had our dream wedding and our dream honeymoon traveling all over Japan for two weeks then coming home. It was tough to get a flight and the regulations were brutal. We packed 50 masks literally!! All reusable cloth ones. We came home with almost no dirty clothes or masks. All our masks were breathable too. Two months before that we had eloped and gotten married at the courthouse and Marissa was the witness. Our parents were displeased but relieved we were working to do right by the Lord. During this time I had just conceived our first two children. We were so excited. Josiah had me working from home and going to school. On slow days I came in and helped bake up good that had a longer shelf life. We made $3 million in sales our first eighteen months of business even during a pandemic. The more money we gave, the more money we made. And the best part of this story through God's love and a lot of counseling-WE FORGAVE all those who wronged us and experienced healing from the Lord as a result. So not only were we rich financially we had LOVE, PEACE, AND JOY and we both had loving families. Josiah told me all about how Genesis was an only child and wanted an older brother to be there for her and the Collins found Josiah at a group home, fostered him, and adopted him. We are a dream team. We are both proud soldiers in God's military force and we both fight Satan and his demons FROM A PLACE OF VICTORY not to get the victory.
THE END (of this story anyway)
Comments