“I have been deprived of parental rights for two children.” Anastasia’s lost battle
When Anastasia was eight years old and her brother was six, they ended up in an orphanage. The reason is the mother’s alcoholism. She does not remember her father, it is known that he went home to Russia.
Anastasia remembers that the last straw was that she and her brother ate the last piece of bread that was at home, and mom walked around the whole village, looking for them, in order to beat them properly with a strap. The neighbors couldn’t take it anymore and called the police. “The mother was given a month to prove that she is capable of taking care of the children, unfortunately it did not happen,” says Anastasia.
In the orphanage, other children made fun of Anastasia, often played cruel jokes: they called her or her brother to the phone – while mom was calling. When the two stumbled and ran to the landline phone of the orphanage, the receiver sounded: pee, pee, pee… Mom never called. Anastasia lived in an orphanage for 10 years and longed for her mother’s love, which she never received.
Anastasia says: “She is 56 years old and she is under the influence of alcohol. My mother does not admit her guilt, her mistake, that we grew up in an orphanage.
Somewhere in my heart I have forgiven her.
I CAN SAY THANKS TO HER THAT I GROW UP IN A CHILDHOOD. I HAD A ROOF OVER MY HEAD, I HAD WARM CLOTHES, I HAD WARM FOOD, I WAS EDUCATED. THIS IS THE BEST THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED.
Many have told me that I will be like my mother – an alcoholic. But looking at mom, no.”
Anastasia says that her brother cannot forgive her mother for her childhood spent in an orphanage. “The brother has a daughter whom our mother has not seen. Because the brother has a condition – when the mother stops drinking alcohol, when she goes to eat voluntarily, then she will also meet her granddaughter. The mother has said that she will never. Therefore, she will never see her brother’s children .”
Anastasija says about herself – that story has long since hurt. She would like all families, all parents to understand that parental love is what children lack the most.
“I thought my children had enough love. But… two children don’t live with me,” reveals Anastasia. “I have five children. I have had six pregnancies. I have had an abortion once in my life because I was afraid – what will I do alone with two children. I am grateful to heaven, to God, that after this mistake of mine I have had the opportunity to give birth to another child . I don’t even know who I can thank for having the youngest children with me.”
Two of the five children live with Anastasia. “My eldest daughter, who is 16 years old, lives with her father. I try to keep in touch with her, I try to give my love, but I can’t impose mine on her,” says Anastasia.
The most painful is the story of two children, to whom Anastasia was deprived of parental rights. This is what Anastasia calls an underwater rock in her life. “There was a lawsuit, and I have been stripped of my parental rights over those two children. After the lawsuit, the children were moved from one foster family to another, where they now live. Unfortunately, that family refused to allow me to send even twice a year gifts that would have been their birthdays.”
About the loss of parental rights, Anastasia says: “It’s my lost battle.”
