The health of the siblings is quite good. Everyone has now recovered from the flu and coughing that they had up until a few days before we arrived. But I’ve personally confirmed that they need dental care quite urgently. Just by having a quick look in their mouths you can see that most of them have almost all decayed teeth. Even in this God was good: a Romanian dentist contacted by Mihaela, once filled in on the kids’ history, has decided to offer to treat them for free, net of any corrective appliances that might be needed. The children have gradually settled into the daily routine of the Stroi household. Little Patricia, by now back up to weight, is literally a postage stamp stuck to Mihaela and Nicu. Ionela is lovely and very affectionate. Denis loves doing acrobatics and is a little boy with incredible amounts of energy! The older sisters Luiza and Lorena are both very sweet and curious.
Lorena has a great knack for drawing, while Luiza is a “Jack of all trades” in the house. Mihaela has told us that gradually, terrifying details are coming out of what they went through in their parents’ house. These children have experienced horrible situations that nobody, especially at that age, should be exposed to. Their daily life was a continuous exposure to violence, hunger, cold, sickness, etc… Unfortunately, the behaviour of all of the kids has worsened since Luigi’s arrival. In the beginning, this saddened and surprised us, but on further thought we can only assume that it’s the result of the environment these kids grew up in.
We didn’t want to put more blame on them, but before leaving we felt we needed to talk to each of them, to remind them that they’re important and now part of a new family founded on love, mutual respect and above all God’s love, which is also the basis on which our work in Romania is founded. The chat with Luigi was emotionally very demanding both for us and for him. Together, we went over his last (hard) months. His arrival at the farm was the result of the prayers of hundreds of people, and God’s will to remove him from the miserable situation he was in. He was amazed, obviously because he never felt that he was important to anyone. We reiterated that it’s now down to him to commit to respecting the rules at the farm and at school, to love his siblings, and to ask God to give him a new path for his life so that his future can finally become brighter. His behaviour will be studied (once a month) by a psychologist involved by child protection. We trust that this, together with our commitment to pray for him and educate him in the Christian bases of love and respect, will change his behaviour. We have the feeling that Luigi, at only 12 years of age, has directly or indirectly experienced things that have profoundly affected,
and are still impacting, his behaviour and insubordination to those around him. In this regard, the “father” figure of Nicu will be fundamental, so that Luigi gets involved with small practical jobs, learns as much as possible, and can have a male role model different to those he’s had until now. The legal process involving the children is progressing slowly. Apparently there will be one hearing for every child; we’re not supposed to know how it’s going. We have to trust God in this. We ask for your support in this particular situation, for prayer for the Stroi family and for our six young guests. God bless you. Orazio Gentile (translation by Renée Schalks)