In 2015 a young woman who had begun a modeling career in Lituania and Japan was excited to come to LA to be able to model on the world stage. Sadly many young women are not aware of which of these ‘offers’ is legitimate and which are not. One big red flag is when an ‘agent’ takes physical possession of all identifying documents, ID, Social Security Card, birth certificate, or passport.

Her ‘agent’ soon became her ‘boyfriend’ and within a short time she was pregnant. His initial response indicated he was excited about becoming a father and this would not interfere with getting her modeling career going.

In LA he told her that her documents had been lost at the ‘office’, therefore he was unable to send her out on any modeling auditions. However, he had heard of an opportunity to do some shoe modeling in Las Vegas, and his friend would allow them to stay in his apartment. That apartment was located in a known trafficking district in Las Vegas.

Shortly after arriving in Las Vegas, he changed his mind and told Odeta that he was not ready to become a dad, and that she would not be able to complete jobs while pregnant, thus he wanted her to have an abortion. She resisted and he got angry and violent. He insisted he was going to take her to the abortion provider himself.

Fortunately, he took her to First Choice Pregnancy Services instead which is an alternative to abortion. When she explained to the client advocate her dilemma, the advocate called Las Vegas Metro Police who arrived and escorted her to the Las Vegas domestic violence shelter.

Safe House is not equipped to assist pregnant women, so Odeta was referred to Living Grace Homes. At Living Grace Homes, she was able to contact her embassy in Chicago and begin the process of getting her documents replaced. The embassy was also able to find a family in Chicago, where she was safe from the ‘boyfriend’ and able to begin to rebuild her life. She did some modeling in Chicago for local department stores before her daughter was born. Between the family in Chicago and her Embassy, she was able to get on her feet.

Odeta sent pictures of her modeling, and pictures of the baby girl when she was born. Then we didn’t hear from her again for close to five years!

In December of 2021, Odeta reached out to the Executive Director, her email started like so many others over the years, “I don’t know if you remember me but…”. Odeta was applying for citizenship and needed verification that she had indeed been a victim of deception and domestic violence. Foreign victims of domestic violence get preference in the immigration process. Kathleen was happy to provide such verification.

Odeta and her beautiful daughter now live safely in a Southwest state. The hearing for immigration is scheduled for January 17, 2023. Please keep them in your prayers! 

Living Grace Homes mission is to pregnant and parenting young moms who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless. However, as you can imaging, in caring for this population means we have young women who are victims of sex trafficking, domestic violence, and substance abuse.

We do not pretend to be experts in all of these fields so we collaborate with other non-profits, who DO focus on those areas of trauma to assure we are providing the best opportunity for young moms to thrive.