Support for Sofia Roberts grows after she tells her story of being banished to Siberia

Sofia Roberts from Virginia to Siberia

Sofia Roberts is a young, beautiful teenager who is living through a horrific ordeal after her mother, Natalia Roberts, and stepfather banished her to Siberia.

Sofia’s given name is Anastasia Petrova.

She’s known as Sofia and has been using the last name of the man her mother married, a wealthy immigration attorney named Jim Roberts.

Although she is officially a Russian citizen, she considers herself American because she has lived in the US for virtually all of her life.

Life changed for Sophia two years ago when, just a week after she turned 15, she was shipped off to Siberia.

She was told she was going for a visit with her biological father.

A man she did not know.

Almost as soon as the plane landed, she was told that she would not be coming home for a very long time.

She was devastated and couldn’t really even comprehend the magnitude of it.

All she knew was that she was in what she considered a foreign country with a man she hardly knew in Siberia .

And, she didn’t even speak Russian.

According to Sofia, she wasn’t the perfect child.

She admitted to stealing money from her mother and stepfather and then lying to them when they asked her where she got the money for buying some of the items she purchased, such as a cell phone.

Her mother and stepfather claim that she was a child out of control and their solution was to simply get rid of her.

Ship her off.

Sofia Roberts difficult life in Siberia

Life hasn’t been easy for Sofia these past two years.

In addition to the language barrier with her biological father, she said he did not treat her well. There was often no food in the home, he drank too much and there were physical altercations.

The situation was so bad that Sofia went to a foster home.

Her mother did not come to visit her to make sure she was OK, or to straighten out the situation.

In fact, according to Sofia, Natalia Roberts, has never visited her and rarely speaks to her since shipping her off, something that makes many caring mother shudder with disbelief.

When she was going to be moved to an orphanage her mother told to go back home or she would never be allowed to return the US so she obeyed and went back to her biological father.

She even attempted suicide.

The situation at her home was so combative that her father threw her out and she ended up homeless.

Eventually someone took her in and she got a job at a hostel.

Although not ideal, it offered her the opportunity to earn a living and to have a place to stay since she was allowed to live at the hostel.

But the clock was ticking and the brave, now 17-year-old, knew she had to take action or she would likely never ever again be allowed back to the US.

You see, her 18th birthday is nearing and once she reaches 18, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for her to return to the US.

All the media attention that she desperately needs in order to wage her battle has resulted in her losing her job.

Her parents cancelled her Green Card application when they shipped her off and her application can only be resubmitted if her parents agree.

It doesn’t appear that they will.

She has begged and pleaded with her “parents’ to allow her to return.

She says they have told her that she knows what she has to do but they will not provide specifics.

Even on her facebook page, her stepfather refers to vague, undefined “things” that she must do and speaks in a menacing tone letting her know that no one can help her.

She doesn’t know what they want her  to do because they will not tell her.

It may be a smokescreen and a roundabout way of saying that they do not want her.

Although it is something hard to digest, there are parents like that.

Her foreign born mother Natalia now has a child with her husband and perhaps just doesn’t want to be bothered with a child that is not 100% perfect and controllable.

She is also busy with her husbands other children and another child she has.

Although she rarely speaks to her daughter and has never visited her in Russia, she has found it important and worthwhile to post photos of her own wedding.

Sofia says that her mother is “extremely upset” about all the media attention.

Sofia, much to her credit, is not giving up.

Even in the face of her family abandoning her and the many obstacles she continues to face she keeps trying to get her story out.

She post regularly to her facebook page providing updates about her situation.

Sofia is also utilizing social media and is slowly and steadily gaining supporters who are offering advice and financial support.

She has an ask.fm page where she candidly answers any questions asked of her and a Rally page has been created to accept donations on her behalf.

Sofia’s ordeal has stirred passions in many.

Most are sympathetic to her plight, while others believe it is her mother’s right to do what she wishes.

Websites advertising Jim Robert’s law office has been bombarded by people expressing their opinions and virtually all of them have been negative.

Still, through it all, Sofia does not want any harm  to come to her mother or her stepfather and issued a plea on her Facebook page.

In her own words,

Out of all of this I am still waiting to see true results, because the last thing that I want is for people to just end up forgeting about all this after it dies down in the media a bit.

Let’s hope the power of the people can help this young girl return to the country that she loves and misses.

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