Angela’s Story
Angela’s Childhood Could Have Destroyed Her
Her mother was usually wasted drunk. She neglected her children, committed crimes, and landed in prison. At fourteen, Angela found herself in a Zhytomyr orphanage. Imagine how traumatic it felt when they were taken by police, and she was separated from her two brothers. She worried that she’d never find them, but they were eventually reunited. Angela had struggled for years to find enough food for her siblings and herself each day. She thought life in the orphanage was a little easier because they served meals.
Things got worse after her orphanage graduation, when Angela was a new trade school student. At seventeen, she became pregnant and baby’s father dumped her. She felt hopeless and didn’t know where to look for help.
Angela and her younger brother Valik in 2016
Manipulation is injustice
The school personnel immediately pressured Angela to abort her baby. They became relentless, calling her into daily meetings where they used scare tactics to persuade her. They told her that if she delivered a baby, she’d be kicked out of her dormitory and become homeless. They told her again and again that she would become exactly like her mother.
She felt constant panic, and cried a lot. It was so horrible that she wished for death. Thinking about her scary future, she got so nervous that she began to have abdominal pain and was hospitalized. Instead of offering help, they came to the hospital to scold her and predict her failure. Since she had already decided against abortion, they tried to convince her to sign a document agreeing to give her baby to the orphanage. But Angela refused.
Angela and her husband and two children in 2011
Not giving up
“I think they were trying to manipulate me because they saw me as young and hopeless, and they wanted to control me.”
Perhaps these authorities were trying to save Angela from a tragic future. Trade school personnel have certainly witnessed many orphanage graduates repeating their parents’ patterns of alcoholism, poverty, and abandoning their children. Maybe they also knew the value of newborns in Ukrainian adoption channels, and saw a way to profit from her situation.
None of that mattered to Angela, though. She’d decided long ago that she’d never drink alcohol or abandon her children.
Angela with her two children, Sasha and Artyom, and brother Valik in 2012
Turnabout
A kind trade school teacher heard about Angela and referred her to Last Bell and others in the Zhytomyr community who might help her keep the baby. She stayed in the trade school dorm until little Sasha arrived. After a few months of care from this loving community, Angela and her daughter were living in their own apartment.
An original participant in the Stop The Cycle program, Angela received diapers, baby clothes, and other aid from Last Bell. Sometimes she took the baby to school in a stroller and a trade school door lady (“day guards” sit inside entryways of public buildings) would snuggle Sasha for an hour. Other times, Last Bell friends and volunteers would babysit.
Strangely, after Sasha was born, the domineering trade school administrators who’d been so against this baby behaved as if nothing had happened.
Against all odds, Angela finished school.
She’s now raising two delightful children with her hard-working husband. They share their home with Angela’s younger brother, Valik. They’re active participants in the Last Bell community and are known for giving back to other orphans in need.
“When I think about my past, I realize I had so many big problems. But here were these people who wanted to help me and my baby. I know God provided these people who believed in me. Now I see problems as being in God’s hands, and they don’t seem so scary.”
Angela with Valik, Sasha, and Artyom in 2016