The memories made in the first 12 years of my life were painted with shades of poverty, loss, and a dim hope for a better life.
A hope that acted as my only survival method.
A hope that got me where I am today - 5,500 miles across the world - 5,500 miles between myself and the life I was destined to live.
I said goodbye to my birth Mother at the age of 12, not realizing that I would never see her again. I never met my Father.
I learned early on what alcoholism was, what starvation felt like, and what sacrifice meant.
For me, it took leaving the place I called home to find a better life in America.
It meant saying goodbye to my Mother, Sister, relatives, friends, and saying hello a new family and new friends.
At 12 years old, I was adopted from an orphanage in Chebarkul’, Russia to a family in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Adoption changed my life.
Adoption opened a door into a new world and forced me to close the door to everything I had ever known.
I am here today to tell my story.
The story of how I overcame my own odds.
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