Ava: Home from the Hospital

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages throughout Romania, one baby girl is safe where she belongs: at home, with a family who loves her.

It could have been very different. “Ava” was born into poverty and neglect. Malnutrition sent her to the hospital multiple times during her first year of life. She was finally taken into custody by child protective services and would probably have been placed in a center, but our social workers learned of her case. We matched her with a waiting family, who took her home last fall.

Today, Ava is healing from her first year of neglect, gradually gaining strength, and bonding with her new family. She needs a corrective surgery, which is delayed due to the pandemic, but otherwise she is thriving.

Romanian news recently reported the story of ten newborn babies infected with COVID-19 by staff negligence at a maternity hospital. This underscores what we have already seen throughout two decades of ministry: systems and institutions are not where children belong. Every child needs, deserves, and belongs in a family.

We're so thankful Ava has one.

What you can do:

Pray for Ava. Ask God to help her have surgery soon, and heal from it well. Pray that her placement in her family can be made permanent with no difficulty, once Romania reopens. To join our email prayer team and get timely requests, click below.

Give toward our ministry. We have rescued more than 400 babies and children like Ava, placing them in forever families — but many more are waiting. Your one-time or recurring gift helps cover all the costs, which average around $4,000 per adoption. No Romanian parent pays anything — all costs are covered by our donors.

Gideon: Eagerly Awaiting Adoption

“Gideon” is the most sparkly five-year-old you could ever hope to meet. When I first met him last summer at a day camp for our foster and adopted kids, I fell in love with his boisterous, hilarious personality. He never sat still, and he never stopped hamming it up for the camera.

But when we told the story of the paralytic healed by Jesus, and talked about the various ways Jesus heals us, Gideon grew quiet. He lifted his shirt and showed the scar on his stomach—a testament to multiple surgeries he’s undergone to save his young life. Severely neglected and then abandoned as a baby, he nearly died from intestinal issues which were exacerbated by malnutrition.

But everything changed for Gideon when we placed him into a family. As all good parents do, they advocated for him, fought for him, and made sure he got the treatment he needed. Today he is experiencing healing in every way.

Gideon’s adoption is still in process. It was delayed first by the Romanian government, and now by the coronavirus outbreak. But the moment we can start working on his case again, we will. And with your help, we’ll also fight for the many other children still waiting to be healed in a family.

What you can do:

Pray for Gideon’s case to be finalized. Ask God to smooth out every detail and make his adoption permanent as soon as possible. To join our email prayer team and get timely requests, click below.

Give toward our ministry. Your one-time or recurring gift will help us finalize Gideon’s case and rescue more children like him from abandonment. No Romanian parent pays anything — all costs are covered by our donors.

Simon: Home Just in Time

In mid-March, we asked you to pray for “Simon,” a newborn baby who had been abandoned in the maternity hospital. Even though all non-emergency functions of the child welfare department had been shut down, our hope was to place Simon in a family under an emergency order.

We’re thrilled to report that the child welfare department did place Simon into a family, who hopes to eventually become his forever family. Although this placement didn’t happen through our foundation, our director’s advocacy made a difference in getting Simon into the arms of a mom and dad.

As the COVID-19 crisis grows more acute in Romania, we’re so thankful that Simon is out of the hospital, and in a home, where he belongs.

What you can do:

Praise God with us. Thank Him for answering our prayers and helping Simon find a mom and dad just in time. Thank God for the child welfare department who prioritized his needs, even in the midst of a crisis. Ask God to help Simon bond with his new family, grow healthy and strong, and eventually come to know the love of Christ. To join our email prayer team and get timely requests, click below.

Give toward our ministry. Your one-time or recurring gift will help us rescue children from abandonment and place them in families. No Romanian parent pays anything — all costs are covered by our donors.

Samuel: Quarantined in a Hospital

As the nation of Romania is locked down to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, little “Samuel” is spending his days in the hospital. Which is just the same place he has spent every day in his few months of life.

Born with Down syndrome and abandoned at birth, Samuel also suffers from heart defects. He’s already had one surgery, but fluid continues to collect in his heart and require draining. He likely needs a second surgery, but with the pandemic, everything is on hold.

Also on hold: Samuel’s placement in a family. We were able to match him with a wonderfully loving mother, who has already adopted multiple children from our ministry. (That’s her meeting Samuel in the video.) But she can’t take him home until he gets the surgery he needs, and he can’t get the surgery until the crisis passes. Visits are scarce, since Samuel’s would-be parents live in another region of Romania.

What you can do:

Pray daily for Samuel. Ask God to help this tiny child feel His presence in his hospital bed. Pray for comforters to come in the form of loving nurses and hospital staff. Thank God for the family who loves him already. Ask God to allow him to have a successful surgery soon, and join his new family. To join our email prayer team and get timely requests, click below.

Give toward our ministry. Your one-time or recurring gift will help us cover court fees and social worker hours to process children’s cases. No Romanian parent pays anything — all costs are covered by our donors.

Nora: Quarantined in an Orphanage

Imagine if, instead of spending the next few weeks at home surrounded by family, you were locked inside a government institution, surrounded by miserable inmates and abusive staff.

It may sound like prison, but it applies equally to life under quarantine in a Romanian state orphanage. For 16-year-old Nora, this has been daily reality since Romania instituted a strict lockdown to combat coronavirus.

Nora wasn’t always in the orphanage. From age three to thirteen, she lived with a family in our private foster program. But when her beloved foster mother passed away from cancer, Nora had difficulty bonding with her second family. When the government seized our case files two years ago in a hostile move against NGOs, they placed Nora in an orphanage.

Since then, our ministry director, Corina, has never forgotten Nora, visiting her regularly in the orphanage and working to get her in a family again. But now that’s all on hold. For now, Nora clings to electronic communication with the outside world, messaging with Corina every day, but it’s barely enough. Deprived of anything outside the orphanage walls, Nora and her fellow residents are struggling to keep their spirits up.

What you can do:

Pray daily for Nora. Ask God to be her ever-present friend and comforter throughout these days of isolation. Ask God to strengthen her and protect her from emotionally abusive staff. Ask God to help us remove her from the institution once Romania gets back to work. To join our email prayer team and get timely requests, click below.

Give toward our ministry. After a successful lawsuit against the government, we’ve recently regained the ability to place children in families. Your one-time or recurring gift will help us remove children from institutions and systems and place them with moms and dads, where they belong.