Anna is an absolute dream child.

For her and her husband, she is "happiness and joy," says Tetiana Kolybelnikova with a smile.

The 43-year-old mother gave up her job as an English teacher after the premature birth of her daughter twelve years ago.

Around the clock she takes care of the girl who cannot speak, can hardly hear, cannot walk, cannot eat and drink by herself.

She needs to be carried, fed and changed.

Ingrid Karb

Sheet editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

Anna was also the reason why the family left Ukraine at the end of March and came to Kelsterbach with the help of the Klitschko Foundation together with other families with seriously ill children.

They didn't originally intend to do that, the parents report.

They stayed in their Kiev apartment even after all the neighbors had left the high-rise.

But when the bomb alarm went off, they realized that it was almost impossible to get the spastic daughter out of the apartment on the twelfth floor and into an air raid shelter.

Not least because of the shock and fear, she became completely stiff on his arm, reports her father Yevhen Kolybelnikov.

To this day he cannot understand what is happening in his home country.

He never thought that Russia would actually attack Ukraine,

For 15 years after the wedding, the couple had tried in vain to have a child.

Tetiana Kolybelnikova suffered three miscarriages and lost a child five months before becoming pregnant with Anna.

But this pregnancy did not go smoothly either.

The mother-to-be was admitted to the hospital in Kyiv early on and had to lie there for weeks.

Nevertheless, the child was born in the 27th week of pregnancy with only 885 grams.

Strong trust in God

The doctors did not believe that Anna would survive, reports the mother.

For the first month they were not allowed to visit their baby in the infant intensive care unit – the “resuscitation”, as Kolybelnikova says in Ukrainian.

Later, the parents were allowed to see Anna through a window for one hour a day a week.

They did not always find the little one in good condition.

After about two months she was completely black, her mother recalls.

When asked, the doctors told her that the child would probably not survive the weekend.

She then prayed a lot, reports Tetiana Kolybelnikova, who has a strong trust in God.

With success: Anna proved to be a fighter.

Despite all predictions, the girl was able to leave the intensive care unit after three and a half months.

After five months, her parents were allowed to take her home from the hospital.

She "always smiled," recalls the mother.

Since then, the girl has kept her parents on their toes.

The communication between mother and daughter happens "telepathically", says the father.

In fact, both parents pay attention to Anna's every movement, every twitch, every sound to see if she's hungry or thirsty, wants something to do or wants to be moved.