Where is hope found?

So I'm sitting here during the night shift, and it's 3:30 in the morning. I've been working for 9 hours and have 4 more to go but I'm holding on strong. I was going to write a post about change during this shift but upon coming to work, my thoughts suddenly shifted elsewhere. When I got to work, there was a girl sitting at the nurse's station with a bloody arm. She had just been found in the bathroom, removing stitches and making more cuts in her arm. The cuts weren't too bad and I can handle blood, but I just couldn't get past the numb look on her face. This girl has been to hell and back like most of the kids here. I just don't understand what any of them did to deserve this. Some of them are a mere 6 years old for shits sake! Others are 16 but have been on anti-depressants since they were 6.

And then I see the innocence still there in the little girl who just lost her tooth and put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy (me). The only hope I can find here is that some innocence is preserved and we just have to help them hold on to that innocence so that they can bare the pain that they've been through. Without innocence it's as if childhood is lost, and without childhood, I believe it is close to impossible to develop psychologically - to live life like it should be lived.

My only question is, how do you find innocence for someone who's been abused since the age of 2? How do you help that person? It's as if a life has been robbed and there's no way of getting it back.

This is kind of all over the place and a little bit negative, I apologize. It is now 5:30am and I'm starting to fade...