This past June I met a young, newly married couple; she is Canadian and he is Romanian. They are currently living in Canada, but travel to Romania to visit his family.
While talking to the couple, they mentioned the desire to adopt an older child, preferably of Roma descent. Knowing that international adoption is closed, it was a foreign thought that adopting from Romania was an option. They, like many Romanians, did not know that adoption is available for Romanians living in America. This is why it’s so important to make Romanians living abroad to know that adoption is an option. In their own words below, you can see the passion and desire to adopt and love a child who desperately needs love:
Radu Pavel:
I was born in Bucharest in 1987. I left and moved to Canada in 2001. Growing up in Caransebes during the 1990s I spent part of my life in my street, my school courtyard and my classroom. Life in each of these places was filled with the faces of the children playing in them. We were outside all day long. Dirty, dusty, scratched and bruised, all in the same situations, unknowingly sharing similarities in lifestyle, and knowingly sharing life similarly. We all played the same games.
As an adult I see a little child in me that was, as any child is today, a child that loves adventure and hangs on to it. But I was blessed with a family to supply the things I needed. For years I have been returning home, visiting. Every time I see a child I feel myself inwardly turning into a father, wishing I could buy a meal, or tell a story, or teach how to swim, or how to ride a bike, even just one of these things.
I know I will adopt a child because I already feel like a father. I know nothing about the process, and I have zero experience. But I know the feelings and I know I have a chance to share with another life, the things God has blessed me with, in my life. I love my child now, before I’ve met him. I will love my child as I care and parent, and I will love him as I release him into the world as a grown-up. I cannot say to anyone what benefits I might receive, what joys, or blessings from adopting. I truly do not know. But I can tell anyone of a few of the things that my child will receive, a loving mother and father, committed to providing safety, security, family and love.
Alice Pavel:
I first knew that I would adopt about eleven years ago after hearing a radio program that spoke about some horrific things that children go through in specific orphanages. I know of course that most orphanages are good and do the best they can with their limited resources; however, that radio program broke my heart and left it forever open towards adoption. I fully believe that God has a family for every child that is born and sometimes, for whatever reason, the woman who carries that baby may not be able to keep it. But then what? That child still deserves a family. It still deserves to be loved and cherished, taught and played with. For me the question wasn’t ‘should I adopt’ rather ‘why wouldn’t I adopt.’
In North America we have so much abundance, so much to offer, but even if you feel that your resources are limited do you think that child will care? I do not. I think that child would choose love. That he or she has concerns only to be loved, to be a part of a family. Will our adopted child care that his father is Romanian and that I, his mother am Canadian? I do not think so, I think he will only care that he is loved, that his life will forever be easier and changed because we chose to love him and be committed to him before we even met him.
I was once asked if I thought I could love my adopted children as much as I would love my birth children. My answer was, “Of course I will.” This child is already a part of me. Though I do not know him yet, I know without a doubt that our home is where he is meant to be. Even though this will be a foreign country and language to him, he will adapt in time and we will fall in love with him just as he will fall in love with us. Here is where he is meant to be. Here is where his family is, where his new happy, stable life will begin.