lost and found

Tonight on Lost and Found Dumped in a Romanian orphanage I felt unwanted Rescued by Kiwi parents Christina returns seeking answers The thought of being here scares me But what she finds shocks Are you serious? And... Back in those days I wasn't a very nice guy to be around He was a violent street kid Now he wants to find his son I just want to tell him that I love him And in some ways it might be too late Because my health isn't the best My name's Christina I was adopted from Romania when I was just a little baby And as I grew older I started thinking more about my birth family I'd really like to find them And learn more about where I came from It would mean the world to me If you could help me find them Please help me I'm David Lomas Finding lost family members is what I do Romanian born Christina Graham Is a 26 year old stay at home Solo mum Living in Christchurch with her 4 year old daughter Hazel I'm going to meet her in Tarkica At the farm where she grew up As part of the Graham clan Being adopted I knew I was different But it just felt normal It just felt like I was just a Kiwi But her Romanian heritage called to her When at the age of 16 She received an unexpected letter This is a letter from my half sister in Romania Dear Christina You know that I miss you very much I've not seen you for 16 years When I saw you last time you were a baby girl You should know that your mum is hospitalised with her lungs And your dad works for a family When you read the letter how did you feel? I was really happy and excited To know that my birth family is still alive And that they thought about me You didn't reply, why was that? I got the letter and I wrote her back But I never sent it I didn't feel ready I didn't feel like they meant anything to me That was about 10 years ago What's changed now? I have my own child And it made me realise Seeing or meeting my birth family Would be awesome That your birth parents gave you away Does that upset you a little? I felt unwanted That was hard to say I don't want them to shade the kiwi fruit Parents Jonquil and Brian Have fostered about 30 children And adopted 9 4 from New Zealand 2 from Russia And 3 from Romania What prompted you to take on so many? We thought we can just love any child Doesn't matter what colour, what creed And big house, why not? Fill up the house Family video records Christina Having an idyllic country upbringing Places to play Brothers and sisters Devoted parents They just wanted to be kiwis Although we made them proud of their heritage They all knew about their origins But their favourite story was Mummy, how many planes does it take to get me? And so I'd sit on the end of their bed And say, well, you're Romanian They'd say, oh, I think it was about 12 or 13 And that was one of their favourite bedtime stories Just the journey to get them Though she had a happy childhood Christina still wants to find her Romanian family So she can tell her daughter about her culture Christina, this is the first time I laid eyes on you Where is this photo taken? That's in Yash, at the orphanage So this is your birth mum That's when I went and asked permission And she said, yes, she thought so And then she said, well, I'll have to ask my husband And he agreed He said, yes, he would like you to have a better life Because you'd just be put in the orphanage And here's Dad He's handsome, isn't he? Yeah, he looks like me, fully And you had a half-sister Maria Magdalena, two years older than Christina Is the sister who wrote to her But there is also another younger sister I have a full-blooded sister called Janina When Jonkel later heard that this younger sister Was also at the orphanage She made every attempt to adopt her too But by then, the laws had changed And it was no longer possible for a Romanian orphan To be adopted out to New Zealand I know that she's a little younger than me And she was adopted out to an Italian family When she was around the age of five years old That's all I really know about her I have all Christina's adoption records Her birth name was Christina Donea She was born October 8, 1990 And adopted a year later I know her parents' names But the task now, all these years later Is to find them Tracking people down in Romania Requires a lot of footwork This mission will be impossible Without my old friend Mihai Radu Yes, it's another adoption story OK, and do you have any papers from them? I've got fantastic records actually Just about everything Some of it's in Romanian OK, well look, I'll email you all the documents If you can get started I'll come over in two or three weeks' time I head back to Tarkica With less information to give Christina Than I'd hoped Where do you think your birth family is? I think they're in Iasi Where I came from That's where I hoped they'd be We've got a guy in Romania Who's helped us before to try and find people And he's trying to find your birth parents And he's sort of optimistic But he has to go from Bucharest up to Iasi And I'm going to meet him there And he says if the two of us are there We can probably track them down There's no guarantee though But we're wondering Would you be happy to come to Romania And join us there? I'd love to come to Romania That would be amazing I'm on a search for Christina Graham's sisters And her birth mother So I'm off to Romania This is the city of