As I’m sitting at a small table in my hotel room in government managed isolation back in New Zealand as I have arrived back home to visit family and friends, before heading back to Germany for work in late February.

I saw the direct need for adoptions as a result of the tremendous conditions the institutions in Romania were in the 90s and early 2000.

After taking a crazy opportunity to move for a new job, then traveling for over 36 hours from New Zealand to Germany, I arrived safely in the frigid Frankfurt winter. A new adventure awaited me—and Toastmasters would be a big part of the experience.

The year 2020 has been described by many as unprecedented and personally I can only agree.

In a nut shell looking back at what had happened if you would have told me what would happen all this year, I would have not believed it one bit!

As I took time to reflect on what happened over the last two weeks, life has changed in ways that people could not have imagined due to COVID-19 around the globe.

We all from the I’m Adopted team wish our good friend and founder Alex Gilbert a wonderful birthday despite the current global situation and the New Zealand lockdown.

It’s great to be part of the Adoption Diaries and here is a bit of a quick background info about me.

I was adopted from Romania in 1997 by a German family and we moved 13 years ago to NZ, I have been part of the I’m Adopted project since 2017 as an Ambassador.

First, of this write up is not to gain sympathy but to share my personal reflection and experience of what I have and am learning since I have been back from my trip from Switzerland in July and after finding out recently I wasn’t accepted for the Rotary Peace Fellowship.