On December 12, 1990 we landed in Bucharest,
Romania. It was midnight and the airport lobby was dimly lit as we
bravely opened our luggage for the customs officer. Three men with
machine guns were standing nearby as we held tightly to our money belts.
It had only been a few months after the assassination of Romania’s
Dictator and the fall of Communism in Romania.
Looking back now I am so thankful for the one phone
call that changed our lives. I picked up the phone and heard, “we have
a little girl for you, catch the next plane to Bucharest, Romania.”
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Frank and Diana Curcio with their
adopted daughter Natalie Nicoleta
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At 2 A.M. in the morning we were escorted down a
dark hallway to a small room. I’ll never forget the first moment we
saw our daughter, she was so tiny and frail. As we held her in
our arms, we were moved with emotion.
Remember
back in 1989 and 1990 when camera crews filmed the horrible conditions
of the orphan children in Romania. We were just one of the many families
that rushed into Romania to rescue a child after we had seen and heard
about the thousands of abandoned children.
We named her Natalie Nicoleta. She is truly our
gift from God.
At the time of her adoption we had been approved to
adopt 2 children and we were planning on returning to Romania in 6
months to adopt a little boy. We had named our son…..Tony. Even though we had never meet him, we were hoping we would be
able to adopt him.
Unfortunately,
just four months after we got Natalie Nicoleta out of Romania the
Romanian Government halted all adoptions.
We were devastated, along with hundreds of
other families, when we realized that we would never be able to adopt
the child we had been waiting for. Thousands of children were left
behind institutionalized, including our son.
Six years later, I awoke one morning and I began to grieve over the loss
of my son. In my morning prayers, the Lord impressed upon my heart to go
back to Romania and…
“Adopt
an Entire Orphanage in Romania!”
In
October of 1997 I traveled back to Romania. I saw with my own
eyes…….. hundreds of abandoned children receiving little or no care.
The overwhelming nature of this problem gave birth
to…….HEARTS FOR ROMANIA
My husband and I started Hearts For Romania to restore love and care unto these
forgotten children and instill hope in them, for their future.
We
began our mission in a small town called Craiova, three hours drive
outside of Bucharest, the capital of Romania. There are four orphanages
housing over 600 children in Craiova. I decided to help all the
children starting from newborn infants…… to 18 years of age in these
four orphanages.
The
first orphanage I visited was the Infant Orphanage. As I entered
the Infant Orphanage all I heard was complete silence. “Where
were the children? “ I thought, “Shouldn’t
I be hearing babies crying or children playing and laughing?”
I walked into one of the nurseries where ten children were lying
in metal cribs, 
not
one made a sound or raised their tiny heads to see me. As I
continued down the hallway many children simply “stared into space”
without any expression of “hope” for being alive, while other
children seemed happy. I have come to learn that some children can
adjust to institutionalization better than others.
They lie in their cribs day and night, alone with very little care. I
was told there is only one caretaker per 20 infants.
Malnutrition and sickness is common among these “little
ones” because their immune systems are weak. They do not receive
proper nutrition or vitamins and almost no protein…which is
essential for their mental and physical development.
Many of them were lying in there own urine, some of
them with rashes on their body. As I walked closer and looked into their
eyes I could see that several of the children’s eyes had crossed, from
lack of human touch and stimulation.
I
wanted to reach out and touch them and hold them. But I was a stranger
to them…what if they started crying or screaming? I was only one
person. What could one person do?
There were hundreds of them.
So there I stood…….and there they laid.
It was as if they were a million miles away from
me…..in reality I was only an arms length away.
I broke down and cried!
I will never forget the pain and suffering I saw in those
children’s eyes.
They have been forgotten by mankind and are
wasting away in “prison like” institutions.
The
older orphans are disheartened and at the age of 18 they are asked to
leave the orphanages. With no professional skills they end up homeless
begging on the streets, their only shelter the underground sewers.
They are all alone in this world with no one
to guide them or love them.
The emotional impact of seeing first hand the conditions of the children
institutionalized in Romanian orphanages has changed my life forever! I
will never forget looking into their faces and wanting to reach out to
each child and hold them and tell them that they are loved.
Jesus
said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
As I am writing you this letter an urgent message has come from the Director of the Infant Orphanage in
Craiova, Romania,
“ We
are completely out of all the vitamins, baby cereal
and protein powder you
brought to us! It is winter now and many of the children are facing
extreme conditions, even onto death, because
of the severe cold weather. We need more blankets and warm cereal
and vitamins to make it through the winter. Can you please ship these
supplies as soon as possible?
...Hurry!”
I broke down and cried. The needs are
so great…beyond what I am personally and financially capable of
handling. Only by sharing this information with caring people can
we begin to make a difference in the lives of these children.
Hearts For Romania currently has 14 full time
missionaries in Romania to assure us that all of our humanitarian
supplies go directly into the hands of the orphan and abandoned
children.
There
is hope for these children, and it’s so incredibly simple. By
opening our hearts, we can reach out and make survivors out of a whole
generation that might otherwise be left behind.
Will you help us reach the forgotten children of
Romania?
By coming together, we can make an eternal
difference in the lives of hundreds of children… one by one.
For the Children,
Frank and Diana Curcio
Founding Directors and Parents of Natalie Nicoleta
“ And whoever………gives to one of these “little ones”
a cup of cold water to
drink,
truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward.”
Matthew
10:42
HEARTS FOR ROMANIA, is a 501(c3) Non-profit charity approved by the
IRS.
All donations are tax-deductible. Federal ID# 91-1755351
California: 22708 Ventura
Blvd. Woodland Hills, CA 91364
Arizona: 10510 Riverfront Parkway
Mohave Valley AZ
86440
1-800-575-2364
520-768-8525
This
young teenager