Ana Maria and Gabriella, the twins

I spent the morning in the newborn room, with Delia Ayana and twins Ana Maria and Gabriella.  My colleague and I also convinced the nurses to let us bring Denisa and Raul in, too, so we had five babies, but with four of them newborns, it was very quiet.

We had some fun posing the newborns, Delia Ayana, Denisa, Ana-Maria, and Gabriella:

Dr. Romeo told us that the twin's parents have signed them over to CPS (Child Protective Services), so they will be going into foster care as soon as a foster family can be found.  Apparently their parents have six small children at home already and can't afford to raise two more.

You might wonder why the twins won't be put up for adoption.  They are beautiful, perfect babies with no known health issues, so they would seem to be highly adoptable.   And in the USA they would be, but Romania's adoption laws make it very difficult.  Not only does the consent of the parents have to be gained, so does the consent of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, adult siblings and perhaps others (I wasn't clear on the details).

I guess they'll stay here in the hospital until a foster family is found, though I am not sure if that is true, since this is an acute care hospital and they don't require any special treatment.

It's also very difficult to find foster parents these days, since the Romanian government cut their salaries by 25% back  in January.  (Foster parents don't receive a per diem, like in the USA; here, they are government employees, with benefits, and eligible for a pension.  But the pay is very low, and some people decided it was just too low after a 25% pay cut; some foster parents even turned their children back over to CPS.)