NATALIE BUILT HERSELF A BRIDGE WITH BRICKS THROWN AT HER

Page 39  CHAPTER  "ALL THAT GLITTERS"

NATALIE  (Born 1954 in Harbin, China of parents who hid that they were Jewish.)

"My name is Natalie.  I took all the bricks that were thrown at me and built a bridge.  Some Russian women wall themselves in; others try to take a shortcut and go down a self-destructive path.  Whether real, enhanced, or imagined, their colorful and melodramatic stories are often utilized to garner sympathy, empty wallets, and sometimes alter the lives of the unsuspecting American men that they target.  In these modern times, the trap is often times a website.  An attractive place where willing, young Russian women lay the bait for fantasy-driven American men.

To be put through a test in life is to have a testimony.  Some people find a purpose in their pain and do extraordinary things.  Others become victim - predators that do unto others what someone else has done to them.  And they do it with a vengeance, all the while smiling sweetly and making their victim feel like the love of their life.

But, as we all eventually learn, there are no shortcuts to success and happiness.  However, there are sacrifices great and small as well as faith, a determined and unwavering spirit, perseverance, hard work and, above all, a vision.  It is a vision of ourselves that is greater than our circumstances.

If I had a choice, I would have chosen a different set of circumstances for my life.  However, I took the lemons and made lemonade, then a lemon pie, and then a lemon pie manufacturing factory..."

SHATTERED DREAMS BROKEN PROMISES is C 2007 Michael Viner Phoenix Books