Iasi in the northeast Of this developing European country That borders Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova Christina will be here in three days' time Along with her parents Who've chosen to fly over with her I'm meeting Mihai Radu Who acts as a researcher and translator for me When I'm in Romania So we're looking for three people this time The mother, Christina Nesterov Her daughter, Maria Magdalena Who might still be living with the mother And Gianina Who might have been adopted and gone to Italy I've got the documents which I sent to you But that phone number there You say no reply No, I tried It looks like it's disconnected or out of order No, it doesn't work So I've got the adoption records Yeah, I checked them They don't tell much, no, no These papers speak to the person now The search is not quite as advanced as I'd hoped How can we find these people? The best plan is to go first To the Child Protection and Adoption Committee Here in Iasi And what can they tell us? They should have the adoption file Where it should be addresses of the parents who adopted So we can go there tomorrow? Yeah, we go there Thank you Cheers This is the Child Protection and Social Assistance Directory for Iasi They should have some papers on the adoptions Of both Gianina and Cristina So I'll let you go in Yeah, I have a notebook I'll get everything Okay, see you later Romanian orphans came to world attention With the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu Babies were abandoned in state orphanages Because their parents could no longer afford to care for them In some cases, they were treated badly 30,000 babies were adopted overseas More than 150 of them went to New Zealand Well, I got some bad news and some good news The bad news is that the papers regarding the adoption Of Cristina that they have here Are the same that Cristina's parents have back in New Zealand So no information which tells us where the mother is now? No, no, no We cannot make anything out of that Is there any way we can go to get that information? Yeah, well, it's Friday afternoon We should be on court on Monday morning Monday, so that's when Cristina and her family arrive Unfortunately so Alright And what was the good news then? The good news is that I got the details Of the family who has adopted Gianina So we know the name and the place where Gianina's parents are? Yeah That's good So just we should go on internet? Search for the name If we can't find family in Romania Locating a sister in Italy would be the next best thing We search the online white pages And find a phone number in a small village in Northern Italy We strike it lucky On the phone is the adopted father of Gianina Cristina's younger 22 year old sister Ok, moment, moment, moment He has no idea that Gianina had a sister We can send him all the adoption papers And that to show that it is Cristina and Gianina are sisters I want you, is it possible to take a card? You must not know the mother Ok, moment, moment, moment He said that no way to meet her mother But we haven't found the mother yet Does he by chance know where the mother lives? He was very strict I don't know and I don't care Doesn't know, doesn't care Yep We've found her but after 20 minutes of negotiation Her dad will still not let us talk to her Cristina may never get to meet Gianina If we get an email address I will send all the documentation Goodbye, bye, bye I sent the proof of identity documents off to Italy yesterday afternoon But this morning there's still no reply As Cristina and her family touch down in Jas I'm desperately hoping the courthouse will reveal some answers David, hi Any luck? Sort of The papers are here alright But he couldn't show me the papers But he told me that by the time of the adoption She was living in the village of Bivolari And is that nearby? Well Bivolari is one hour driving north of Jas It's our best lead so far But I'm not yet able to give Cristina the news she wants to hear Hello Hi You made it okay? Yeah How's Romania? From what I've seen so far, good And you must be Jo, I'm David Nice to meet you Hi, nice to meet you Joanna is Jonko's cousin from England She was here 24 years ago when they first found Cristina in the orphanage And her knowledge of languages was invaluable She couldn't resist the chance to fly herself over to meet the family again We've had a couple of chaotic days I've been doing a bit of checking with Mihai Nothing super serious to report yet But Mihai and I are going to head to a village about 50km north of here If there's any luck we'll give you a call and get you to come up and meet us But we'll let you get over the jet lag a little bit Good luck Okay Bye Mihai and I are on the road to Vivalari The further away from the big cities you travel The more it becomes obvious that Romania, despite being part of the European Union Is still a developing country Perhaps the shop might know where she is Usually in villages everybody knows each other Do you know where Cristina Anton lives? Anton? Cristina? Yeah, so I asked here the shop owner and she does not know anything about Cristina Anton So we should ask I just asked, do you know where the Anton-Cristina family is? Where is the Anton-Cristina family? Do you have any idea? I don't know Okay Shall we go and try the other end of the village and see if there's any luck