A father prayed the Rosary daily for the return of his daughter after she'd been kidnapped by ISIS in 2014. His prayers were finally answered as six-year-old Christina has been restored to her family.

When ISIS troops ravaged northern Iraq in August 2014, Christina, then three years old, was snatched from her mother's arms by an ISIS militant in their home town of Bakhdida, Iraq. Christina's father, Khouder Ezzo, never gave up hope of seeing his daughter again and prayed the Rosary every day for her return.

During an interview published Tuesday,June 20, Fr. Ignatius Oggy, a Syrian Catholic priest and longtime friend of the family, is calling the little girl's return a miracle. "What happened with Christina, her family and with us is a 'divine miracle,'" exclaimed Fr. Oggy.

Just before ISIS militia forced Christina's family to board a bus leaving Bakhdida on August 22, 2014, a terrorist yanked Christina from her mother and ordered the family to get on the bus or die. The last memory of their scared daughter was watching her crying as she was being carried away over the shoulder of a non-Iraqi ISIS fighter.

Father Oggy told Aid to the Church In Need (ACN) that he came from the same region as the Ezzo family. "The families in our region know each other, and we all have close social ties," related Fr. Oggy. He added that as a priest, he's been trying to locate many children abducted by ISIS since the group attacked their region on August 6, 2014. "I have submitted the list of persons whose fate is still unknown to many individuals, organizations and associations. Among these names, of course, was Christina — the youngest of them all."

Christina's father told the priest about the abduction and kept asking people in the region about his daughter's whereabouts. A relative relayed to the father that Christina had been seen with an ISIS soldier near a mosque in the region. Then all communications were cut off as the war raged. "Her father prayed the Rosary each day for her safe return," noted Fr. Oggy. "He kept the pictures of saints next to Christina's image on the inner walls of the caravan where they lived during their involuntary exile."

Five months after her kidnapping, a friend of the family sent word that Christina had been taken in by a Muslim family in war-torn Mosul, a distant town in the same northern region of Iraq. The Muslim family had found Christina near a mosque in town and took her in with the intention of returning the girl to her parents if and when the military fighting stopped.

Communications were sporadic for the next two years, Fr. Oggy continued. The story of her abduction was spread throughout foreign and Arabic news agencies that met with Christina's family. When fighting became intense around Mosul, the Muslim family moved with Christina to a safer location and was able to contact Christina's father. On the morning of June 10, almost three years after her abduction, the two families met and six-year-old Christina was finally back in the arms of her parents.

Father Oggy referred to Christina's restoration with her family as a type of "fourth birth" for the girl and gives thanks to God:

"This is the fourth birth of the child Christina. The first time when she was born to her parents, the second time was at her baptism, the third time was when a Muslim family adopted and took care of her during the period she was lost and finally when she was returned to her family and Christian community. Christina was given a new life."

The priest isn't aware of any other success stories regarding children kidnapped by ISIS forces. "I do not know of any other children, other than Christina, who have been liberated and returned to their families," affirmed the priest. "What I do know is that we have many Christians who were captured by Islamic State but have not been heard of since."