I watched her as she helped at the camp that her parents help run for at risk youth… and it hit me that she used to be one of the “at risk children” that she was now helping, until the Golas family adopted her into their family five years ago.
I wondered how it could be that ten years ago she was the vulnerable one — the one hidden away, hopeless, and uncertain if she would ever even have a future?
As I watched her, knowing her story— I saw bravery, resilience, and hope. Florina had lost so much, yet she was still found smiling and helping others.
From the moment I met her, I knew there was something different and special about her. And sure enough, in the time I spent with her, much was revealed about her— She has a gentle and quiet spirit. She loves to humbly serve others. She has a sweet smile and a soft laugh. She loves to dance. She has a fire burning within her, and there is a determination in her to be a great leader, and to love the children that her and her family ministers to.
One night after we danced the night away in the church, we sat down in a circle and she shared her story with us….
“My story doesn’t start off like most, as I was raised fatherless. I’m not sure where or who my father is, some people say that he is in prison, some say he is dead, and some say he is out there somewhere in the world. Sometimes this keeps me awake at night, but I have accepted that I may never know about him.
I lived with my mom and my aunt, and that is the only family I had, because my grandma and grandpa died when I was younger.
We were having a hard time financially, so my aunt decided to go to Italy to make money so that she could send it to us so that we could eat and have somewhere to live.
While my aunt was working in Italy, we found out that my mom had breast cancer. So, we went to Italy where my aunt was so that my mom could get surgery there, but the doctors said it was too late because she went too long without treatment and the cancer had spread all over her body.
So she got the treatment that they offered, and she decided to still try the surgery anyways so that she could at least try to prolong her life as much as she could. We stayed in the hospital a lot after her surgery, and from there they gave her one year to live.
So we all stayed there in Italy where my aunt worked, and we lived in a house together, but the street that we lived on wasn’t safe… there were a lot of kids disappearing and going missing for a period of time. No one knew where they were going, they just disappeared.
And then one night, at 2:00am, a large group of men broke into our home and they kidnapped me.
They put me in a car, the windows were black, and I couldn’t see outside of them.
They drove for what seemed like hours and hours. They finally stopped, took me out of the car and threw me into a dark room. They beat me, and tied me in chains. They put a GPS tracker around my arm so that if I ran away, they would find me. But, even if I wanted to run away, I couldn’t have because I was so weak from being beaten so bad.
The next morning they put me in a big bag, and made holes in it so that I could breath, and they put me in a car. We got to a forest and they drug me through it, but then the bag broke, so then they started dragging me by my hair instead.
We finally arrived at a big house. It looked like a good place from the outside looking in. People thought it was an orphanage, but it wasn’t. When I got there, I saw some of the kids that went missing on my street. There was even a child there that was only two weeks old that had been kidnapped from the hospital. There were so many kids there.
They only had three toys for us— a bowl, a hula hoop, and a teddy bear. I still remember that the teddy bear didn’t have eyes, a nose, or a mouth.. and the kidnappers told us to look at that bear and to see that that was our life now. No senses.
We were only fed one sandwich every three days. They only fed us because they needed to keep us alive. They said if we were bad, they would never feed us again and they would let us starve.
Every day one of us would go with a man in a car, and we would go into town to ask other kids “for directions”. They took us with them because the kidnappers knew that if they had a child with them, the children that they were preying on would trust them and think they were safe… but if only they knew that we were just bait. We were not allowed to speak, or they would kill us. There was one kid who tried to tell the other kid not to come and to run, and he was killed for it. So we knew we had to stay quiet.
Where we lived, there was also a special room for the “big girls” who were 10 years or older. The girls in that room were very depressed. They were beaten and abused a lot more than us. I don’t know what happened in that room, but I know it was bad. I thank God that I was only six at the time, so I didn’t have to be in there.
During the night, we were all tied up. We would stay awake and whisper to one another about how we all dreamed that the door would open so we could run. We would always talk and dream about getting free at night… wondering if we ever would.
