Casa Josef functions as a safe, loving, and nurturing home for abandoned Romanian children until a loving family is found through adoption or private Foster Care placement. Our hope is to find a permanent loving family for all of our children, preferably within a Christian environment. If children from our facility are adopted into permanent families, our desire is to bring in additional abandoned children as funding allows so that we can intervene as early as possible to minimize the long-term effects of abandonment or government institutionalization (sensory integration issues, attachment disorders, eating disorders, language delays, etc). Because international adoptions have essentially been closed since 2001, our private Simple Placement program has become an essential part of Casa Josef's ministry to provide each child a loving family. These families are receiving specialized training, so that they will be able to meet the special needs of children who have been abandoned. Even though Casa Josef is a beautiful facility with modern amenities that offers much to our children, we recognize that it still is not a permanent family environment, which we believe every child deserves.
The REMM/ACDR ministry operates a small international adoption foundation which placed over 60 abandoned children with permanent loving families until intercountry adoptions were banned in 2001.  Having witnessed first-hand the amazing miracles that intercountry adoption offer abandoned children in Romania, we hope to continue this ministry once intercountry adoptions re-open.  Our ministry’s fees for adopting (among the lowest in Romania) were used to support Casa Josef to cover its overhead costs (staff, food, diapers, formula, material/supplies, etc). Because intercountry adoptions remain closed, and we no longer have this supplementary funding, we have had to actively seek support from individuals and organizations to help provide for our 18 children until they are placed in a permanent family.  Domestic adoptions in Romania, especially of Roma (gypsy) children, are rare due to cultural issues and discrimination.  Thus, the 18 children currently in our care are likely to be with us (and thus are our full responsibility for raising) until international adoptions re-open.  The blessing is that children placed in Casa Josef and our private Foster Care families are thriving in every aspect.  Since we believe that each child ultimately benefits more from being part of a family, our hope is to transition all our current children into private foster families and eventually use the Casa Josef facility for other ministries until international adoptions re-open and allow us to again provide a loving transitional home for abandoned children.
We ask that you prayerfully consider how you might be able to support this aspect of our ministry. We are providing for the complete care – 24 hours/day, 7 days/week - of 8 children while also doing our best to support the additional 10 living in Simple Placement homes, the lives of which would otherwise remain in the state institution system. With the continual increase in costs of goods and services in Romania, our costs for providing this care are exceptionally high.  However, seeing these children’s lives changed forever makes one realize very quickly, that this "expense" is well worth the investment. We also ask for your continued prayers. We trust that God will continue to provide for us, as he has in the past, and that through faith, prayer, and your support these children will experience a loving family and more importantly, the life-changing love of Jesus Christ.