WATCH: Cleveland Kidnapping Victims Amanda Berry, Gina Dejesus and Michelle Knight Break Their Silence After Kidnapper Ariel Castro Pleads Not Guilty [VIDEO]
Amanda Berry, Gina Dejesus and Michelle Knight, the three Cleveland women who survived 10 years in captivity, released a joint video Tuesday to thank their supporters and show how far they've come in the two months since their dramatic and unexpected rescue.
"I want everyone to know how happy I am to be home with my family and my friends. It's been unbelievable," said Amanda Berry, now 27.
"I may have been through hell and back," said Michelle Knight, 32, "but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face, and with my head held high, and my feet firmly on the ground."
Knight, DeJesus and Berry - along with Berry's 6-year-old daughter, Jocylen, allegedly fathered by the young women's accused captor, Ariel Castro - were freed May 6 from the squalid two-story house where they'd been locked and sometimes chained, after neighbors heard Berry's cry for help while Castro was away.
Castro has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and murder charges stemming from aborted pregnancies.
The 3-minute video posted on YouTube was filmed July 2 at the Cleveland office of the Jones Day law firm, whose attorneys, are all donating their work on the women's behalf.
"God has a plan for all of us," she said in her video statement. "The plan that He gave me was to help others that have been in the same situations I have been in. To know that there's someone out there to lean on, and to talk to. I am in control of my own destiny with the guidance of God.
"I have no problem expressing how I feel inside," she added. "Be positive. Learn that it's [more] important to give than to receive. Thank you for all your prayers. I'm looking forward to my brand-new life."
Watch the video:
