(slow music)

There was raw sewage on thefloor, toilets didn't work,

we had no running water, no beds,

no refrigerator or stove.

- [Narrator] For years, KimZewkowski and her 12 siblings

suffered the abuse of neglect.

For them, foragingthrough garbage for food

was a normal way of life.

All you had to do wasclean off the ants and bugs

and dirt and that's what we ate.

We were always hungry.

- [Narrator] But even more damaging

was the sexual abuse that started when Kim

was three when a familymember sold her for sex

in exchange for drugs or food.

When I looked in the mirror I saw nothing.

I didn't know I had aright to my own body.

I placed myself somewhere else,

one of those places wasa field of dandelions.

I could not feel or hear whatwas happening to me physically

at that time.

I started cuttingprivate areas of my body.

I thought if they sawthat there was blood there

that they would bescared off, I was wrong.

- [Narrator] Finally when Kim was eight,

social services discoveredtheir living conditions

and neglect and removed herand her siblings from the home.

They were placed in separate foster homes.

The day I was removed andplaced in foster care,

that was the hardest dayof my life. (sobbing)

I could take the sexual abuse,

I could not take being separated

from my brothers and sisters.

- [Narrator] Over the next six years,

Kim would be placed indifferent foster homes

where she was sexuallyand physically abused.

Then when she was 14, she went to live

with her Christiangrandmother, Marjorie Harris

who began taking her to church.

The first thing that shetold me was that I love you.

I had never heard thosewords before in my life.

She taught me that I was worth something,

that God is preparingme for something great

and she would always say, yougonna be somebody after while.

- [Narrator] But Kimstill rejected the God

her grandmother served.

Because I was hurt and I needed revenge

and I needed to be avenged.

- [Narrator] One day she took a walk

and passed a church whereshe heard a hymn being sung

that really touched Kim's heart.

She was singing this song about an anchor

and that anchor being a solid rock.

I need that, I need an anchor.

If Jesus is the answer,I needed to know him.

- [Narrator] Kim began praying to God.

I know you don't know who I am

because if you knewwho I was, you probably

wouldn't have let all these things happen

that happened to me butI hope you wanna know me

because I wanna know you.

I just started to ask him toshow me how to find Jesus.

- [Narrator] At 16, Kim was emancipated.

Now an adult, she startedworking to provide

for herself and her siblingsbut there was one thing

she couldn't escape, memoriesof the abuse from her past.

I began to really wish death on them.

I thought that they deserve to die.

- [Narrator] At 17, Kim meta Christian man named Alan.

As they began dating,he started taking her

to church with him.

That's when she learned how to find Jesus.

The abuse happened tome but I sank, I lie,

I had hatred, animosity,I was in need of a savior.

- [Narrator] Kim surrenderedher life to Christ

and was baptized.

As Kim's relationship with God grew

so did her understanding of herneed to forgive her abusers.

None of my abusers have ever come to me

and asked me for forgiveness.

They don't need to.

I forgave them because God forgave me.

- [Narrator] When Kim was19, Kim and Alan married.

She graduated from collegewith a degree in social work

and business administration.

She wanted to providesafe homes for children

so she became a foster care mother.

Kim and Alan are also parents

to their three biological children.

When I see my children,experience the type of love

that I never did growing up,

it brings me amazing joy and it definitely

brings me healing.

- [Narrator] Kim is alsoan award winning writer

and movie producer.

She's best known for her filmhonoring the spiritual legacy

of her late great grandmotherstarring Loretta Devine

called Grandma's House.

But now you, you'restronger than even you know.

Baby this too is gonna pass.

(slow music)

In order to truly healfrom an abusive past,

you have to have a savior,you have to be able

to cling to the solid rock.

God will never fail you.

The purpose of it all was for me

to come out of that giving God the glory

and knowing that no matterwhat happens in life,

God can bring you through it.

(slow music)