For weeks, I had been trying to adopt a toddler named Ana. I met her two months earlier when I went to Bucharest to deliver toys to an orphanage and medical supplies to a pediatric hospital. Red tape, changing political climate, and one missing document prevented her from being adopted. I left Romania the day Iraq invaded Kuwait. It was difficult to leave her behind. I thought I might never see her again.

I returned to Romania two months later with what I hoped were the proper documents. I went back to court five more times...without success.

I had waited a lifetime to be a Mom. Now I was packing again to return home without her. Tears streamed down my face as I heard laughter and baby songs in the next room.

Several roommates had completed successful adoptions that day. They were having a party. My heart ached to join them, but how could I celebrate? Only an Academy Award-winning actress could hide the despair I felt.

A friend invited me to visit a little boy she thought would be perfect for me. His dad was dead. He had not had a family visitor his entire life. She thought he would be easy to adopt.

It's hard for others to understand. I couldn't simply replace the child I loved with someone else.

FATE ...a Party made me go.

When we arrived, a worker sent for him. He was told his mother was there to visit him. As he turned the corner, they pointed to me.

My mind registered the cruel mistake. The tiny boy wore layers of smelly clothes. His head was shaved and front teeth knocked out. He barely looked at me. As he shivered in silence, I looked at his sad face. This was not a quality of life decision I was making. It was a life or death decision. His life.

Though I wanted to, I couldn't adopt him. Ana's situation was even worse than his, and she was only two.

I went back to my apartment for a restless night. What would my husband, Paul, say?

In the morning, I returned with a Romanian friend who was a doctor. She would give him a checkup and some vitamins. Then I would catch my flight home.

He sat close to me. He was so quiet I asked if he could talk. The director told him count to five. I knew enough Romanian to understand him. He mumbled the numbers and then looked up to say something softly. Everyone looked startled. "What did he say?" I asked. She told him,"REPETA"...repeat.

He said, "Mama, Mama. Why did it take you so long to find me?"

In an instant, our lives changed forever. I rescheduled my flight.

It took hundreds of tries and over six hours to reach Paul. Across thousands of miles and lots of static, I heard emotion fill his voice as he said, "Bring the little guy home. I will love him too."

One week later, little Anton Nicolai Simon and I were on the last plane out of Bucharest the day before an airline strike. Mechanical problems and a blizzard delayed our flight two hours. I didn't care. I was going home with our new son!!!

Fourteen months later, Ana came home too!

On the plane, the withdrawn, timid child emerged as a rambunctious toddler enjoying incredible new sites and sounds. He raced up and down the aisles. As word spread throughout the plane about this lively, little passenger, hearts opened up to him. Soon he was getting attention and candy from everyone. The pilot gave us the flight log. A flight attendant rocked him gently when I fell asleep exhausted. The long flight home was his ride to freedom. He enjoyed every minute of it.

If this had been a movie, there would be a happy ever after ending. Unfortunately, 5 1/2 years of institutional care can impact children tremendously.
Needle mark scars dotted Nick's legs from tranquilizer shots meant to keep him quiet. He had never played on a swingset, splashed in a tub, watched TV, or even turned on the lights. We soon learned that he was able to get into almost everything but lacked any sense of danger.

Teachers learned this too. There were many frantic calls from school.

"Nicky was under the school bus examining the tires."
"Your son fell out of the reading loft and we called 911."

He was a fearless explorer and we worried if he would make it to age six.

We had sleepless nights, but he had even more. Many mornings we awoke to find everything missing from his room. Pillows, sheets, wall decorations, even his toothbrush, were stashed away in the closet. He was recreating the only home he had known, a grim and colorless orphanage.

Over time, he began to relax and grow. He was the size of a one year old when we got him. In a year, he grew almost six inches. It wasn't from my cooking. Children without love the first years of life fail to thrive. The result is stunted growth.

Being loved and nurtured only a short time completely changed his physical appearance. Emotional and mental growth took longer.

He struggled to fit in. His behaviors were challenging. Classmates often teased him. Academically, he lagged behind others several grade levels. By 7th grade, he was still on 1st grade reading level. Learning experts said he would never learn to read well, much less earn a high school diploma. His best hope, they said, was a certificate of completion. Testing, conferences, requested services, etc...nothing got him the services he needed.

Kids learn best the younger they are. As officials tried to convince us he couldn't learn, we knew he was losing precious time to succeed. We searched the Internet and found a school that helped boys with profound learning disabilities. It was a difficult choice for any parent to make. Would he suffer additional attachment problems being away from home or suffer more from not being able to succeed? We thought he knew he had a family. We also wanted him to have a future.

LD students had been learning to read at the Gow School since 1926. We decided to send Nick to the school for half a year to see if the school could help him. He quickly made progress. Well-trained teachers using proven methods made an incredible difference.

In 2 1/2 years, he SKIPPED a grade and went from 1st to 12th grade reading level. He returned home to attend a regular public high school of 2300 students. He passed Florida's FCAT test the FIRST try, took and passed Honors English, Honors Algebra 2, and Honors Physics. He graduated from high school at age 18 with a partial scholarship.

Did Nick's progress come easily? No. Does he still struggle? Yes. Now he has more tools to succeed. He finished a year of college while working two jobs to pay expenses.

Nick was almost left behind in Romania, in school, in life. It would be a waste of human potential if he had been. What a waste when ANY child is left behind, anywhere. Every child deserves the chance to succeed.

We believe in miracles. If just one thing had happened differently, Nick's life would have had a much different outcome. He was the only child adopted from his orphanage before it was torn down for being in disrepair. Most families adopt infants, not older children. What happened to the others? Most ended up as the tunnel kids of Bucharest.

Ten years after Nick joined us, he saw a program about the downsizing of Romanian orphanages. When US companies downsize, people lose jobs. When orphanages downsize, vulnerable, unskilled children are released to dangerous streets without any money. After suffering years of neglect and deprivation, orphans wind up in the only free shelter available...the underground sewers.

Nick wanted to help them. That led to the start of the Backpack Carepak project. Hundreds of people, mostly students, donated backpacks of gently used clothing. Movie producer, Jeff Deane, personally delivered the carepaks to almost 1000 children living in the underground tunnels of Bucharest.

A documentary about this first Backpack Carepak project was just presented at the Global Peace Film Festival, December 2005, in Orlando, FL and won first place.

Romania is certainly not the only country with streetchildren. Over 150 MILLION exist throughout the world. Since the first Backpack Carepak shipment to Romania, our organization has collected supplies for children in South America, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Closer to home, we are starting a program to help teens transitioning out of foster care.

We support programs that help children who will never be adopted. We know that help can turn lives around. One story on this website tells about the first US war hero killed in Iraq. He was a former streetchild from Guatemala. Many programs work but more help is needed to get the word out about the plight of street children.

We help because we can. If one family can help, what can many families do? END homelessness for all children under 18. We challenge all who have had the gift of a family to help one child who doesn't.

Orphan World Foundation began in Orlando, FL, the town where children's dreams come true. What better place than this to give the dream of a better life to abandoned children?