Today my friends I am so honored to reshare a story from the LifeBeats Library to continue awareness and shine hope where hopelessness may seem like the only answer by introducing you to Elizabeth Frazier of Hero Bands, a true Dawnbreaker. Elizabeth graciously shares her story of healing and thriving with her own family by touching on her experience of being sexually trafficked from the age of 4 until her early 20s but focusing on those heroes in her life who helped her feel safe and what she and we can be doing to band together to create real impact. Elizabeth shares how as a little girl she viewed her life as a charmed life and was told that she was very special to be loved the way that she was loved. She tells how as a trafficking victim she was used to physical pain and so as a teenager began inflicting pain on herself as a solution to dealing with the emotional pain she began feeling. Elizabeth tells of how she will never understand and know what her parents were thinking subjecting her to that lifestyle, as she has since cut them out of her life. She shares her long journey of learning what real love was after meeting her husband and starting their own family. For years she felt like God had abandoned her, but looking back she can see that he was there the whole time but knew she couldn’t feel him and so He sent other people into her life, her heroes she calls them.
She shares what we can do as community members and parents to provide safe havens for our children and the other children in our lives. Elizabeth tells of her battle with post-partum depression that brought old memories of shame to the surface but the life-altering hope and perspective that she felt through dedicated therapy, the joys of being a mother, the out-pouring of love from her community & strangers, as well as the power of words. Elizabeth shares the role that positive words played in her healing as she began wearing bands with the words ‘strong’ and ‘peace’ stamped on them and rub them throughout the day to remind her of her goals. She tells of giving them to strangers in the park and the impact they made in their lives that influenced her to start Hero Bands, inspired by the heroes in her life. She now sells these positive word bands to help those with their own battles and donates part of the proceeds to Operation Underground Railroad as she remembers as a child looking at the door and praying that someone like Tim Ballard and his team would come rescue her. She also shares about Safe Bands that others can purchase that will be taken by O.U.R. to rescued children to help remind them that there are others unseen who care about them. Listen and be inspired by her testament of forgiveness, healing, and hope and the impact that we can make on others’ lives for the better.
Want to know if this episode it for you? This episode is perfect for someone wanting to feel that there is hope no matter the depth of pain they have experienced. It is for someone looking for inspiration on forgiveness and healing. It is also for someone wanting to learn how to protect their own children from sex trafficking and how they can raise awareness.
Show Notes:
Elizabeth’s story on her website
Purchase Hero Bands and Safe Bands here
Hero Bands Instagram feed and Facebook page
Email Elizabeth at [email protected]
What is this episode about? In this episode you will learn about:
- how Elizabeth saw her life as a charmed life and she was told she was very special to be loved the way she was
- as an adult looking back can see that she was sexually trafficked from the age of 4 until her early 20s and how for her it was normal
- how she is grateful for these things coming to light and the awareness because it is happening in our neighborhoods.
- as a teen inflicted pain on herself as physical pain was easier to control than emotional pain
- cut parents out of her life after had her first child. she will never understand what they were thinking
- how she longed for what she wished was real with her parents.
- how she honestly feels like that was a separate life
- how we all can relate to the same emotions despite circumstances being different
- how met her husband and how it took her a long time to fully love him and to allow herself to feel his love and why she didn’t share a lot with him for a long time.
- how for years had felt like God had abandoned her but looking back she could see him through those he sent to her and even unseen beings in the room with her.
- what can we do to provide a safe place for any child and as a parent what we can do to protect our own children.
- how we must not act like this doesn’t exist.
- how she feels accepted by the community and how she feels like she is undeserving of the outpouring of love she is receiving
- the concept of compensatory blessings.
- the joy she feels as a mother and that they are the reason she got out.
- her struggle with post partum depression and how after her 2nd son, she attempted suicide.
- what she would say to a mother who wants to have another baby but scared because of past post-partum depression
- the role of Hero Bands in her healing and how she would rub the words ‘strong’ and ‘peace’ to feel the power of words in keeping her goals in mind. how she would give them to others and how grateful they were to have them in difficult times.
- how knew she wanted to help more people through making Hero Bands and how these words can help anyone with anything. how its all about the emotions that connect us, not situation necessarily
- how she was told about O.U.R. and wanted to be like them. how as a child prayed someone like Tim Ballard and his team would have broken down the door and rescued me
- how she donates to them for each sold band and why she created Safe Bands for rescued children to help them know someone unseen cares about them.
- how she named them after the Heros in her life, how they could have been doing anything else, but choose to take time for her
- how she pictures the people who she is making them for every time she makes one
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