When Russia invaded Ukraine, Trevor Littleton, the pastor at First Church of Christ in Painesville, Ohio, made it his mission to save his daughters and get them to safety.
Littleton — who has nine children, five from Ukraine — traveled last week to save Dasha, 20, and Nastya, 26.
Littleton tried to adopt Dasha and Nastya, who grew up in orphanages, years ago, but in Ukraine, once someone turns 16, they cannot be adopted, he said. Littleton said he didn’t need papers to call the women his daughters. To him, they are already family. One of Littleton’s children, Sergei, is Nastaya’s biological brother.
While Littleton was successful in getting Dasha to safety, Nastya is still in Mariupol, Ukraine, and he hasn’t been able to contact her in weeks.
“We were in contact with her at the beginning of the war, but we did lose contact with her about two weeks ago,” he said. “It’s been terrible. We know her address, we can follow satellite imaging of when things are bombed, what close to her has been bombed.”
Not being able to speak with Nastya has been a nightmare for the family.
Nastya decided to remain in Ukraine at the age of 22 when Littleton’s family could not officially adopt her. But the family has visited Ukraine several times to see her.
“For the first several days, we heard from her,” he said. “She would send us pictures, she would send us where she was; we just kept telling her we love you as much as we could. And then, like I said, two weeks ago was the final message we got from her.”
Littleton feels like Nastya has been kidnapped and has no way to find her.
“It’s just a very numbing emotion,” he said. “We did receive word (Friday) that the orphanage director that Nastya knew and was close to, her and her family made it out,” he said. “Now what that gives us hope for is she made it out then later found a way to communicate. We’re hoping because they lived close together that some way Nastya would be safe. We just don’t know.”
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