"I was not exported, I was adopted"

Bucharest Daily News - 3/10/06

Juliana, 16, U.S.: "Romania's internal child care problems are for anyone a difficult subject to approach, understand and try to resolve and Baroness Nicholson very bravely took up the challenge, whilst others decided to look the other way and has made a real effort, despite what has now become hostile personal attacks on her to put child safeguards into place. The ban on international adoptions was not meant to penalize families abroad who wanted to adopt children from Romania at all, but was to protect the children being adopted, as there were no real safeguards to do this at the time," said Mr. Brian Douglas on March 10.

You are wrong Mr. Douglas. The ban on international adoption does not hurt families; it hurts the children who are left in horrible places, like the place I grew up in. It hurts my friends, who I left behind when I was lucky enough to be adopted. I, Mr. Douglas, was adopted under the law that you say didn't protect children. I think it did. It protected me. My parents did not buy me. I have all my body parts, and I am not a slave to anyone. I have been back to Romania several times and know more about my culture now than I ever learned in the orphanage. The last law may have needed to be fixed, but it did not need to be thrown away with no chance for all my friends to find their forever families. I have seen in newspapers where the Baroness has said that I and others were "exported." I was never exported. I was adopted, and I now have a chance of living a good life. Something I would never have had if I had stayed in Romania."