St. Paul (AP) _ A 61–year–old woman faces a prison term of 16 years and eight months in the stabbing of her two daughters at their Roseville home last August.

Sylvia Sieferman pleaded guilty in May to two counts of attempted second–degree murder.

She admitted she attacked her two adopted daughters from China, both 11 at the time, with a knife and ax.

Friends had said she was under financial pressures, and prosecutors said sieferman feared her daughters would be placed in foster care.

At Thursday’s sentencing, Ramsey county attorney Susan Gaertner called it ``a case that is tragic beyond words.''

(COPYRIGHT 2009 BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)