“It's a boy or a girl, we can't tell!”. Child with a rare malformation, adopted by two Romanians from Germany

Cristina (41 years old) and Ștefan Andronache (43 years old) left for Germany in 2011, at a time when they felt that their professional life in Romania had become unsafe. She was a teacher of Romanian language and religion, and he was a resident doctor and surgeon. For Stefan, Germany meant the chance to develop professionally, and Cristina followed him to build a new path in life together. Today, she is employed by the German Red Cross and works in state schools as a support teacher for children with autism, attention disorders or trauma.

Since 2020, the Andronaches are the parents of Ionuț (10 years old), their adopted child. Because they lived in Germany and wanted to adopt a Romanian child, they had to resort to international adoption – a process that proved cumbersome, with endless files and a lot of waiting. Ionuț came into their lives three years after submitting the application for adoption.

The news that the Romanian and German authorities found a child for them was received with immense joy, but it was followed by many emotions and unknowns. The child suffered from a rare congenital malformation, and the file received by the family could not answer the question “is it a boy or a girl?”.

The two spouses stayed together in their decision to fight for this child that they felt was “theirs” for the first time. They are grateful to the foster nurse who cared for him and fought for him until he was 3 and a half years old, and they believe that providence brought a specialist doctor from Germany who cured the little one. It took two surgeries, a lot of worry, emotions, therapy and a lot of patience for all three to be well – together.

Now the Andronaches, along with their boy, are waiting again. It has been three years since they submitted a new application for international adoption. And he is waiting with bated breath for that phone call to inform him that Ionuț will have a sister.

The parent who raises you

Cristina was 30 years old when she found out that, due to fertility problems, conceiving a child is difficult for them. The idea of ​​adoption had existed since the beginning of their marriage, when they imagined that in addition to biological children, they could have an adopted child.

That's why, says Cristina, Ionuț “came into the family in his own place”. Cristina already knew many adoption stories from her own family, herself being raised by a “second” father.

He had long understood that adoption can be a deep form of solidarity, not a competition with the biological parent, but a way to continue a child's story on a happy path. “When you adopt, you carry the burdens of that parent, and that will bring you joy. You'll see that that child's smile and the fact that you're changing their reality for the better is a miracle that you're performing. Giving life is an absolutely wonderful thing, but adopting is nothing less. It shows you a brilliance that you would never have discovered otherwise.”

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