October 8

Anna did not speak, she raged every hour on the hour.  At one meal time our kitchen table went flying. Within 3 days I called the agency and told them she would not work in our house.  She needed serious help.  I was told, “We have 30 days to find her another home.  It was at this time I found out she had moved 7 times in 18 months.  I also found in her report, that two different psychologist from the agency and written that she was beyond what they could do in the agency. 

At her first visit with her family, that I took her to, she went into the room and within seconds came running out screaming and grabbed hold of me.  I had to convince her that I wasn’t going to leave.  Two years later after many doctor’s appointments, therapy, a lengthy letter to the governor of Michigan regarding the agencies actions and even a child protective services allegation, we adopted Anna.  I had spent two years crying out to God, to find her a good Christian home and trying to “make Anna likeable so someone would take her”.  God, my husband and our son said she’s ours and we will keep her.

Eleven years later, Anna has moments of talking too much, has a heart that is kind, compassionate and gentle.  She is cognitively impaired, we are not sure if from birth or from the sexual abuse and severe neglect she endured the first 8 years of her life.  After 6 months of being living with us she revealed to me and only to me to this day, the sexual abuse she endured by both parents the first 7 years of her life.