We love questions!
If you have any questions about Romania Reborn that are not addressed below, please reach out by contacting us.
1. Can I adopt a Romanian orphan through Romania Reborn?
Sadly, Romania closed its borders to international adoption in 2002. Only Romanian citizens are currently allowed to adopt from Romania. However, even before the law changed, our ministry focused exclusively on domestic (in-country) adoptions. We support and advocate the re-opening of international adoption, but our heart and calling is to see Romanians rise to the challenge of caring for the vulnerable children in their midst. As an American ministry, we see ourselves in a support role for national Romanians. We’re also actively working to spark an orphan care movement in the Romanian church. While we Americans cannot personally adopt Romanian children, we can make it possible for Romanian Christian families to do so—and that’s what RR does every day. This is a wonderful opportunity for Americans who have a heart for adoption, but are not currently in the position to adopt themselves.
2. Are you an orphanage?
No, we are an adoption ministry. In our early years, we did run a group home for young children. Even then, though, it wasn’t a long-term orphanage but rather a “halfway house,” where children stayed as we worked to find them forever families. Today, we have eliminated that aspect of our ministry, placing abandoned children directly into families. Our goal is to minimize or eliminate a child’s time in institutional care. We believe God’s ideal design is for every child to grow up in a family.
3. Where does all of your funding come from and where does it go?
Nearly every dollar we receive comes from faithful, individual donors just like you. We also receive regular support from a few churches. Since all our American staff work from their homes, we are able to eliminate a lot of overhead cost and send as much money as possible directly to Romania. There, it covers the salaries of our Romanian staff and all adoption-related expenses. We don’t charge our Romanian adoptive families anything for their adoptions, so the entire cost of social worker salaries, home studies, psychological care, court costs, and other paperwork is covered by Romania Reborn and its donors. If you would like to see our recent financial reports, please email us.
4. Why Romania?
Quite simply, we’re engaged in Romania because this is where God has called us. We believe that all believers should engage in some way with orphan care, and this is our “piece of the puzzle.” We’re drawn here partly because Romania suffered under an especially egregious form of Communism, which ingrained child abandonment into certain pockets of society. Romania’s legacy of neglect for abandoned children has an undeniable spiritual component. We believe that overcoming this legacy is a key task of the Romanian church, and that a national Christian orphan care movement will be a tremendous vehicle for the Gospel to be shared and demonstrated.
5. How many children are you actually helping?
There are roughly 60,000 children in state care in Romania, and just under 2,000 of them are being fostered or adopted each year. The numbers are hardly moving, because for each child adopted, another is abandoned. At any given time, our ministry is overseeing approximately 50 children—30 in pending adoptions and 20 in foster families. To date, we have placed over 400 orphans into forever families. Moving forward, we pray that God will widen our impact as we work to reform laws and build a new church-driven culture of orphan care.
6. What does the future look like for Romania Reborn?
We have clear plans and goals, but as in all God-directed ministry, we’ve learned to hold them loosely. We’ve seen many changes in our ministry and Romania itself over the years, but we’ve never seen God failing us or the children we serve. Our goal is to continue supporting our Romanian partners as they grow into national leaders in the field of orphan care. As God blesses financially, we see ourselves expanding our ministry—both in helping individual children and families, and in our advocacy for adoption culture-wide. We also hope to see our training and counseling programs grow, building strong resources for adoptive and foster families. We’re actively working to develop an aging-out program for our foster kids, which could be expanded to minister to children in state-run foster care.
Above all, we hope to see more and more children placed seamlessly into forever families, minimizing their time spent in state care. We are excited to see how God continues to use us in the future.
7. Can I come to Romania on a missions trip with Romania Reborn?
While in the past our ministry hasn’t lent itself to the traditional short-term mission trip, we’re working to develop options for the summer of 2020 and/or 2021. We’re also always open to visits or creative partnerships with our supporters. Currently, our American staff visits Romania yearly to reconnect with the ministry, check in on our Romanian staff, and visit the children. These visits include photography, videography, writing, and office work. There is also the potential to participate in local workshops, training, and encouragement for our families—especially if you have experience as an adoptive parent. We are always open to discussing with you directly to see how your skills and heart may be beneficial to our partners in Romania. Feel free to email us to talk further.
8. Is there any other way to help other than monetarily?
Yes! First off, we consider prayer a genuinely valuable part of any ministry you choose to dedicate yourself to. You can join our email updates that send out immediate prayer needs as they come. You can talk with your church about inviting us to speak to a Sunday School class, church missions event, or Orphan Sunday event. You can also come to our annual fall concert, which raises awareness and funds for our kids. Lastly, right now we are a small team based in the home of our Assistant Director in Fairfax, VA. She always loves company, coffee, and office help folding and licking envelopes, so contact her anytime via our contact page.