The Romanian Orphan Choir came to the Goodwin Performing Arts Center [GPAC] Sept. 5 for a one hour musical performance that included singing, instruments and personal stories.

The concert began with an introduction to an organization entitled Caminul Felix, which provides homes and families for Romanian orphans.

Caminul Felix has two villages, comprised of 16 homes, which, according to their website, provide “loving adoptive parents and an extended family”. Each house has a mother and father and approximately 12-15 abandoned children and orphans.

“It’s a large family, but it’s a family,” Filipe said.

A mother in the program is Anca Bodog, who sang along with the choir and spoke about her “challenges and blessings” during the performance.

“I had to get used to having kids before I was a mother,” Bodog said, who has since had two biological daughters while mothering the orphans in the Caminul Felix. After living with 12-15 children in the villages for over a decade, Bodog decided to share some of her parenting wisdom.

“We have two goals for our children: to have them know God and to prepare them for life,” Bodog said.

In 1990, after a revolution took place in Romania, the number of orphans grew tremendously, prompting Linda and Lars Hornberg to found Caminul Felix. They created the first village with help of churches and volunteers from Sweden for the abandoned children by providing them with families offering “love and security”.

Support for Caminul Felix grew after, in the mid-90s, news stories broke in the US about the inhumane conditions Romanian orphans were living in outside of the villages.

Caminul Felix still relies heavily on private and corporate financial support, which is one of the reasons the choir tours through churches and venues throughout the US.

The choir, which is composed of parents and children in from Caminul Felix, represented 10 of the 200 children currently supported there. The choir has travelled to a variety of states including Illinois, Michigan and Virginia to raise money for the villages.

One of the 10 singers was 12 year old Adrianna Vidican who shared her story between songs.  She arrived at Caminul Felix in 2013 after her mother was imprisoned for drug trafficking. Before her mother was jailed, she had spent most of her life in and out of foster care.

“The loneliness is gone and the house is always full,” Vidican said.

Vidican, who now aspires to become a neurosurgeon, goes to a Christian school and says she owes her happiness to the village.

“It’s nice to feel like you belong to someone,” Vidican said.

The program included songs such as “God is Good” and “Halleluiah” as well as instrumental pieces featuring two trumpets and a flute.

Adam Zozo, one of the over 400 people to have been raised in Caminul Felix, shared his story of survival after losing his family.

“I was amazed by the new love and the parents I was blessed with from the Caminul Felix,”  Zozo said.

Bodog, after parenting children and seeing them “flourish” through Caminul Felix, spoke openly about how it has affected her life.

“Love is a decision,” Bodog said.