All this in the middle of the Covid 19 pandemic, when the entrance of foreign citizens in Romania is restricted.

The little girl, as strange as it seems, have suffered up to her 2 years, more than adults in a lifetime. The father and biological mother gave up their parenting rights 1 month after her birth, both using drugs, and the father was repeatedly arrested for violence and having restraining order against his own family. From 1 month old she was raised by her paternal grandmother, who is over 70 years old, and with health problems, also taking care of another 14-year-old child.

I asked them for a period of 2 days to check first if I was competent to get involved in the story. An administrative and legal procedure was followed to prepare the file, but although everyone assured me of support, including the Romanian Embassy in Pretoria, everyone told me that such cases happen and children end up in state placements.

A period of 3 months followed in which South Africa was in isolation, and even if in Europe the restrictions were lifted, travel was excluded. On October 1^st the restrictions in South Africa were lifted, and my client, in despair and without hope of any result regarding the girl went to Africa just to help, ignoring the warnings about the crime rate there, excepting the 14 days isolation, meanwhile her husband gets the virus in Cluj- Napoca.

I was in Covasna one evening, and my family encouraged me to call Maria, a friend from Hague. She reconfirmed that there was nothing to do legally, but advised to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and if I care about the child’s fate, present the story as a plea , and show them that the child’s life is actually in danger every day.

The auditions at the MFA, in front of two different departments took place in October, but I did not expect a miracle. Sometimes from the reactions from the court we anticipate the results, but here beside compassion, I did not read another emotion and I felt without resources at the end of the day.

In about a week we receive the result and the 2-year-old girl receives the essential travel permit in Romania.

For the second time in 15 years of my career I cried for a professional result.

A not very easy procedure followed, with the visa documents, later to inform the Ministry of Interior, respectively the Border Police, being an odd case.

On December 22, they arrived in Romania, and that Sunday they informed me about their settling.

I think the satisfaction I felt was almost as great as the peace and harmony within my  own family, certainly a second Christmas present.

I believe that these children have a special mission, the little girl escaped with her life countless times, and it is our obligation if she is in our power to help them.

Finally she has the emotional, financial, stability, security, and the right environment to grow up with two parents, who love her and have struggled a lot to have her with them, and when she grows up and has her years of revolt, maybe she’ll read this article and appreciate the efforts made to bring her to Europe.

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In 2017, talking to one of my best friends, she tells me about Maria’s trouble. Her child was abducted from a private kindergarten with the complicity of his paternal grandmother and taken to Russia, to the father who occupied at that time the second position in one of the largest multinationals with a global visibility.

I knew her from a party and how it happens that we often don’t know what is hidden behind a smile. Maria calls me in November 2017, a few months later, and tells me that despite the fact that the first court ordered the father to bring the child back to Romania, he refuses, and the same court, granted them joint custody, despite the fact that her child is abducted, and she did not see him for more than 1 year.

At the same time, winning for the second time in appeal in Russia, the father still refuses to hand over the little boy. We are starting the proceedings before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Interpol and the Prosecutor’s Office, for the refusal to execute a court decision.

After I personally go with Maria to file the complaint, in February 2018, the prosecutor takes three weeks off, without handing over the file, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces the mother that her son is no longer in Russia. The transaction I drafted to be signed by the father in order to establish the child’s fate is broken in two in front of the Italian Ambassador of Russia and the Romanian Ambassador of Russia.

After seeing all the efforts taken on Saturday, I participate with Maria in a personal development course and in two days she tells me that for the first time she has been able to sleep in the last two years. How strong you have to be as a mother to get through it all.

A personal confrontation between parents takes place in August and in November 2018 we start the custody appeal. At the first appearance before the Court , we are surprised how the other party contracted a law firm with several lawyers and another senior lawyer with her assistant, against a single 35-year-old woman.

I knew she would be attacked for proving that she was not worthy to raise her child, and I just asked her not to react, no matter what she heard, not to fight back, even though her ears heard how her own mother, the child’s grandmother, was attacked and other untruths just to achieve the goal, namely the sole custody of the father.

In January 2019, a day before the final appearance before the Court , a friend called me and when she wished me success, I told her it’s not about me, it’s not my success there, it’s not about the parents, only  about child and his long-term fate.

I found out the result on Valentine’s Day, on February 14, 2019. Maria calls me in the morning crying that we have permanent custody and it is the biggest gift she has ever received.

We spoke recently spoke and she told me they moved to another country, how happy they are there and without the definitive custody this was impossible.

But the most important is her son, who grows up in a new family where there is harmony, understanding, and although at the age of 4-5 he had to go through traumas, which would be a lot to take for even an adult, maybe after he grows up will appreciate how much her mother did, and how she took several legal systems into her chest at the same time to have him by her side.

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