Emily, age fifteen, in Russia

In Russia my grandma and grandpa care about me. They give me lots love. I think about my grandparents every day. My grandma sick and makes me so sad about it. I love my grandparents. I know that I give them and bring food and water. Sometimes my dad give me a medicine to give to my grandparents because they sick. My mom in Russia she going to kill my grandma with bad medication, but I talk to my dad in Amarica and he said that she just have a health problem, means she just very sickness and I am not happy about it. When she lay down her wood bed she so sick and I been helping her because I love her and I love my grandpa also.

I been make sure they get medicine but my mom in Russia, I thought she going to kill my grandma with something. My grandpa talk to me and tell me how much they love me.

We have small town and we have small house. I remember that when I little girl that I take care of my sisters and brother and sometimes my grandma and grandpa help kids before my grandma get sick, like give them food and water, but I like them.

Sometimes I feel that my grandma she can’t not walk she so old. She laying on wood bed and asking for help. But sometimes my grandpa bring bucket of water, hot, and get old towel and wipe her blood from chest and where it got on dress.

But sometimes neighbors bring like wheel chair and take her to grab some potatoes for house. My mom in Russia she so mean to my grandparents. She try to kill my grandma with medication but I think she never did kill with medication. For a second I thought she did but she died anyway because she has bad health.

Before that she can talk but her health very old. But my grandpa cry so much because he do not want to lose his wife. But I miss my grandma and grandpa. But I saw when my grandma dying and I am crying so much. I remember about that. But I do trust my grandparents because they nice to us. I miss my grandma. When I am old and is time for me to die, then I will see my grandparents in the heaven.

When I am little girl I help my grandma or grandpa. I never thought I am going to help my grandparents. I love them so much.

[All of our four girls (including Emily) tested positive for exposure to tuberculosis. The house she lived in before going to the orphanage was one room, about five meters by five meters. Both grandparents, her two parents, and a total of five children lived together in that house. The children slept on the dirt floor. Emily’s mother, Oksana, constantly fought with her grandparents (the parents of Emily’s father). Emily tells about the night before her grandmother’s death and the conditions that they found her in the next morning. Emily was convinced that her mother poisoned her grandmother and held to that belief for many years. While I certainly believe that Emily’s first mother could have been capable of murder, the conditions that Emily describe are consistent with a person who dies from the effects of tuberculosis rather than poisoning or overdose.]

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About the Author

Emily Simmons was adopted from Russia at the age of fifteen, in 2006. At that time she joined three younger biological sisters and four new brothers in her new family. Emily has struggled with several forms of mental illness and she is intellectually challenged. She has been in several institution type settings and now lives in a group home. She is still very involved with her parents and the rest of her family. Emily often says: “Family, most important thing!”