My name is Alexandra (Sanda) Maria Chis and I am 19 years old. I was born October 27, 1989, in Baia Mare. My parents did not get along, they fought often, and my father’s family did not accept my mother. When I was six years old, my father took my siblings and moved to a village near Arad called Susag. My mother and I stayed behind in Baia Mare. Soon she found a new boyfriend who beat her every night, and me too. They would go out at night and steal chickens and by morning they were boiled and diced. After several months she went looking for my father and brought my brother Dani back to live with us in Baia Mare. The fighting between my mother and her new boyfriend escalated until she decided to send my brother and I to live with our grandmother. Only a few short months passed before she returned and once again we lived with her and her boyfriend.
One night he came home drunk and wanted to teach me to count to 10. Because I was little, and didn’t know how to do what he wanted, he started to beat me and I tried to crawl under the bed. He began to throw anything he could get his hands on underneath the bed at me. I ended up with a broken nose and bruises all over my body. My mother came home and he beat her that night as well. But when she saw what he had done to me, she took me and Dani and we ran away from him.
When I was nine, my mother sent me to live with my father, but my brother stayed behind with her. I was so happy to see my siblings again (two sisters and another brother) in Susag, but more suffering awaited me because my father had become a drunk. All the money he got from the government to take care of us, he drank away, and we remained naked and hungry. I didn’t get beat as much as my other siblings because I was always the favorite in both my father’s and mother’s eyes.
When I was 10, I was taken from my father to an organization called the “Family” foundation, because my older sister and my aunt had submitted a complaint against my father. I was very happy to escape from those hard times. I had to repeat second grade because I didn’t know how to read or write. I went to school for two years and then the “Family” foundation closed down. I was sad because I didn’t know where we would be taken to next, or what plan God had for me.
Soon after, in 2000, I met Jacci from Global Hope. She took five of us children from the “Family” foundation to a Christian camp in Sistarovat. A week later, she brought us to the House of Hope. I felt the love and protection of the women working there. We stayed there for several months until God blessed us with two parents, Tata Roni and Mama Rodi, and we all moved into Ana’s House. I was scared at first because I didn’t know them.
In fourth grade I noticed that I couldn’t see very well and my Mama Rodi and Tata Roni took me to see a specialist. The doctor said I had a very high dioptre. Every time I go back to the doctor my dioptre is higher.
Mama and Tata saw that I had talent in music and sent me to the Art and Music High School in Arad. I took violin and piano lessons through the eighth grade. Every summer we would take trips with Mama and Tata into the mountains.
When I entered the 9th grade I began specializing in voice at school, and I realized I also had trouble hearing. I had many tests run, and eventually I had my adenoids removed. This helped for a short time, but now my hearing problems have returned. In June I had an operation to put tubes in my ears, but the operation failed.
This year I passed all of my high school exams with a grade of 10 (the highest). I would like very much to see without glasses, and to have my hearing back, so that I can fulfill my dream of being a classical and jazz singer. I’m afraid this dream might die if I cannot hear or see. I pray God will find a solution for these problems. I pray also for Global Hope because I never want to lose the family He’s given me here.
