Adoptive mom gets Mother’s Day gift on TV

  • Published
  • By Amy Schiess
  • Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center
The first time she looked into the eyes of the skinny little 7-year-old with long, straggly, blonde hair, she had no idea she was facing what was to be her greatest challenge and deepest love.

But Marilyn Petricek, an employee in the Logistics Management Directorate here, said she did know that God had brought this foster child into her life for a reason, and she was going to make the most of it.

“I had always wanted a daughter named Savanna and they said, well, we have this little foster girl named Savanna, and I just knew it was her,” Petricek said. Department of Human Services officials then explained the child had been severely abused, was burned on 38 percent of her body, had to sleep in a burn suit, could not read, needed eyeglasses, had horrible nightmares, wet the bed and had infected teeth.

“They said all this stuff, and I’m like, ‘Man … she’s a mess. Are you sure this is the one I ordered?’”

Now 13, Savanna is Petricek’s greatest pride and biggest fan. To show appreciation for the years of sacrifice and care her adoptive mother invested in her bruised body and soul, Savanna wrote a letter to Oprah Winfrey.

It read, in part, “My mom, my angel, saved me. She was told I would never do well in school and that I would never play sports, but Marilyn (believe) in me. She adopted me and both of us never looked back.”

Within a couple weeks of writing the letter, the pair found themselves sitting in a Chicago studio telling their story for “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

“When they called me I was like, oh my gosh, you actually read it!” Savanna said.

She told her grandpa about possibly being on the show, and he said she had, “one chance in a million.”

“I told him no matter what, whatever it takes, I’m going to (meet Oprah),” she said.

Petricek said that same philosophy is what brought Savanna out of the depths of physical and emotional pain to be the well-adjusted teen she is today.

“She had so much courage just to survive and live,” Petricek said. “She had no one there to help her through those ugly days and ugly hours of lying in the hospital, not knowing what’s going to happen. There was no family there; there wasn’t anybody there but doctors and nurses.”

Savanna credits her turnaround to the force of a determined mother.

“I just feel so special to be so lucky to have a mother like Marilyn. Her love, she shows it in her eyes. Whenever she looks at you, you know she loves you. It’s unexplainable,” she said.

Savanna now plays basketball, tennis and softball, plays in the band, and has been on the honor roll for four years.

“She has just overcome so much, and she doesn’t feel sorry for herself, about her past or her scars,” Marilyn said. “She’s kind of forgotten about her past, and she’s just this incredibly happy kid now.”

Savanna said her happiness stems from feeling loved like never before.

“I want (people) to know what it is to be loved by her -- that’s the best thing in the world, just to be loved.”

Now, she will have the chance to tell the world about her mother on national television -- the best Mother’s Day gift Marilyn could imagine.

“It made me feel really good,” Petricek said. “I couldn’t believe she did that.”