Everyday Heroes - Alex & Julia Georgiu

As Romanian emigrants, Alex and Julia Georgiu might have decided that just learning the language, getting used to the culture, and making their way in the United States would keep them busy enough. But even though they were 5,000 miles away from their homeland, this special couple, guided by their faith, felt called to help the most vulnerable children in their new country.

 

It all started eleven years ago when Julia was having lunch with a friend, who began talking about foster parenting. Around the same time, Alex had a similar experience.

 

“I never read the paper, really rarely read it,” he recalled. “But I just picked it up one day, and it fell open to a photo of a child – it was an ad from Olive Crest. It said, ‘Do you have a place in your home for me?’”

 

The couple talked it over, and quickly came to the decision that they would add to their family through foster care.

 

“We have a soft heart for kids,” said Alex. “We didn’t realize the children would get any financial support from the state, or anything like that. We just said, ‘of course we will do it.’”

 

The Georgius’ biological children were nine months and three years at the time, so they decided a young child, under five, would be the best fit for the family. But their Romanian heritage was about to lead them down a very different path. “The placement coordinator called and said there was a Romanian girl available, 12 years old,” Julia recalled. The couple learned that the girl had come to the U.S. at the age of four, and spent years in an abusive adoption before ending up as a foster child in group care. Although the girl did not speak Romanian and did not identify strongly with her culture, Julia and Alex felt that their shared heritage was a compelling reason to welcome her into their home.

 

From the very start, however, parenting their new daughter was to be a challenge for the young couple. When they picked her up at her group home, “the staff there said, ‘Don’t feel bad if you fail, you are taking home a tough kid,’” Alex recalled.

 

Trust was a major issue for their new daughter. “Every time she got close to us, she would just do something so bad, to see if we would keep her,” Alex said. He recalled many times when Julia had to call him home from work because of their daughter’s behaviors. The couple worried about the effects of such stress on their young children. But they did not give up, continuing to include her in family events, and even taking her to Disneyland. He recalled that Olive Crest even took their daughter on a tour of the juvenile detention center, helping her see what her life might be like if she did not make good choices.

 

Gradually the couple began to understand how their daughter ticked, and worked to help her find a better path. “She realized when she did wrong, and she would cry and cry and cry,” Julia said. Alex said the couple became aware that she often felt trapped in situations. “It’s not that she was a bad kid, but like a lot of kids she had a lot of luggage,” he explained. “We learned to be careful never to push her into a corner. I always tried to help her figure out that there’s a way out of most situations.”

 

Realizing that her Romanian heritage had been ignored and even viewed as a negative in her abusive adoptive home, Alex and Julia determined to help her gain interest and pride in her native culture. This culminated in 2005 when they decided it was time to try to help her track down and meet her birthmother in Romania.

 

It wasn’t to be an easy quest. They learned as much as they could about the small village their daughter was from, and wrote to the mayor there, sending photos and asking for his help. Finally, the mayor wrote them back, saying that the birthmother still lived in the village, but was disabled and living in extreme poverty.

 

When the family traveled to meet her, the Georgius’ daughter was shocked by what they found. “When we came to the house, with its broken windows, broken door, and weeds half as tall as the house, she just said, ‘This cannot be,’” Alex recalled. “There was no back door at all. It would have been condemned anywhere else in the world.” But the birthmother was welcoming and showed them pictures of their daughter when she was young. They were also able to meet her grandmother, and visit the orphanage where she had lived. “There were rumors in those places that children who were adopted by Americans were being sold for “spare parts” – for their body parts!” Alex said. While at the orphanage, the family was able to reassure the children living there that these frightening rumors were completely untrue. “We were able to introduce her and say, look at her, look at the good things that can happen,” Julia recalled. The trip was a turning point for their daughter. “Now she’s so proud to be Romanian, and she’s part of the community,” Alex said. “We were at least able to heal that portion of her life.”

 

Today, the Georgius’ daughter is a promising young adult, making her own way in the world but still very close to her family, often visiting and staying with them at their Bellevue home. Together, they have spoken at awareness events.

 

“She’s changed a lot, she’s very responsible, and she fights so hard to make a living,” Alex said with pride. All attributes, no doubt, strengthened and encouraged by this very special foster family.