Anna Grew into Motherhood
Anna is a 25-year-old mother of three who fell into the wrong crowd as a teenager. "I became a mother at 17, just like my mother and my grandmother. No one taught us how to be mothers.”
Anna's wild, carefree life continued even after the birth of her first child. Her partner took care of the little one and eventually left with him. Anna has lost contact with her now 8-year-old son and his father.
Anna found a new partner and had two children with him. He had a drinking problem, however, which cast a dark shadow over the family and led to his sudden death. “I didn’t know how to handle the situation. I drowned my pain in alcohol.”
Anna would often leave home for days at a time. Her mother had to constantly look after the children, and eventually she contacted authorities. Anna was ordered to get her life in order or else her children would be taken into custody. Anna came to our rehabilitation home in Asbest with her children, but she didn’t stay long. She believed she could manage on her own, but her old habits had a hold on her, so the authorities took her children and gave her six months to change or she’d lose custody permanently. “When my children were taken away, I felt fear and shame. I realized that I had done more wrong than I had been willing to admit.”
To a new beginning
When Anna came to our rehabilitation center for the second time, she stayed. She participated in discussions, prayer meetings, and classes on childcare and parenting. In private counseling sessions she got to the root of her problems.
Anna experienced a life-changing transformation.
“As a youth I felt that my mother didn’t love me. Then I felt she greatly favored my younger siblings who were born when I was a teenager. I was bitter; I wanted to get back at my mother, and that’s why I lived the way I did. Now I understand that my mother was broken herself, just like me. I forgave her. And my partner, too.”
This was followed by Anna putting her faith in Christ, which then enabled her to experience God’s amazing forgiveness for herself! The change that took place over the course of a few months convinced the authorities, and they reunited her with her children.
“After four months I was able to hold them in my arms!” Anna was overjoyed when receiving her children back.
Today Anna is sober. She is no longer absent from her children’s lives but is very attentive to them and wants to raise them to know God. “This is just the beginning. I want to keep going and be a good mother. I pray that I can reconnect with my older son so that he doesn’t go down the same path I did because I abandoned him years ago.”
