Learning to fly again: Nicoleta's Story

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!

Meet Laurențiu

Laurențiu is the oldest from a family of five children. I write to you about him with lots of emotion, because I was a part of many "firsts" in his life. I was there for his first time in a city, his first summer camp, his first time in a grocery store, his first time on the train, his first time at a restaurant – and many more.

Laurențiu and his younger siblings in their home.

  Laurențiu is a happy kid – he is smart, a hard worker and full of life. But his life is difficult because he carries burdens no child should have to carry. His mother has special needs and his father does not support his family. Often, ten-year-old Laurențiu cares for the house and his little siblings.

Whoppers!

            Our Poverty Prevention team has become deeply involved in his life.

We regularly give him the opportunity to come to Arad to socialize and to learn daily life skills like personal hygiene, how to clean his house and how to navigate a bustling city.

Laurențiu and Doina from Poverty Prevention.

            We believe each child has a right to be educated, and we work hard to give them the opportunities and support they need to thrive. By doing so, we are helping to raise a better society!

We ran for their lives!

Early showers did not deter Maryland participants who came to run for the lives of children with special needs at Darius House, Amy’s House and Sunshine School. RCE’s 5k race at Landon School in Bethesda was well attended and had an enthusiastic crowd despite the weather.

John Riker won the race for the second year in a row! Then the high school track and field athlete from Fourth Church watched and cheered Florinel who crossed the finish line with a little help from his adopted father, Ghitsa.

Michelle Lacey was the first woman finisher. Michelle came to run with her Lockheed Martin colleague, John Mollard, who said when he met Florinel and Ghitsa: “I am amazed someone my age would be willing to adopt a three-year-old – much less a three-year-old with Cerebral Palsy. Here it is seven years later and the love they have for each other is so obvious.”

The events brought out new friends -- like young Lucy, from Fourth Presbyterian Church, who was so excited to raise money for the kids of Sunshine School that she visited all of her neighbors, told them about RCE, then rewarded everyone who sponsored her with a homemade cupcake! 

And old friends -- like Moses the ‘missionary dog’ who has befriended special needs kids from Romania at our events for 12 years!  Moses is seen here leading RCE’s special guests, including Sunshine School teacher Alina Jurcan, down the W&OD trail.

Families and friends from McLean Presbyterian Church walked or biked the trail in the afternoon sunshine with supporters from Ambleside, Lorien Wood, and Dominion Schools. Ambleside Principal, Ginnie Wilcox, has welcomed RCE special guests to their chapel for more than a decade – giving the students a glimpse of what it means to ‘love mercy’ as God requires through stories of rescue and restoration.

Children proudly presented their (rain-soaked) envelopes stuffed with dollar bills they had saved or raised from friends and relations.  All the generous gifts – and those of RCE’s generous business sponsors - (# put in sponsor sheet) will add up to the goal of $30,000 – and all donations go directly to Romania to help rescue more children like Florinel.

There were about 200 total participants between the two events. Each of them came in the rain and the sunshine to walk for those who cannot walk, and to speak up for those who cannot talk -- orphans with no voice or power, abandoned and alone until God rescued them using His people at RCE.

Thank you for running for their lives!

Many thanks to our generous business sponsors!

RCE doesn’t just make mercy happen. Sometimes we make dreams come true.

 “I flew!”  Roli crawled out of the small Cessna airplane after his first flight shouting with glee! “I flew.  I flew. My dream came true.”

Roli has been dreaming about flying for years. And begging everyone in sight to take him flying.  He is fascinated with space and all things aeronautic.  Because of severe emotional instability Roli has missed many things including the fact that his mental/emotional illness has made it hard to find a family that can manage his behavior.  And sometimes-even things like trips to the Black Sea are impossible for him. When Roli ‘melts down’ it takes trained staff to handle him. So last week Ovi decided it was time to make his dream of flying come true.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky or a breathe of wind when we arrived at a small airfield outside
Arad. There on the grass was 4 person Cessna with pilot waiting for us – and in typical Ovi
fashion something else, an ultra light. Two pilots, one hour, $350 from the Grant a Wish program.

Roli’s wish was about to come true.

Ovi, Cara, Mariana from Amy’s House and Maria from Darius House joined Roli, Petre, Adina, Nicoleta, and even Claudiu!

Now, you might ask, as several more rational people did, whether or not it was a good idea to take kids like Roli and Claudiu flying in a small plane and even much smaller flying wing! But Ovi pointed out that if we never take a risk for them and with them our kids will never get to do anything special. And he was right!

Words did not fail Roli when the flights were over. He rather eloquently described it as the  “Best day of my life! It was better than good it was fantastic. And I won’t have to go again because I will never forget it.”

RCE doesn’t just make mercy happen. We make dreams come true. Sometimes.  Claudiu nervously  – finally – decided to go up in the ultra light only to give the pilot a quick thumbs down. But he didn’t panic! He faced his fear and did not panic. We were all so proud of him. God is so good and His love for our kids was blindingly evident for everyone to see, including the pilots who were amazed at the kids and very gentle with them.