Prayers Answered: Iraqi Christian Family Gets Back 6-Y-O Daughter Abducted By ISIS 3 Years Ago
A Christian family in Iraq was overwhelmed with joy on Friday when God finally answered their prayers: their six-year-old girl has returned home.
It was no ordinary homecoming. When she was just three years old, Christina Abada was abducted by Islamic State (ISIS) militants in October 2014 when they invaded their town of Qaraqosh.
"She stayed three years with the terrorists," her mother, Aida Nuh, told Reuters on Saturday.
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After three years of searching for their little girl, the family finally got a break when they got a call telling them Christina had been found in a poor neighborhood of Mosul.
They immediately went to the place and got Christina back.
The family is temporarily staying in a mobile home for displaced people in Ankawa, a Christian suburb of the Kurdish capital Erbil, east of Mosul.
Christina's mom was beside herself with joy. "The best day of my life is the day when Christina came back," she said.
Local journalist Steven Nabil filmed Christina's homecoming and posted the video on his Facebook page. It showed the whole family, their friends and neighbors rejoicing, dancing and clapping their hands at the sight of Christina.
Nabil translated Christina's mother as saying that she thanks Jesus for her daughter's safe return.
Christina appeared to be in "shock" and overwhelmed by the huge crowd of people who welcomed her.
But her blind father, Khader Touma, is not worried, saying she will soon readjust to her surroundings.
In August 2014, ISIS militants rounded up members of Christina's family, along with other Christian families, and ordered them on a bus, World Watch Monitor reported.
"Then one of the Da'esh (Arabic acronym for ISIS) came and inspected the people on the bus," Aida, Christina's mother, told Open Doors International in July 2015. "He walked up to us. He took my little girl from my arms and just walked away."
That was the last time she saw her daughter until last Friday, when Christina was finally reunited with her family at a refugee camp near Erbil, in northern Iraq.
"With all that we have been through, we are overjoyed that our Christina has been returned to us safely," Yaz Khedher, Christina's brother told the Iraqi Christian Relief Council.
Reports said Christina lived with a Muslim family that found her all alone in a mosque.
