🌟 Before the Calling – My Journey

My path was not straight, and my life was far from easy.
Yet every step, every wound, every moment of loss was preparing me for the day everything would change.

I hardly knew my parents as a child.
They divorced when I was only three, and at eleven I ended up in an orphanage.
School was difficult, and I never truly felt at home anywhere.

At fourteen, I moved from Suriname to the Netherlands.
By eighteen, I had left school behind and started working — but soon I lost my job and drifted from one relationship to another.
I tried to “enjoy life,” ignoring my debts, but it all collapsed.
I lost my home and became homeless, moving from my sister’s, to my brother’s, to the couch of a friend.

Slowly, I began to find my feet again.
At 32, I finally got my own home.
Not long after, a 16-year-old girl without a safe place came into my life.
Though I had little, I chose to take her in.
It was not easy — we fought through poverty, struggles, and pain — but together we survived.
I had never been a father before, but suddenly I became one.

Over time, things improved.
At 40, I bought my first house.
We even went on holiday together, I arranged her driver’s license, and made sure she had a car.
Years later, she spread her wings and built her own life — and I was grateful that I could help her take that step.

Only months later, something happened that changed everything.
A whisper.
A calling.
And I began to realize: everything I had endured had been preparation for a greater purpose...