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What spurred Pam to take action after reading The New York Times? She says it was both maternal instinct and personal tragedy. Seven years ago, Pam's son Jansen died from an undetected heart defect. The tragic loss changed her and her husband forever, she says.
After learning about Mark, she says she would lie in bed at night and wonder if Mark was safe or if that was the night something terrible would happen to him. "I just had this haunting that never left me," she says.
Thanks to Pam's persistence, Mark and the six other fishing children were set free just days before Christmas. Two weeks later, Pam and her daughter flew halfway around the world to meet them at the Village of Hope. Now, Pam calls them "the magnificent seven."
"They're just little survivors that have been out on their own," she says. "And they still have strength left to rebuild their lives."
Pam spent a week with the children, and by the end, she says they were calling her "Mama Pam." At night, she says she asked George, the man who orchestrated the rescue, to wish them a special goodnight. "Every night we would say, 'George, tell them they are safe. Tell them they never have to leave. They can live here as long as they want. We will take care of them,'" she says. "Every night [they reacted as if] they had heard it for the first time."
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