Anastasia – 2016 Graduate

My parents, who were 16 years old when they had me, were never together as a couple. The first half of the week I lived with my mother, the second half of the week I lived with my father. My mother was very physically, emotionally, spiritually abusive. My mom often left me home alone to go out to drink and party. From the ages of 6 – 14 I was sexually abused by several people in my life I should have been able to trust, including being manipulated at age 14 into having sex with a 25 year old man. Around the age of nine, my cousin was making me watch pornography and smoke marijuana with him for the first time; this is what started my drug addiction. At the age of 12, my mother let me drink alcohol with her for the first time. After that I started partying with my mom and using drugs. Around the age of 14, I told my mother that I didn’t want to live with her anymore because it wasn’t a safe house for me to live in. I wanted to live full time with my dad. My dad was always the safe zone in my crazy life. When I told my mother, we argued, and she physically abused me. When I told my dad what happened, he called CPS, and after that, I stayed full time with my dad. My freshmen year of high school, I started dating a boy from my church. We were together four years and eventually started having sex. At 17 years old I found out that I was pregnant, and a few weeks after, I lost my child. I was numb.

I knew I needed to break the cycle I was in. My parents eventually told me I would need to seek help, either through boarding school or Mercy. I chose to apply to Mercy. When I walked into Mercy, I didn’t really know what to expect.

I found major healing when I decided to be honest about my miscarriage. I had lied to everyone about it saying it was a “false pregnancy test.” I was able to grieve and feel again.

Through my time at Mercy, God has really shown me that what happened to me in my past wasn’t Him, but that He is able to glorify Himself through it. I also learned what boundaries are and am eager to implement that into my relationships moving forward.

After graduating from Mercy, I plan to go to the James River Leadership College for two years and then to join the Air Force.

 Thank you Mercy donors! What you do truly means a lot! If it weren’t for you, I don’t know what I have done!