Born into a Gypsy family in Romania, 6-year-old Florina traveled to Italy with her mother and aunt. Her mother had cancer and her illness required a special operation that had to be sought out in Italy.
After one month living in a neighborhood in Italy, waiting on a decision regarding her mother’s surgery, Florina heard a knock at their door. Police men entered their home, forced her mother and aunt into a room while two other police men took Florina and carried her outside, stuffing her into the trunk of their police car and drove away.
Hours later, she was transferred into a different vehicle, once again trapped in the dark claustrophobic trunk of a new car. The car finally made its destination and the trunk opened. Different men, same vile mentality, put Florina into a large bag and dragged her down a pathway like a sack of grain.
Dumped out onto the floor of a dark house, she was brought upstairs and chained inside of a room with other kids her age. The room had 3 toys for the kids to play with: a ball, a hula-hoop, and an old teddy bear without any eyes. Dozens of other children lived in this house, waiting their hopeless fate. Their diets consisted of a single sandwich every other day. Their abductors told the kids that they were very much needed; they were valuable at a price, it was important they didn’t die so that’s why they fed them- to keep them alive, barely, to then be sold.
There were older women at the house who would watch over the children, making sure no one escaped. The women were disguised as nuns during the day, but when nighttime came, their real professions came out as they marked themselves as prostitutes.
Everyday, Florina watched, as the men would lead the 9 & 10-year-old girls into a different room. She didn’t know why at the time, but the girls would come out a couple hours later, depressed, numb, and expressionless for days.
Florina spent the following month in this hopeless oppression, chained to the floor with the others. Occasionally, one of the men would put Florina in the back of a car, drive to a local neighborhood where kids played unsupervised outside, and ask a random child for “directions.” He would then invite the child to get into the car with them to “show him where exactly to go” and many times, this devious kidnapping would work. Florina wanted so badly to warn those kids not to get into the car with them, that it was a trick, but she knew that if she did, she would later be brought back to the house and beaten as so many of the other children had been in their pursuit of disobedience.
Florina would often have dreams, night after night, that someone would burst through their bedroom door and rescue her, taking her far away from that place. Her heart would sink, as she would wake up knowing and feeling even at the young age of 6 that there was absolutely no hope for her.
She gave up any sense of optimism. The cheerful innocence of a carefree child was stolen from her. Six years old is much too young for anyone to lose faith.
Florina’s future was settled as her kidnappers were preparing her to be sold and shipped to other human traffickers in Australia for 70,000 Euros ($86,000 USD) as if she were a simple transaction deal.
But the Lord knew His precious daughter was priceless and so He intervened as the victorious King that He is.
On the exact day that she was supposed to be ‘shipped’ to Australia, the doors of the home burst open as investigators and detectives from the Embassy came in, arresting every human trafficker and abductor there. Florina’s dream had come true- she and all of the other children were finally rescued.
Florina was returned safely again to her mother and aunt and they left Italy immediately. Her mother didn’t live long after that- the cancer took her life and Florina was now in the care of her aunt.
Two years later, her aunt passed away, leaving Florina completely alone and orphaned. Thankfully, Florina attended a children’s program at the local church nearby where she was introduced to Christi, his wife Cami, and their 3 children. Something stirred in Christi’s heart for Florina and he knew that the Lord was asking him to bring her into their family as their daughter. And so they did.
Florina is now 15 years old, and stunningly gorgeous. She was adopted into a family who loves and pursues the Lord, and she has a heart set on fire for God. Her faith and carefree spirit was restored, and she can now run, laugh, play, and love like a child should. Her beauty and joy shines so brightly but her story is unfortunately a common one amongst millions of children all over the world. Human trafficking and kidnapping is so heavily present in Eastern Europe and many times, these children are not rescued like Florina was.
I believe that through the power of prayer and the victory of Christ that other children around the world can and will be rescued from these terrible situations. I’m standing in this belief through faith and prayer. Will you stand with me?
