Imagine a little swallow who breaks her wings just before summer ends. How can she watch her sisters preparing for the long journey, knowing she will be left behind, unable to go for reasons that are not her fault…?
Nicoleta was born on February 2007 in Arad, Romania. She spent the first part of her childhood at home with her family. Her mother would often call the ambulance and say her daughter was having convulsions. During one of her hospital stays, Nicoleta was abandoned. She was five years old.
RCE was asked by Child Protection to get Nicoleta from the hospital. RCE’s team learned from the doctors that Nicoleta had never had a convulsion during any of her many visits to the hospital.
That summer, Nicoleta found a home in RCE’s Darius Houses. She won everybody’s hearts with her energy and sweet smile. Carmen and Mimi Bocsa, along with others on the Placement team, began looking for a family for her.
While she waited for a family, Nicoleta enjoyed all the new experiences for kids at the Darius Houses – summer camps, trips and activities. In the fall, she started school at the Sunshine School but was soon moved to a regular kindergarten in the neighborhood. She made a lot of progress that fall both socially and academically. And by God's grace, in the summer of 2013 she got a family of her own.
RCE is committed to finding forever families (not foster care), either through adoption or permanent placement. The wonderful people who took Nicoleta into their family had every intention of caring for her for life but the mother became seriously ill and eventually it became clear Nicoleta would need to come back to the Darius Houses. This was in the beginning of 2015.
She attended the Sunshine School that semester. We all prayed another family would be soon found who could love her and take care of her for life. God listened to our team’s prayers and last summer Nicoleta was placed in a new family.
Today, Nicoleta is a first grader at a school in her village and she is thriving. She loves her family and they love her so much that they wanted to bring her to God for dedication.
This past March, in a festive atmosphere, the local Church prayed for Nicoleta and asked God’s blessings upon her! For the party following the dedication, Nicoleta’s mother went to great pains to make it special, sewing her a special dress for the occasion and baking beautiful cakes.
Nicoleta is flying again. There are still wounds, but time will heal them, because God takes care of each and every swallow!
Nicoleta was abandoned, a soul with broken wings who found strength to fly again through the love of a family! Each child has the right to a family, the right to experience unconditional love and a healthy environment and so to rise and learn to fly again!