During all of this time, my mom and aunt found a detective to help them find me, they gave this “detective” a lot of money, but it turns out that he happened to be working with the very people who kidnapped me, and after they gave him the money, he fled the country and they never saw him again.
I thank God that after that they still didn’t give up on finding me. They called the Romanian Embassy next, and thankfully through this and a lot of investigating, they found me and all of the other children. They came and took us on March 8, 2008 (Mothers Day in Romania). What a great day for my mom to have me back.
We later found out that I was kidnapped because I was going to be sold for Organ Trafficking. They found a contract with all of my information on it, and the date and price had been set. We found out that if they hadn’t gotten me that day, I was going to be sold for 75,000 Euro the very next day.
One. More. Day... and I would have been gone.
They took all of the other kids in the house and put them in orphanages and worked very hard to find their families and to get them back home.
The embassy paid for our airplane tickets to get us back to Romania a few months later.
After only one month of being home, my mom passed away from the cancer. I was devastated. But, I like to think she was fighting until she knew I was safe back at home.
So, it was just my aunt and I, but then she also became very sick… So I took care of her, instead of her taking care of me. I could never go sleepovers or hang out with friends because I had to give my aunt her medicine three times a day and care for her. Her medicine made her paranoid, and had many other side effects that were hard to witness. I remember calling the ambulance many times because she passed out a lot.
I was very upset with God because He took my mom, and now my aunt was sick, and I had already been through so much. So in my anger, I decided that I would be in charge of my life from now on… not God.
I started to hang out with the wrong crowd, and at only nine years old I was drinking, smoking, and doing drugs. I found myself in many dangerous situations and looking back now, I know that God was protecting me.
I am grateful that I also started going to the kids program that Cristi and Cami did at the church, because little did I know that they would one day be my parents…
One night, my aunt passed out again, this had become normal to me. I called the ambulance again, and they came and took her to the hospital. She was there for a few weeks, and while she was there, I stayed at a friends house. I was eleven at this time.
Cristi called me a lot to check on me. Then one day, Cristi called me at school. He told me that he was going to come get me from school and that I was going to go have lunch with his family. After we ate, they told me that we were going to the church.
I knew something was wrong.
So I went with them, and here in this church, and in this office, him and Cami sat me down and told me that my aunt died.
And again, just like with my mom, I was devastated. I didn’t understand why God took her too.
I was alone.
But, thats when Cristi told me that if I wanted, “I could be their girl, and be a part of their family.”
This brought me happiness in my grief, and I gladly accepted.
The last five years have been great and I love being a part of this family. But, there have also been hard moments. I still have a lot of struggles to over come, and I still have a lot of healing to do. But I know that if God has seen me through all of these trials in my life, He will also get me through this, He is faithful.”
I’ve heard a lot of stories this year… But Florina’s story surprised me. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after I heard of what all she had been through. My heart broke for her, but at the same time, I was inspired by her resilience and bravery.
All I could think was, “Wow. This girl is the definition of brave.”
Though Florina has overcome so much, she confesses that there are still days when she feels the heaviness of her past, and the brokenness of her life circumstances. But Florina is not destroyed, she knows that her story has been redeemed by God. She is a fighter, and she has drawn from the pain of her past and has allowed it to propel her forward into the future that God has for her. She uses her story of pain and loss to help other kids who have been through similar things and she shows them that they are not alone.
I am grateful that God allowed me to pour into her life, to encourage her, and to speak truth over her. I told her this before I left, but I truly believe that her story may have started off hard, but that with God, it will end beautifully, even more beautiful that we can imagine. I know that people will see her life and know that there is more for them, all because she’s chosen more for herself, and she has inspired me to do the same.
My heart has been challenged and encouraged by her strength and her courage to move forward, to love Jesus, and to show people that they’re not alone. With love like that, there’s no doubt she can change the world around her.
Her story has only begun.
Please take a moment to pray for Florina as she continues to heal from her past, and to overcome the struggles that she faces today.
Thanks for reading, Tess.
