Hi my name is Kira and I was born in a brothel in Hungary to a teenager, not much older than I am now. My birth mom was never given the choice whether or not to be a prostitute, it was just expected of her. A lot of my memories from childhood are about men coming and going. I remember being left outside to starve. I wondered where my mom was and if she was going to come get me. My biological dad was never in my life, I don’t remember meeting him. This caused a lot of feelings of rejection, unworthiness, anger and not being good enough. One day all of the adults in the brothel had abandoned all of the kids. An older lady saw what happened and she called the police. My siblings and I were rushed to the hospital and my younger brother, who was four months old, almost died. Later my two siblings and I were placed in a foster home. They were really nice to us and they gave us our first beds to sleep in. Shortly after we arrived, the men in the home started sexually abusing me. After that went on for a little while they started bringing in other men to hurt me. This was really confusing to me as a little girl. I never thought what was happening to me was bad. It was all I knew, and I believed that all kids had to live like this.
In 2009, a family came over to the tiny village in Hungary I lived in. I didn’t know at the time that these people were soon to become my family. I remember really liking my mom; I thought she was so beautiful. My dad was of less importance to me at the time. It turns out that it was my dad’s heritage as a Hungarian, which allowed the Hungarian government to let my parents adopt me. He is very important after all! My parents were rejected by the Hungarian government three times but they never gave up. It truly is a miracle that I am here and it’s only because of God. Learning English wasn’t easy and it was very frustrating at times. The culture in America is so different than in Hungary. My mom showed me a Jesus movie in Hungarian and I accepted all that I could. I thought if Jesus makes people like my parents do what they did for me and my siblings, then that is pretty amazing. A few years later when I was in fourth grade, we moved and I was put into a public school. I still didn’t speak English very well, so the kids would make fun of me. The next year I had to repeat fourth grade and kids would call me stupid so I started believing them. By the time I started fifth grade, I was constantly getting in trouble at school. Kids would make up lies about me, which caused me to act out and become very mean and disrespectful. I felt rejected by these kids and I didn’t feel good enough to hang around with them. My parents saw what was going on and since then I have been homeschooled. The feelings of rejection and wanting so badly to be accepted and loved didn’t go away. A few years later I met guys online to get my need fulfilled. I started believing the lie that I could only find my self-worth and identity in guys. I have struggled putting all of this behind me and living out a life of a Christian.
I found out about Mercy through a good family friend that I work for. I applied because I knew I needed a change, and my parents didn’t know what else to do. When I first arrived, I was angry, completely lost, and doubted anything here would help me. I’ve had a lot of good turning points here, but one of the main ones was when Asbury came and worshiped with us. I broke down in tears, and for the first time I believed that God loved me. I felt His presence and His peace. God has completely turned my life around. He has given me my breath back. He has freed me from my sexual abuse. I learned that the mistakes I’ve made and things that have been done to me, my Heavenly Father didn’t let those happen. He was right there holding my hand and all along had a plan for me.
Since being at Mercy, I have experienced God in a whole new way and I have built a real relationship with Him which I never believed I could. I have found my identity in Jesus and I know now that I don’t need to go anywhere but Him to find my self-worth. Jesus has showed up even when it has been hard and I have missed my family. He meets me right where I need Him and has shown me how faithful He is. I can now stand here today and say that God has worked in all things for my good. Now, that is my life verse.
After Mercy, I plan on going home and working at a café. I plan to finish high school, spend time with my family, and eventually start helping youth that are coming out of broken situations.
Without you all, donors and sponsors, giving so generously to Mercy it would not be here, and without Mercy I couldn’t have come and found true freedom. Thank you so much for making it possible for hurting girls to come here and find their identity in Jesus and live a life full of freedom!