First plans to leave the country

As I mentioned before, we didn’t want our son to grow up having the same difficulties as we did.

We had contact with people in USA, and my father traveled here to attend a conference. When he came back, he described what he saw here, how people we knew lived, and what opportunities there are for people who aren’t afraid of hard work.

So, we started dreaming about what life would be on the United States. We were excited about the possibility to even visit, but it wasn’t easy.

In Romania of the late 80′s, people didn’t have passports. It was really hard to get one, and there were many rules regarding who would get a passport and under what circumstances.

I had a brother who played double-base in an East Germany orchestra. He had a contract, and was doing very well there.

Of course, he wanted to leave Romania as much as we did, and for a while, he was all set, playing there, in Germany.

Now, back to passports, when we applied, we were told that until my brother returned from Germany, there was no way for us to get a passport. And that was the problem: one year into his contract in Germany, the Berlin Wall came down, giving him (my brother) the opportunity to go over to West Germany.

That meant that unless a miracle happened, my husband and will never have the opportunity to leave Romania.

By this time our son turned one, and we decided that since our chances of getting a passport were very slim, we would start looking for a home in the country.

We were living in Bucharest, the capital of the country, and life was very busy, as well as too much pollution.

We wanted more for our son: we wanted him to be able to run outside, learn about nature, and have a life as worry-free as possible.

We found a little home in the country at the end of 1989, but just when we started making plans to move, something happened that would forever change our lives.

I’ll tell you about that in a few days.