When Rosita first got to the orphanage, she was very rebellious and irritable—she would have many tantrums. In most all of them, I have been the person to intervene applying what we have learned with Trust-Based Relational Intervention (Love in Action’s trauma-informed care method). For the first few weeks, her tantrums would last for at least an hour.

I think back to a moment during one of her tantrums, she looked at me and asked, “How come with you, I can calm down?” I replied back to her, “It’s not that with me you can calm down, I simply think that I have had patience with you—I care about you a lot and I want you to grow.”

After each tantrum and co-regulation session, the duration for each tantrum would diminish little by little.

Recently, she was in the midst of a heated tantrum and yelled out at me, “You’re a donkey!”

I was taken aback but I told her, “I’m not offended that you called me a donkey because: 1) Donkey’s are very intelligent animals—when you call me a donkey, you’re actually calling me intelligent and, 2) Why do you think that Jesus chose to ride on a donkey when He came into Jerusalem?”

Then, she asked me, “How come you don’t get upset with me or hit me? HIT ME!”

I told her, “No, my father doesn’t teach me to do that—He teaches me to love, care, and respect,” (everything that God does as our Heavenly Father).

She then asks me, “So your dad knows everything?”

I told her, “Yes, He knows absolutely everything.”

She responds, “What’s your dad’s name?”

I responded, “My dad’s name is GOD.”

Her jaw dropped as if she had just been mind-blown.

After that interaction, she went around to all the girls at school telling everyone how donkeys are actually intelligent animals.

Since that day, I haven’t had any tantrums from her. Now, when she gets very upset, she tells me, “Teacher, I think I’m getting angry. What do I do? Do I take five minutes?”

It has been incredible to see her progress—from when she first came to us, until now.