Ashley was just eleven years old when she was first introduced to the Pattaya Orphanage while her family was living overseas in Hong Kong. Along with her mother and family friends, she would spend vacations with the little ones at the orphanage, changing diapers, feeding bottles, playing patty cake, and giving out as many hugs and kisses as they could fit in a day.

“Looking back to our trips to Pattaya, to say that I loved the Orphanage and my time with the babies and kids would be a drastic understatement. Infatuated might be a better term to describe it.  My Christmas lists at that age were pretty simple: oversized t-shirts, candy canes, and a trip to the Orphanage!  When our family moved back to the states, it made that Christmas wish little less reasonable.  I knew though, that my future would hold more trips to Pattaya, I just wasn’t sure when.  It took me fifteen years, but I’ve made my way back to Pattaya. While our work now goes beyond diapers and playing patty cake, the incredible love and joy you get from these children is exactly the same as it was when I was a kid.  I’m as infatuated as ever.”

When Ashley is not in Thailand, she lives in Boulder, Colorado.