She spent the last 19 years in captivity, now a woman kidnapped from an Oklahoma school is working hard to make a new life for herself and her nine children.
In Part Two of a 2 Works For You exclusive, we take you inside the life of Rosalynn McGinnis since she's regained her freedom.
Related story: Watch Part One of Rosalynn McGinnis' brave journey to freedom
McGinnis disappeared when she was 12 - kidnapped by her stepfather in Wagoner County.
“He was never a stepfather,” McGinnis said. “He was a child predator who moved into my neighborhood and targeted my family.”
Beaten and sexually abused she says almost daily. She had nine children with her captor.
They lived in tents, dilapidated buildings. Never anything resembling a home.
They spent the most time deep in Mexico, until an American woman and her husband living there did the math and helped Mcginnis escape.
"...And she turned to me and goes ‘I've been waiting 20 years for somebody to do the math and figure out that a 15-year-old or 16-year-old shouldn't have babies like this,’” Lisa said.
McGinnis’ stepfather now behind bars in Wagoner County and is charged with kidnapping and rape.
McGinnis is now 34 and living in Missouri.
She and her children are trying to start a new life and to replace bad memories with good ones.
A kind couple has agreed to let her rent-to-own one of their rental homes. But it needs a lot of work.
Mcginnis is determined.
None of her children have ever known what it's like to have a home. Or their own beds.
Hardened and not showing any weakness, Mcginnis would never tell you how hard things are.
But her cousin, Dana Archuleta, has seen the nightmares and the struggles first hand.
“She doesn't really ask for help,” Archuleta said. “I mean she – even last night, I think I was talking about dinner or something she was like ‘Hey, by the way, do you have like one cup of laundry soap so I can do one load of laundry’? And I said ‘I will bring you more than a cup of laundry soap.’ So she doesn't want to be a bother sometimes that's conveyed as being OK. And they have a lot of needs, so not always OK”
Archuleta took in McGinnis and all of the children – to be the family McGinnis hasn't had for 20 years.
Her No. 1 goal - stability and she hopes that will come with the house.
“She's actually been spending quite a bit of time over there [at the rental home] trying to clean it. She's been washing down every wall and every room and everything else,” Archuleta said.
McGinnis is now determined to help find other missing people.
She recently went out with volunteers at her new home in Kansas City to search - and found two missing young people.
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