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 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.
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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 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.
Our daughter 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 our daughter 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.
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 were 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. I was told there was only one caretaker per 20 infants.
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 lonliness I saw in those children’s eyes.
They have been forgotten by mankind.
 The older orphans are disheartened and at the age of 18 they are asked to leave the orphanages. With no professional skills many 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's missionaries assure us that all of our humanitarian supplies go directly into the hands of each 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 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
818-516-8340
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This young teenager