Daniel was born on 27th May 1990 in Suceava, northern Romania. His mother Aurelia was a farm worker; a young widow with three other sons all under 10 who she was struggling to bring up alone since her husband had died, in a house about the size of a British domestic garage. Who knows who Daniel’s father was – a casual worker on the farm where she worked, or a gipsy perhaps. She may not have known herself. She certainly hadn’t planned to get pregnant again – there was no way she could afford to feed another child, it was hard enough managing to feed the ones she already had. So Aurelia took the tough decision to take Daniel to the nearby orphanage to be cared for. During the time of dictator Ceaucescu contraception was banned in Romania and couples were actively encouraged to have large families. The revolution left many families desperately poor and it was common for them give their children over to orphanages where they would at least be given rudimentary care. The result of this was that the orphanages became overcrowded, there wasn’t enough food to go round and the staff struggled to cope. I’m sure you remember seeing the terrible pictures on the TV.
Eight months later, Bryan and I met our son for the first time.
We were unable to have children of our own. We had tried IVF twice, and the second time I believe I was pregnant for a week. The whole process was incredibly traumatic though, so eventually we took the decision to apply to adopt, and so at the end of 1990 we were on the waiting list for a baby. We had been warned however that it could be quite a long wait. We were away with some friends for the weekend, and the subject of the Romanian orphans came up, and someone said “why don’t you try and adopt one of them?” We had absolutely no idea how to even begin to go about doing such a thing, however it was only about a week later that we had a letter from some other friends, saying they had just adopted a baby girl from Romania! Coincidence? Some Divine plan? I leave that up to you to decide - we have our own views. Our friends Richard and Pauline gave us lots of practical help and advice and put us in touch with an English speaking guy who worked at the orphanage in Suceava where their little girl had come from. And so in January 1991 we made the journey to Romania to look for a baby to adopt. And found Daniel.
That's such a cool story. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteDeebs, lovely start to your blog. Thank you for sharing and I look forward to Part II.
ReplyDeleteDeevs x
Deevs, Lovely start to the blog as Deevs said, Looking forward to more.
ReplyDeletePete
A friend (no longer with us) already had a very large family, but was quite well off, and he and his wife were both very moved by the plight of the Romanian orphans, and also decided to adopt. My friend didn't make too many sensible decisions in his short life, indeed he ended up drinking himself to death, a process that at the time was rather well documented in the national press (he was a quite well known actor, I won't name him for the sake of his families privacy). However,the decision to adopt the little boy was certainly the best decision he and his wife ever made. I see a lot of similarities in your families story of adoption, and I am so pleased that you have all found each other. My friends son is now a man, and often talks of how different his life could have been. I honestly believe that adoption is one of the greatest gifts that both the adopter and the adoptee can have, and I look forwards very much to another slice of your and Daniels story. Thank you so much for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteOne television programme that I still vividly remember to this day is Challenge Anneka where they went to an orphanage in Siret, Romania. The challenge as you probably remember was to renovate the orphanage, vastly improving the appalling conditions that the children and staff had to face daily. I have really enjoyed reading your first post Debbie, and look forward to reading the next instalment. I may have to reach for the 'Mansize', as I did when watching the programme! But I know that Daniel's story has a happy ending. Hope I'm not giving anything away there!
ReplyDeleteJackie x
Thank you so much for sharing Daniel's story with us ~ so heartwarming that you were blessed with him coming into your lives and that he has been blessed with you as his parents.
ReplyDeleteA teacher from our church became involved with a Romanian orphanage some years ago, and our church supports them. It was heart breaking to see video & photos of the orphanage when Iona first got involved. But the work they have done in retraining the staff and providing a good environment for the children has been amazing.
God bless.
Love,
Susan