down there? People from the hill Back in Jas, there's a lot for Cristina to take in The sense that this foreign place is in her blood Being here I feel even more Romanian than in New Zealand I feel like I fit in a lot more I would like to come back to Romania in the future Bring my daughter out here so she can see where my life started Yeah It's been two hours, it feels like we've hit a dead end We've tried Cristina's mother's maiden name and her married name Then, finally, our persistence is rewarded We find someone who knows her It's been a long and difficult search for Cristina's mother But finally, we think we know where she lives Anton, Cristina, do you know where they are? Looks like they are living here This house here? Yeah, this house here So she is at home now? Yeah, she's home I asked him to give me a shout to come here, out of the gate This is their house? Yeah, her house, where she lives, yeah And he's her husband My name is David, I come from New Zealand This lady, she looks like Cristina It's definitely her mother? Yeah, she's her mother Apparently there is another girl, Magda, in the house Who is also her daughter Oh, yes So this is Magdalena, the daughter Yeah She's here too Fantastic This is Cristina from New Zealand's sister Finding Cristina's sister, Magdalena, the letter writer Is a delightful surprise Your daughter, from New Zealand Is looking for you Wants to find you She has done a video message Would you like to see it? On this post here? Hi, my name is Cristina I was adopted from Romania When I was just a baby As I grew older I started thinking about my birth parents Looking for them And my two sisters that I know of It would mean the world to me To find you guys That is your daughter She would like to meet you You would be happy to meet her? Very much What happened? Why did you need to give Cristina away? She said I didn't have conditions Probably she meant living conditions Especially my husband did not like children And his sister, they pushed me to give her to an orphanage And then she was adopted from there So she was forced to give up Cristina? Yeah, one word, yes Magdalena, you wrote to Cristina many years ago What happened? They may have answered back But I do not know because I didn't get any letter Or probably her parents in New Zealand Did not want to tell her about us About Romania I could bring her here this afternoon While there's still no news from Cristina's sister in Italy We've found who we're looking for in Romania Hiya Hi Well, we've been doing some work this morning And some good news and interesting news I caught up with your mother My birth mother Yes And your sister Magdalena Really? Yeah Wow So, I showed them your video Yeah They were very excited to see that And both very keen to meet you But there's a bit of a downside In the sense that your mother's circumstances are pretty hard Her and her current husband Who both had, I suppose, drinking problems Is the best way to describe it Yeah But you're keen to meet? I'm ready We drive back to Bivalari Where Cristina's 45-year-old mother and her sister Are waiting anxiously Your mother's house is just around the corner here And then there's a long-ish dirt road You'll see two people standing at the gate I'm sure you'll work out who they are I will Good luck Thank you How are you feeling? Nervous Excited? Well, well Would you stay with you? Yes, please I do Oh my gosh What do you think? There you go Hello Yes, come on Yeah, hello Hello It's good to see you again You too Your daughter She's beautiful From us It's good to see you Nice to meet you I'm very nervous I don't want to cry again Don't be nervous I was pretty sad I held back my tears a little bit I probably shouldn't have But I felt sad for her It was very hard seeing that I feel thankful for her for giving me up It wouldn't have been easy And I feel she gave me the chance of a lifetime To live a better life And I'm happy and grateful for that For sure Kristina's mother invites everyone inside She reveals that Kristina's father Lives in another village He's refused any contact with the family Since their separation Kristina is beginning to grasp the reality Of what poverty in Romania really means Older sister Magdalena, a farmhand Shows her around Is that the toilet? Toilet, yep What is this room? They have a bath in there They put water inside And they wash I didn't expect to see them In this sort of a place I didn't think it would be this poor Where does your water come from? How do you get water? From the well Where is the well? Can you show me? Yes, along the road I couldn't imagine myself being here The thought of being here scares me The thought of being here saddens me To think if I had stayed on This would have been my life And I'm glad it's not, to say the least This is how they do it here in Moldova Meanwhile, I receive a phone call from Italy With some amazingly good news I head to the airport To meet Kristina's next surprise Are you Gianina? David, welcome to Romania Having your sister, is it good? It's the best, it's amazing But there's still one sister missing Yeah, Gianina, yes Well, your lost sister We have found her You've found her? Yes Gianina? Yes Really? Are you serious? We have found her, yes Oh my gosh, that's awesome She's here in Jas now Now? Now? She's here in Jas? Jas Yes Now We'll get you to meet her