Sherry Lynne was only two weeks old when she was placed in her first foster home, but it wouldn't be her last. The Children's Aid Society records show that her mother tried desperately to provide adequate care for her first-born child, and the baby was in and out of foster care and back with her birth mother several times before she was made a ward of the crown and subsequently adopted.
To those looking in from the outside, it may have seemed the perfect solution, but it wouldn't be until nearly 30 years later that the truth would finally come out. This baby girl had been adopted into a physically and emotionally abusive home.
As a young child, Sherry Lynne tried to run away several times, and was finally successful at age 11 when she fled to the streets of Toronto and subsequently lost herself in the dark underworld of child prostitution.
Although she would consider herself a willing partner in most of the transactions, Sherry Lynne estimates that she was a victim of rape at least 500 times. For some of the more brutal sexual assaults, she can recall each moment and every emotion, and the scars remain to this day. At that time in her life Sherry Lynne says she blamed God. "Jesus was supposed to love all the children of the world. Why didn't He love me? Why didn't He take care of me? Why was it that all of the adults and authorities weren't there for this child?"
The decision to tell her life story was not an easy one, and many tears were shed in the process as Sherry Lynne recounted the painful details of her journey for her biography. The conversations took place on the phone over a period of six months, totaling approximately 200 hours. The resulting book, Where Was God? The Life Story of Sherry Lynne, launched recently in Olds, Alberta, where Sherry Lynne spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people, many of them friends from the church she has attended for the past 14 years.
Asked about her motivation for sharing her life story, Sherry Lynne says, "I want to share with people the answer to the question: Where was God? And I want to challenge them to think about: Where was the Church?
"I want to tell people that anyone can have this experience [of God's saving grace]. I want to tell them that this is what the Lord can do. Embrace it! Enjoy it!
"And I want to tell them that I now do have someone in my corner; someone in my life who will stick up for me. It is Jesus."
To those looking in from the outside, it may have seemed the perfect solution, but it wouldn't be until nearly 30 years later that the truth would finally come out. This baby girl had been adopted into a physically and emotionally abusive home.
As a young child, Sherry Lynne tried to run away several times, and was finally successful at age 11 when she fled to the streets of Toronto and subsequently lost herself in the dark underworld of child prostitution.
Although she would consider herself a willing partner in most of the transactions, Sherry Lynne estimates that she was a victim of rape at least 500 times. For some of the more brutal sexual assaults, she can recall each moment and every emotion, and the scars remain to this day. At that time in her life Sherry Lynne says she blamed God. "Jesus was supposed to love all the children of the world. Why didn't He love me? Why didn't He take care of me? Why was it that all of the adults and authorities weren't there for this child?"
The decision to tell her life story was not an easy one, and many tears were shed in the process as Sherry Lynne recounted the painful details of her journey for her biography. The conversations took place on the phone over a period of six months, totaling approximately 200 hours. The resulting book, Where Was God? The Life Story of Sherry Lynne, launched recently in Olds, Alberta, where Sherry Lynne spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people, many of them friends from the church she has attended for the past 14 years.
Asked about her motivation for sharing her life story, Sherry Lynne says, "I want to share with people the answer to the question: Where was God? And I want to challenge them to think about: Where was the Church?
"I want to tell people that anyone can have this experience [of God's saving grace]. I want to tell them that this is what the Lord can do. Embrace it! Enjoy it!
"And I want to tell them that I now do have someone in my corner; someone in my life who will stick up for me. It is Jesus."
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