How We Advocate Adoption

As we work to rescue children, build families, and support parents, step #4 is to promote adoption within the wider Romanian culture—starting with the church. We’re working to reach Romanian pastors and congregations, helping them understand and embrace God’s heart for the orphan. We also work in the realm of government, advocating for better adoption and child welfare laws.

Most of this advocacy is done under the auspices of Romania Without Orphans (RWO), a Romanian-led movement we’ve helped start and support. As RWO works to build bridges between adoption groups and the Romanian church, we pray the end result will be a much higher number of Christian couples seeking to adopt. If we can build up a “bullpen” of adoptive families, our ability to rescue children from abandonment and place them quickly into families will dramatically increase.

  Learn how to get involved in our ministry

Advocacy Stories:

---

How We Support Parents

After we’ve rescued a child and placed him or her in a family, our job isn’t over. We actively work to support adoptive and foster parents as they help their children heal.

First, we provide professional Christian counseling for all our families and children, through our full-time staff psychologist. Our staff also put on public workshops, open to any local parents who wish to receive training. Finally, we closely partner with Romania Without Orphans as they put on a national orphan care conference every year, and as they develop other resources like books and training materials.

Beyond simply helping adoptive families, we believe this step will ultimately help us recruit new adoptive parents. We’ve already found that some of our best recruiters are other adoptive families – especially those families who are well-grounded and thriving. The better connected and supported our families are, the more likely they are to become evangelists for adoption among their friends, families, and churches.

  Read more about our next step: Advocating Adoption

Support Stories:

---

How We Build Families

Children belong in families, not institutions. After first rescuing abandoned children from state care, we then place them into forever families. Since our ministry began in 1998, we’ve found homes for over 400 children who were once abandoned. (All of our families are Romanian, since international adoption from Romania is now illegal.)

We currently have around 30 children’s cases that we’re shepherding through this long, arduous legal process. A typical child’s case takes two years and costs us around $3,700 – a cost we fully fund with donations rather than fees from our adoptive families.

Our family-building ministry is directly supported by the Family Support Team. If you want to play an active role in uniting children with families, please consider joining the team!

  Read more about our next step: Supporting Parents

Forever Family Stories:

---

How We Rescue Children

In 1990, the world was shocked by images emerging from Romania, which had just thrown off Communism. Throughout the country, tens of thousands of abandoned children had been warehoused in abysmal orphanages resembling concentration camps.

Nearly three decades later, much in Romania has improved, but much work remains to be done. Children are still being abandoned today, at rates only slightly lower than the Communist years. While conditions in state institutions have greatly improved since the 1990s, they remain dismal places for children to grow up. The law forbids children under age two from being placed in orphanages, but many children’s hospitals operate as de facto orphanages for abandoned babies. (And this is certainly a better option than life on the street.)

At Romania Reborn, we rescue abandoned children from the state system and place them into families. We identify vulnerable children through hospitals, youth shelters, and sometimes a direct call from police or child protection officials. While children are sometimes placed in temporary care, the goal for every child is permanence in a forever family. 

Read more about our next step: Building Families

Rescue Stories:

---