Nadia Bloom: 'I Thought I Was Never Going To Be Found Out There'
Nadia described the animals she saw, eating plants and sleeping in a hollow log.
April 26, 2010— -- The 11-year-old girl who was missing for four days described how she survived the dangerous Florida swamp and said she was scared and worried no one would ever find her.
"I really wanted to see nature and take pictures. But I didn't know I was going to get lost," Nadia Bloom told "GMA" today.
Nadia disappeared April 9 after she asked her parents if she could go on a bike ride. For four days, police and volunteers canvassed the surrounding area until she was found by volunteer searcher James King April 13.
Nadia tried to signal a helicopter from the swamp but said she kept missing it and was "excited" when she saw King.
"I thought I was never going to be found out there. But it turned out I was, and that was the exciting part," Nadia said.
Nadia has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, but her parents said that was not likely a factor in her disappearance.
"She's not going to wander off, necessarily," Nadia's mother, Tanya Bloom, said last week. "This wasn't because of that [the Asperger's]. This was because she was curious."
Nadia described the animals she saw in the swamp, including lizards, a snake, an eagle, hawks and owls, saying they were "kind of cool."
The 11-year-old said she ate plants and slept in a hollow log, under a bush or on a tree stump at night.
"I tried to eat a fern but it was so gross that I spit it out. ... There were these plants, and they have spongy insides, and you can eat them and they're green. I ate those," Nadia said.
Nadia's mother said getting through those four days was "very very difficult" for the family.
"There were moments that we were hopeful with either news, or just encouraged by friends and family. We had a great support community out there," Tanya Bloom said. "But there were also times when it was really hard to hold onto that help, especially when it became dark, which seemed to come really really quickly. The night time was probably the worst."
Family members relied on their faith to help them through the ordeal, Tanya Bloom told Robin Roberts.
Bloom Family Relied on Faith
"The sense of our community, the support we had from the police department, to our neighbors, to our friends, to our church family, was really incredible. Between our faith and our community, that's what helped us," Tanya Bloom said.
Nadia told "GMA" she was "glad" when she got to the hospital, even though she had to use a fake name because of all of the media attention. Her mother said one of the first questions Nadia asked was "Am I in trouble now?" Tanya Bloom told her daughter no.
Other than a few scratches, bruises, some dehydration and a lot of bug bites, Nadia was perfectly fine, and her father said she continues to recover "remarkably well."
The day after Nadia was found her doctor, Mary Farrell, said Nadia's condition was remarkable because "she's had no fever. She's doing well, eating and drinking."
The Day Nadia Disappeared
On the day she disappeared, Nadia had asked her mother if she could take a quick bike ride and took her backpack "for her treasures," Tanya Bloom said.
When she didn't come back, the search expanded from a couple neighbors to police with bloodhounds, and then the entire community rallied to the search.
"One of the darkest times you feel is right before nightfall when the night is coming," Jeff Bloom said the day after his daughter was found. "You don't know where she is or how she is. ... You don't know if she's scared or crying. Your heart just breaks."
But while they were worrying at home, Tanya Bloom said Nadia said she was praying in the swamps, saying, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."
It was the same prayer King said when he brought Nadia out of the swamp April 13.
Nadia Bloom's Rescuer: 'God Led Me to Her'
The man who found Nadia said God told him to "follow the sunrise" into the heart of a treacherous swamp where the girl awaited rescue on a log.
"He [God] directed my path," volunteer searcher James King told "Good Morning America" last week. "When you're in a swamp, there's no good-looking way. He led me directly to her. ... I would be praying and calling out Scriptures, and at one point I called out, 'Nadia,' and I heard, 'What?'
"That's a huge swamp," he said. "It was strictly the Lord. There was no mathematical calculations. It was the Holy Spirit directing me to where he knew she was the whole time."
Although she had been wandering lost in the swamp for four days, Nadia was calm and matter-of-fact about her situation, King said, only a little disappointed he didn't have any M&Ms on him.
"I don't know what we talked about. I told her she was very brave," King said. "She did say she only slept about two hours a night ... [and] she'd seen a black snake at some point.
"But God kept her safe," he said.
Rescuers covered in mud and brandishing machetes emerged from the Florida swamp April 13, carrying Nadia on a stretcher through dense alligator-infested wilderness.
King said the swamp was so dense it took officials around two hours to get to the pair after his 911 call.
Nadia politely jumped in on that emergency phone call.
"Hi, this is Nadia," she said. "I'm the girl that got lost."
King called police from his cell phone at 8:30 a.m., telling them he found the girl. Police pinged his cell phone to determine the general location from where he was calling but only pinpointed him when the rescuer climbed a tree and threw a roll of toilet paper to signal a passing police helicopter.
When rescuers reached Nadia, she said, "I'm glad you guys found me. I can't believe you rescued me," Winter Springs Police Chief Kevin Brunelle said after the rescue.
"If I never believed in miracles, I sure do now," Brunelle said.