shortly Are you serious? She's around here? Yeah Oh my gosh I thought you might like to go and Tell your mum and your aunt the good news And then I'll come over and join you in a second Okay She's here Wow Hello We've just been told that they've found Gianina Wow And she's here, here in Jas Five minutes No, really? That's fantastic Your sister Oh, that's brilliant news Wow Can you cope? We weren't expecting that Can you cope? So it's good news, isn't it? Yes, definitely And it's really good that you're here Jo Because obviously Gianina is from Italy And she only speaks Italian So we've got three sisters now One who speaks Romanian English One who speaks English And one who speaks Italian If you walk out there in the middle You'll see a lady standing there with her boyfriend That's your sister Oh my god All of you Off you go Brian That's her Yeah Holy ----, she looks like me She looks like me No Oh wow Hello She says she's very emotional Tell her we're emotional too She says I imagine so She's seen it Mamma mia She's seen it from your faces Yes, same here You look so much like me I'm sorry? She looks so much like me Does she know about me? No They only knew about you two days ago When they got the phone call It was an enormous shock Because she knew nothing about it After all these years But a lovely shock But even so an emotional shock And I knew all about her Gianina's adoptive father For reasons he would not explain Insisted that she not meet with her mother But after more than two decades These sisters are once again Standing on the same soil With a lifetime of different experiences Between them You glad? All happy we met? Yes Stay in contact? Yes Forever? Forever I'm happy Despite the language barriers It's very clear there's a strong sisterly bond Magdalena is a sweetie I feel like I naturally mother her Gianina's more outgoing And more like me She's cool She's the sister that I imagined she would be Christina has chosen not to find her birth father Since returning to New Zealand She's found it difficult to communicate with her mother But is in constant contact with both her sisters I'm a lot more calm and content It's really helped me understand a lot Where I came from and yeah Coming up The dad longing for forgiveness This guy here is the one that wants to meet David Not that one That person was a mongrel Is it too late to make amends? My name is Michael And I'm looking for my son David I have never met him But if I could meet him I just want to tell him that That I'm sorry I wasn't there for him My mum was given a picture of him When he was just a young toddler I carried that picture around for a long time in my wallet Until I lost my wallet one day And that was it But the memory of that photo has stayed with me all these years I just want to tell him that I love him I'm heading to Te Atatu on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour To meet 58-year-old security guard Michael Tanenui Michael grew up in 1960s South Auckland And by 1980 had been thrown out by his once were warrior's father As an 18-year-old he was living rough in Auckland Surviving by a life of crime Later he met David's mother Well I'd been living on the streets at the time Or staying at different friends' places And I met her We had a very short relationship And David came from that relationship You didn't see her again after that? Back in those days I wasn't a very nice guy to be around Had a lot of issues And I honestly didn't blame her for not hanging around I wasn't worth it at that time Full of anger Full of disappointment Resentment So what changed your life? Firstly I think I did I'd made up my mind I didn't like the road I was going down And secondly Good people came into my life And one of those good people was Carolyn A social worker The woman he's been married to for 36 years The mother of their four children She smoothed the edges on me She's my best mate And I could not have gotten where I am today without her I've got no doubt She taught me to love again And this guy here That's the one that wants to meet David Not that one That person was a mongrel But time could be running out for Michael I have a heart condition I've had it for a while now There is no cure But now I appreciate every day I'm here And I appreciate everyone around me Today whānau is everything Michael has 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren And he's always had a place in his heart for the eldest son He has never met I loved him from the moment I saw that photo My heart leaped when I saw that photo I still got that feeling It's right in here And I've had it all these years The simple reason why Michael has never been able to find his son Is that he never knew the boy's surname Michael believed that David had been adopted out I start by searching for David's mother, who has since remarried And I make a surprising discovery A David with the mother's maiden name and the correct age Facebook gives me his workplace And I find a phone number Oh hello, is that David Zimmerman? Oh hello David, look, my name is David Lomas Look, someone's asked me to try and find you Does the name Michael Taneinui mean anything to you? Yeah, I've heard that name before, yeah Well, Michael would like to meet you OK, well He's done a video message Is there any chance I could come and see you and show you that? Ah, yeah, why