Salvatorii de suflete

Thank you for visiting! 

We would like to share with you an exciting interview that was done with our family- our adopted children and the children from our family center, “The House of Joy.”    The title of the program was, “Do you know how your child is doing?” based on a year-long campaign which was conducted to expose some of the many issues concerning Romania’s children.   The show was aired on national TV on December 1st which is a holiday for Romanians, the day they remember their unification as a country.

There were many sad stories told that day, we are privileged that ours was chosen as well….hopefully to inspire hope in Romania’s children and to give the adults a different perspective in how they view the orphans.   

The English translation of the show (the narration and dialogue) is below and to see the video, you can click here.      Enjoy !

Sometimes, a child who seems condemned is saved from where he leasts expects it.

Coming all the way from America, a young woman did what many Romanians, who are searching for a perfect child, avoid doing. She adopted, together with her husband, four children, either gypsy or with serious medical problems, who they treated with love and transformed into perfect children.

A lesson for all those who don’t understand that there is no greater treasure than the life of a child you have saved.

Rebekah is the one who saved all of those who are in the family picture. Each of them with a similar story, from the father to the smallest ones, were abandoned by their parents. So the young American came to Romania to save souls that she took by her side. And now they are happy.

George, who Rebekah met 8 years ago when she was a volunteer in placement centers in Hunedoara.

(George) “I lived in an orphanage where there were 110 children. Everything around us was dark, of course a lot of sadness, a lot of emptiness in our souls. We were treated like numbers.”

He was one of the children in the 90’s who shocked the whole world.

Images of them, begging for love, made thousands of foreigners want to adopt them. George wasn’t one of them because he had parents who didn’t visit him. His mother saw him again when he was 18 years old, when she found out he was in a foster home. She had with her a little girl, one and a half years old, George’s youngest sister. She asked him to take care of her because she was ready to give birth to her 11^th child.

(George) “She went home with the newborn baby, in two weeks, the baby died. My mom said that it was because of complications with the intestines, the neighbors said it was because of neglect.”

Then they decided not to let Mihaela go home anymore, to her parents, because she would be in danger, and Rebekah offered to take care of her.

George also became attached to Rebekah and later asked her to marry him. She left her quiet life in America, her parents and friends, to change destinies in Romania.. because she believed there was still a chance for some of the many children forgotten by their parents and authorities. She has no regrets because the family she has now offers her the greatest joy.

Looking at Daniel, the second adopted child, she feels like she saved a life. She met him in a hospital in a section for sick children. The doctors didn’t give him a chance. They (George and Rebekah) treated him with love and now Daniel is a child who is developing very well.

(Rebekah) “I visited him for a year and a half at the hospital and the orphanage. And after that I took him too in foster care. And after three years, I adopted him.”

(George) “this child touched her heart. She went day after day…you could see he didn’t even have a voice to cry anymore, you can die that way, then there was created a connection.”

They already had two children when life brought two more in their path.

They were at the orphanage Micul Print in Brasov, which was closing and the workers didn’t know what to do with the twins, Alin and Andreea, who nobody wanted to adopt.

Now, Mihaela is the artist of the house, Daniel the ‘sports guy’, registered at a judo club, his dad’s pride, Alin is a big lover of movies, and Andreea, a promising young voice in pop music.

Their children are lucky. Other children like them ended up in other centers, just as big and dark, or on the streets after the large orphanages were closed. And because they (George and Rebekah) wanted to help other kids, they opened a private home, in Sacele, where 8 children are raised like in a family.

Nicoleta is the oldest of the kids. She is 15 years old and you can see on her face that she has suffered a lot. In recent years, she has lived with different American families, who couldn’t adopt her. She doesn’t like to talk about herself. She prefers to express herself through drawing.

Ema is the youngest. She is smart and likes stories about princesses. She talks a lot

about the tooth fairy, about her perfectly clean room, about some earrings she wants. She is 6 years old and her mother left her at the center because she couldn’t raise her. Ema is one of the adoptable children, who are waiting for parents to come, to take her and to do a miracle in her life.

George and Rebekah do a miracle every day. For children, the warmth of a home means as much as 1,000 toys.

(George) “We are not trying to give people a lesson. We just want to show the world that these kids deserve a second chance. Their first chance was taken against their will. They are not guilty for being orphans.”

Rebekah doesn’t know now if other children will have a place in their lives because she is sure that they choose you. They transmit their need for help and ultimately, people shouldn’t look for the perfect child. Because every child is perfect. You just need to give them a chance at a normal life and you will receive in turn the smiles of happy children.