High school starts for Romanian adoptee

JONATHAN CAMERON/Fairfax NZ

MOTHER AND SON: It took New Plymouth nurse Alana Cleland eight years to adopt Romanian orphan Iani, who is now 13 and heading to high school next week.

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Along with thousands of other young teenagers across New Zealand, tug-of-love Romanian adoptee Iani Cleland is looking forward to his first day at high school next week.

Now 13, Iani already has a passion for the future: to become a paramedic on the front line – a medical career just like his adoptive mum, New Plymouth nurse Alana Cleland.

His life growing up as an orphan in Romania could not have been more different.

New Zealanders held their collective breaths for four years as they followed Alana's emotional rollercoaster as she battled never-ending lines of bureaucracy to finally adopt Iani and bring him back with her to New Zealand.

The pair first formed a bond in 1999 when he was just 10 months old and she was working as a volunteer in his Romanian orphanage. He was sleeping in a room wall to wall with other babies in cots.

At his grandparents' home this week, Iani says his first clear childhood memory is of the cots and a little red truck Alana gave him for his second birthday.

"I've still got it."

The pair were forced to move back to Romania for two years in order to gain residency, which would allow her to adopt.

"I went back with no guarantees of anything," Alana said yesterday.

And she will be forever grateful to the New Zealanders who made it possible for them to live there.

Generous Kiwis put their hands deep into their pockets for the TSB Bank's Bring Home Iani Appeal after Taranaki Daily News reporter Rochelle West revealed their plight.

"People were amazing. Money was sent in from all over New Zealand. The final amount was just enough for us to live on for two years. It was pretty much down to the last $50," Alana said.

The TSB Bank picked up the cost of their air flights home from London once Iani's New Zealand passport came through.

Alana describes the son sitting beside her now as a typical teenager, dragging the chain at doing the dishes. He surfs with his mates, plays basketball and touch, and loves his soccer, preferring to play in defence and as goalie.

She's proud that Iani is in the top maths stream at school.

While the Taranaki Daily News visited, Iani pored over the bulging scrapbook kept by his grandma, Beryl Cleland.

One day he would love to go back with his mum to visit his birthplace – but financially that's out of the question at the moment. And then there's school next week.

ADOPTION SAGA

1999: Alana first meets Iani at Romanian orphanage.

June 2000: Returned to work at orphanage (as a volunteer).

May 2003: Arrived back in NZ with Iani, aged 4.

March 2005: Iani no longer allowed to stay in NZ. The two return to Romania with no certainty of Iani's future.

November 2006: Adoption approved in Romania court

Jan/Feb 2007: Left Romania with approved adoption order. Stayed in England for one month awaiting citizenship. M

arch 2007: Mother and son arrive in NZ.

- © Fairfax NZ News