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Vărădia
is an orphanage about 80 kilometers from Arad. It has a capacity
for forty children, all with ‘severe handicaps.’ All of the children
at Vărădia are between 13 and 18 years of age. I began going to Vărădia
in the summer of 2007, when seven children from CP010 were placed there while CP010 was undergoing renovation. The first time I walked through the gates about twenty children ran toward me, yelling my name. Vărădia is the center where children go when they are too old to be at CP010 anymore. I hadn’t realized how many children had moved, or how well they would remember me. Even after the original seven children returned to CP010, Ionuţ and I go back to Vărădia
every two weeks to visit. We talk, color, play games, blow up balloons, and read
an illustrated Bible with the children. We have so much fun, in fact, that Ionuţ
and I look forward to our visits as much or more than the children do!
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