I am a survivor who has a lot to say now that I have my own voice, and turned a life of unknown early childhood sexual abuse into a positive and powerful force for change in my adult life. Over these years while recovering and healing from revisiting my childhood past, I Authored and self-published three books on my survival of childhood sexual abuse trauma.
My name is Cristina. I am the author of Secrets of a Broken Heart. The Exile Years and Spirit of Love. It is the only name that truly belongs to me, even though I have been someone’s daughter, someone’s wife, and someone’s mother. These are titles and not who I truly am. You see, I was given away at birth and the only thing that truly belongs to me and is mine, is the name “Cristina”.
A link to Lina Medina – the youngest mother
Cristina’s House of Hope has evolved from the life lessons I have learned to now, which provide me with a solid foundation to draw energy, motivation and direction to then support others who need the services that are not currently provided in the current structures in our communities.
For me it has become a job to bring these issues on childhood sexual abuse out into the open. I thought to now that writing and publishing these books, talking openly to people about sexual abuse on children, then getting these self published books out there into the libraries, was enough for my part. It’s never enough! It’s a constant battle to free us from the enslaved mentality of the past, even though it’s an individual journey for everyone to get out of prison. If we choose to look for answers within ourselves we will find ways out of our prison cell.
The first steps I took to change the course of my life, left me a misfit, abandoned by friends and family, lost and alone in our modern society.
For me, living through the pits of my own disbelief and despair in unravelling my past, then followed years of counselling, while recovering from revisiting my childhood horror. And because of what was not there when I first started my inner journey of healing many years ago, on this road less travelled, so the idea of Cristina’s House of Hope was born.
We all start with an idea, then the work follows. I want to be actively involved in doing something constructive about filling in the gap in support for others, by raising funds for a safe house for women and children in crisis from sexual abuse and most importantly, to raise awareness of the plight of the multitude in crisis.
I know a little of what it is like to stay trapped in a lifeless lifestyle, hiding my internal pain. From this, my own childhood horror survival, and the Life After Death, I myself lived as the adult-child, Cristina’s House of Hope evolved.
Those of us who have survived our childhood horror, for there are many who haven’t, need to step up and go out on a more open and personal level with our own survival story, and the concerns we have of child sexual abuse. In most cases we who have survived our childhood horror are left carrying the shame, blame and guilt for the rest of our lives.
We need to change our own views and opinions on issues such as childhood sexual abuse. As survivors or victims of this crime we face a stigma in our society that is only attached to and carried by the recipient of a crime and not the offender or abuser
We don’t see or address the real issues of childhood sexual abuse or face the fact that mental health, depression and other diseases in humanity stem from that.
If we are to survive as a healthy people, we need to first clean out the debris left behind by our ancestors heavy footprints in our genetic DNA code
Survivors of this silent crime have had to carry the burden put on us by our abuser. Now we are the one who can change this. I have openly shared my story in the hope that we as a community will rally together to build a house such as Cristina’s House of Hope for survivors in need of a safe home.