Take Me Home!!

So I do not know where to start or how to even explain my story.

But here goes....

My name is Claire I live in New Zealand, but was born in Romania, Iasi in 1988. Sadly my birth mother could not afford to keep me, so she put me into an Orphanage in Iasi Romania and I was put up for adoption.

My Romanian name is Georgiana-Dumitrina Hliboceanu (Hliboceanu, Georgiana-Dumitrina).

After two years being up for adoption (1990), and after Ceausescu (leader of Romania) was killed, it was released on international media that there were hundreds of orphanages and thousands of orphans hidden from the world. One of them was me!

An amazing woman from New Zealand saw this on the news and decided to go to Romania and adopt one of these Children. After much hard work and persistence, battling bureaucracy and paperwork, she found me and wanted to adopt me immediately. It was not easy to find the birth parents as many had gave false names but with sheer determination, she found my birth mum. They went to court and I was adopted. (And the rest is history... as the saying goes)

Fast forward to today and I am 25years old... wondering and thinking everyday..... is my family alive?

So 2-3 years ago I started the hunt for my birth mother, as I wanted to thank her for letting me be adopted out and have a much better chance of life.

But this became more difficult than it seemed, all I had was my birth mothers name, MIHAELA HLIBOCEANU . (Apparently this is a well used and common name!)

So I started a Romanian Facebook profile of my birth name and 2 photos of myself when I was adopted and of course one of my birth mother. But days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and I slowly gave up hope and set in my mind that it's just not meant to be.....

But as years passed by with no luck, very recently I received a Facebook message, which changed everything!

BIRTH SISTER--"My name is Raluca grigoruta and I asked your friendship and the profile of the surname "Hliboceanu". This surname is also present in my family and both I and my sister wondering if if there are home Iasi. Good day"

With myself a little hesitatant I held back. I did not want to give too much away.

ME--"Sorry my Romanian is not any good, but I was born and adopted in Iasi, Romania when I was two."

With out going into every Messaged commented back and forth I was then asked (refer to photo below)

BIRTH SISTER--"Please tell me who is in the picture , Who are those people? The lady in red pants, You know?"

With myself been very concerned and hesitated I just replied asking "why? "

To my shock this was this persons reply.

BIRTH SISTER "I am the daughter of that lady with red pants"

Across many oceans.....my birth sister had found ME!

After many messages were exchanged and she could confirm information only myself and my mother (New Zealand mum) will know,reality started to hit me, .... worlds apart and with the help of Facebook, I was going to discover my birth family!

After telling my mum about the finding of my birth family we have promised each other that we will go together back to my home town where it all began. We had always planned to, but with funds/work/life and excuses, we never have had the chance.... but now we have no excuse. I have a sister.....and more out there, in Romania.

So thank you very much for taking the time to read this. If you would like to help me and my mother Sue go back to Romania, to discover my past, I would be so very grateful. It would be a wonderful experience to meet and embrace all these people who are part of my jigsaw life.

Photos: Mihaela is my birth mother who has red pants on and the Lady with the yellow top on is my New Zealand Mother called Susan Thomasen.

The photo of the very cute baby in the cot, is of course ...ME......the day my mum (Susan) found me in the orphanage. The day my new wonderful life started.