Dear friends

Your friendship and support has been by our side all through this year. My family has had an amazing year. We love living in Camino. We are now permanent guardians of Abigail. She has changed our life and has enriched us every day. She has been with us for  two and a half years, she was only five and a half then, not knowing the alphabet or numbers, or how to spell her name.  Now on her first report card in second grade she had 12 outstanding, the most in her class. Needless to say, you can see I am so extremely proud of her. She is taking dance classes and we are considering trying theater.

Well, this year was the first in the last ten years that I did not go to Romania. Settling in our new house, Abigail’s court case and Geoff turning 60, has kept me very busy.
This year Hope for the Future has kept on helping the families we’ve been working with for a while. We have not grown this year but we stand vigilant in responding to the needs that come our way. We have been concentrating on making a real difference in the lives of the few families we touched. The Dragomir family has finally moved out of the ghetto again and we hope this time it is for good. We helped them refurbish their new place. This will make tremendous difference in this families life; I met this family 10 years ago. Mihaela
Dragomir was pregnant when I first met her, now her daughter is nine; it is amazing to me to have known this family for so long and to recount all the struggles we have witnessed in their life. Every school achievement and celebration, every up and down, we were with them step by step.  I am proud of the difference your help has made in their lives. Their kids have not begged on the streets or roamed through garbage for food, and their education has been a priority for them. That is the biggest difference we can ask for in the end. Cristina is also a big reason to rejoice. We have been caring for Cristina since 2000 she was only six then. We placed Cristina with a foster family in 2005, the family loves her
and with her sponsorship the family is happy to provide for their own children, this way we helped Cristina and the Sirghie family also. Cristina is in highschool now and in 2012 she is hoping to go to a trade school or continuing her education. I am proud of her and I hope we can continue sponsoring her. Each family we help is special to me and I am glad that the tragedy in their lives that originally made us choose them to be helped has died down. Their need for help is still as valid as ever. Most of the parents of these families are very poorly educated and their capability for income is minimal. The environment and
culture pushed them into having lots of children and made their situation worse. The children though have no fault in this. Every child we are able to help get an education and pull out of this vicious cycle is a success story. I miss seeing them this year and I am hoping to visit next summer. I will be taking Abigail with me. This will be a great experience for both of us. This year first on her Christmas list was money to buy her ticket to Romania. I keep telling her how blessed she is here and how we have to give up things if we want to help others. I am so proud of her. When she is asked what she wants for
Christmas she answers, “Money for my ticket to go and help children in Romania”.  There is still a lot of need in Romania and recently there was a new TV special presenting the new challenges the children there are facing. With Romania joining the European
Union many young people are crossing the borders getting job opportunities, leaving their young children behind with neighbors or old grandparents that are not able to oversee them.  Young children are roaming the streets again dropping out of school and joining gangs. Many children are suffering from major depression and turning to drugs and
prostitution. I feel like our organization should try to do more for them and I am praying that God will show me a proper way to help in this. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.