LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Thirteen years ago, Michael and Kristine Barnett welcomed Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian orphan who was purportedly only six years old, into their family via adoption. When the child was first brought into the adoptive parents' Indiana home, they were ecstatic, but soon their world was turned upside down.
Gradually, Michael and Kristine began to doubt that Natalia was an adult at the time of the adoption. They even went so far as to have her age officially amended by 14 years.
Additionally, they said she made death threats against them and their loved ones, which Natalia continues to refute. Meanwhile, her biological mother insisted Natalia was a child when she was given up for adoption.
'I didn't want to leave her'
Anna Gava, Natalia's biological mother, reveals why she gave her daughter up for adoption in a new Investigation Discovery docuseries called 'The Curious Case of Natalia Grace'. She described having a "difficult" delivery with Natalia at the time. She said, "When I regained consciousness after anesthesia, the next day the doctor came and said there is no sense to take her home. They said that she won't be able to walk at all and she will be of very short stature," she revealed via a translator. Anna added, "I didn't initially want to leave her but the doctors said there is nothing you could do for her. 'You are young,' they said. 'You are 24 years old. Don't ruin your life, you will have other children," as reported by Mirror.
'I was simply shocked'
Natalia's birth mother began to cry as she talked before confessing that she had been thinking about Natalia "all those years." Anna commented on Natalia's situation in America by saying, "When I found out what happened, that she was abandoned at the age of 13 alone in an apartment, I was simply shocked, obviously."
Natalia Grace, who was thought to be a six-year-old orphan from Ukraine, was adopted by Michael and Kristine Barnett in 2010. The couple was shocked to discover that she was actually an adult woman with spondyloepiphyseal dwarfism. Natalia was only pretending to be a child, and she had evil plans for her adoptive parents.
The Barnetts claimed Natalia threatened to stab them and their biological children, spiked Kristine's coffee, and did "as much as possible to cause hurt, harm, or mental distress to the entire family." They said that medical professionals who were reportedly attending to her warned them she "is a sociopath" and "a con artist," as reported by Daily Mail.