not, yeah 36-year-old David Zimmerman lives in Whakatane With his wife and three children He works as a mechanical fitter He grew up in the care of his grandparents But is still in contact with his mother I'm David, have a seat Well, as I mentioned on the phone, your dad's looking for you Yep, yeah Do you know anything of him? Not really, no I haven't really been told too much about him To be honest, pretty much I was told he was dead For most of my life, actually When did you find out that he wasn't dead? Oh, a few years ago, I had a conversation with my koro I mentioned to him about trying to find my father, I suppose And he said, oh yeah, it's a good idea And I said, well, it's a bit late now because he's dead And he goes, well, I'm not sure Well, I don't really know about that Your phone has done a message directly to you So have a look at this And decide whether you'd like to meet him Hi David, my name is Michael And I'm your father I know we've never ever met But you have been on my mind all these years I wasn't a good person back in those days I believe I've changed since then I just want to tell you that I'm sorry I wasn't there for you And also that I love you Wow, um, yeah, I don't know what to say, mate I really want to meet him Like, yeah, there's just thousands of questions But also kind of glad too that he's done it It might have taken me another 10 years to try this And you never know, he might not have been here So then I would have been really missing out I head back to Auckland knowing Michael is going to be thrilled With the news I have for him I've suggested to Michael that he arranges a family get-together tomorrow And I plan to surprise him with one more member of the whānau Well, I've got some good news for you Yeah We've found David Oh, mate Yeah, I feel that A good punch in the guts And the other news is He's actually here I never thought that was going to happen, David You got me there, mate So, would you like me to go and get him? I'd love you to go and get him, David Well, give me 10 minutes, I'll go and get him And we'll bring him up here You can have a real family barbecue Thank you Awesome 58-year-old Michael Tanenui has never met his 36-year-old son But that's about to change The news is he's actually here You're here in Auckland, how are you feeling? Really nervous Really, almost petrified nervous Well, I'm sorry to make it a bit worse for you But we got your dad to organise a barbecue for his family today He didn't know you were coming And so we've just told him you're coming So you've got the whole whanau to meet around the corner Awesome And so you're the big surprise, we've just told him Oh wow I won't hold you up, but if you walk round the side of that house there And there's a little pathway down there The old guy there will be your dad Good luck Alright, thanks David is here with two of his children, Jacob and Leah But his wife Kelly and son Ethan were unable to make it I was really, I was freaking out I was glad I had my two kids there They were pushing me up the drive How's it going? My God, here's my son That was my first thought Wow Hey How you doing? Kia ora Nice to finally meet you You too Don't know about the money too much My heart just leapt It's something I'll hold on to for the rest of my life How's everybody doing? Sorry I'm just a bit nervous Just freaking out a little bit isn't it I've brought two of my kids over here They decided to come up for the ride Mum wishes she could be here but she's in hospital Wow So, man Well here we are Might as well sit down and have a bit of a catch up or something Nice to meet you My name's Dave anyway I'm Luke I'm your younger brother Joshua Joshua, hey how you doing? Nice to meet you The neph Granddaughter Not mine You must be the sister You just have all these emotions and all these thoughts going through your head And you just, you can't focus on anything As a welcome and a token of respect The family want to sing a special waiata for David You're standing in this place that you never ever thought you'd be All these people in front of you who you never ever thought you'd meet And they're singing to me And just, it was overwhelming but great The Waikato, Waikato River That's your river I'm very proud of him Very proud of his upbringing Oh he's cheeky He's a cheeky old fella It's quite good to sit down and have a bit of a joke We have the same sort of attitude and same sort of humour It's quite amazing actually being around all these people that you've never ever met I kind of felt like I just sort of slotted in And was just part of everybody Michael and David described the meeting as life changing Neither can believe their shared similarities They as well as the wider whanau are now in daily contact I'm content that it's happened I look forward to a future with him Doesn't matter how brief or whatever I just look forward to being a part of his family I'm just glad that he had a chance to meet me And I'm glad that I've met him Next week on Lost and Found I don't understand how a father can just forget two kids The South Island brothers looking for their runaway dad This thing's weird, it's like he's gone to another planet And the born to be wild Baiki Gran Searching for the mother who gave her away I think my world fell apart Supporting local content so you can see more of New Zealand on Air