The story of Lavinia, the little girl who chose to live in foster care: “I don't want to live with my biological family! I want to go to foster care, to prepare for the Olympics!”
Lavinia Stan was faced with a difficult decision when she was 8 years old. But, with tears in his eyes, he answered bluntly: “I don't want to go to the biological family!”. PHOTO: Personal archive
Lavinia Stan (27 years old) took her first steps when she was in a placement center in Câmpulung (Argeș). She was a small, frail child with tousled hair, a little girl with little chance of being chosen for adoption or foster care. But fate had other plans. At the age of two, her life changed dramatically when a new foster carer and her husband chose to take her home despite being advised otherwise.
They decided to go beyond prejudices and appearances and “make a big man out of her”. This is how Lavinia ended up growing up in a large and warm family, with two older brothers, a sister-in-law (who was her friend, sister and sometimes a second mother) and two grandchildren whom she adores.
Today, Lavinia lives in Cluj, where she graduated and continues her studies. She has always liked the book: she attended the Faculty of Letters at Babeș-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca), she already has a master's degree in Public Relations and is enrolled in a second master's degree, in Advertising. At the same time, he is preparing for a doctorate in Letters, at the Department of German Studies. She dreams of becoming a teacher, starting a family and instilling in her children the same values that made her the strong man she is today.
A frail little girl with “pissed” hair or two blonde twins with blue eyes?
For Lavinia, life began at the age of two, when she was taken from the placement center in Câmpulung by the foster nurse Maria, who would provide her with a warm and loving home. Maria was one of the first women in the county to graduate from nursing courses, she already had two boys and came to the center with a heart full of emotion and hope: she had always wanted a little girl.
“I was the only girl in the room. My mother saw two blonde twins with blue eyes and me sitting in a corner. Except I didn't look good at all, I was very frail, unkempt. She told me that I was “little, woe to my mother, with my hair blown off, like a show”. The lady there told the foster mother that she did not recommend taking me, because they might have problems with marginalization because of my complexion and of my family natural”, says Lavinia.
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