Sometimes we would do extra work in the kitchen like washing the dishes or cleaning the floor in order to get extra food – then at last your stomach would stop rumbling. One time, I fought with another girl – she stabbed my foot with a knitting needle and I was hospitalised.
The hardest thing for me was when the summer holidays came. A lot of the girls went home to their families but I had nobody. My father drinks a lot and has no interest in me, and my mother has died.
At 18 I was told I had to leave. I was staying at my aunt’s when I met somebody who worked for Mission Without Borders. They were running a tailoring workshop. It was God’s hand at work. He was preparing everything. I got baptised in 2006 and God has changed my life totally. Now I have a good job, I have my own apartment and I am very thankful and happy with where I’m at. I never judge my family, I understand that they were poor and not able to look after me.
I realise now that even though I grew up in an orphanage, God has always had a plan for my life. He has always protected me – I never had to sleep on the streets – and now I only want to move forward. My only wish now is to have a family of my own – and I pray and trust God that He will give me one at the right time.
Marina, who grew up in a government orphanage in Romania
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