Pouring Her Heart Out

If anyone doubts the power of prayer, give them a few hours with me and my life and they will leave convinced. Case in point : Anya. It has been incredibly difficult to reach her, but today, after two days of shutting us out completely --today the floodgates began to open.

I can't share what she shared, but I will say that as terrible as I imagined her early life, it was far worse. Today she shared with both Nastia and me what happened to her from ages five to eleven. I don't think I've heard a more heartbreaking story in my whole life, and I thought what I knew about her life was bad enough. I can tell you a little part -- Anya lived alone in a tiny cottage with her father for ages 5 through 8, and he worked days and nights, so she was alone, sometimes for weeks at a stretch. Sometimes he would leave her with a few potatoes and leave for weeks in search of work.

She witnessed things in her early years that grown men should not witness. She also told me what Nastia's orphanage had told me -- the woman who took them in after their mom abandoned them beat them both so severely, they were both in the hospital for months. Like Nastia, she still has scars.

When her father got out of prison  a few years later, he went back to that neighbor and "paid her back" for her treatment of his girls.

Anya told me today that she wants a new life. She wants to leave Russia and never come back. She said she is done living the way she has, and she is willing to make any sacrifices she has to to make our family work. She cried, I cried, Nastia cried. Some of the things she shared were so shocking to Nastia she wouldn't translate them. Anya then had to explain in the simplest terms she could, along with some "charades" until I  understood.

I understand alot more now why she is so depressed.  She has seen more and experienced more trauma than even Nastia. She said she has never shared any of this with even Katya her best friend, but that she felt God prompting her to share with me, since I have asked her to for 5 years now. She said she was "tired of carrying it."

It was hours of sharing and crying, and now they are cuddled together in our bed, watching Glee in Russian and eating soup. I'm still in stun mode, but trying to adjust to all this new information.

Thanks to all who continue to pray for her healing....