PROVO — Danielle Pulley remembers very little of the Romanian orphanage she lived in until she was 7 years old — the color of the walls, where the cafeteria was and that her best friend there had blue eyes and blond hair.
But after 15 years, she will return to that orphanage to "give the kids hope," she said. The orphanage will be just one stop that Pulley and 11 others who were adopted from Romania will make in September to serve children who were not as fortunate as they were.
"It will be emotional, but a good one," said Pulley, who became teary-eyed just thinking about going back.
Friday night these 12 young adults served food to a couple of hundred people at a dinner and auction put on by the Natalia Foundation in the Eldred Senior Center in Provo to raise money for their trip. The Natalia Foundation is a nonprofit organization started in Utah for humanitarian projects in Romania.
This September will be group's fourth trip to Romania, but for most of the 12 young adults, it will be their first time returning to their homeland.
Pulley's mother, Annette, said she had to wait three years to get her daughter because of complications in finding the biological parents.
She said Danielle would wait at the window, watching for her to come back.
"It was horrible," the adoptive mother said, her own eyes filling with tears.
Annette Pulley already had five children when she adopted Danielle and another little girl, Mickelle, from Romania, but it was something she said she knew she had to do. Many of the other parents who adopted from Romania and who attended the event said they feel the same way.
While Annette Pulley is a little nervous about the memories her daughter may have as she steps back into the orphanage, where she was chained to her bed because there was not enough adult supervision for the number of children, she is also excited to be able to help the Romanian children in need.
The group will be taking with them homemade blankets for newborns who would otherwise be taken home without any warm wrapping, shoes for children at several different schools and many willing hands that will be painting orphanages and making a safe house for some of the estimated 6,000 to 9,000 Romanian children who live on the streets, having run away from orphanages or homes because of neglect or abuse or who have been abandoned.
Daniella Brady, 18, who was adopted from Romania when she was just a few days old and has been to Romania since, said she is most excited about being with the youngsters living on the street.
I don't know how they do it, but every time you see them they have the biggest smiles on their faces," she said, although many of them live in sewers or bushes on the sides of roads.
Not only will the U.S. visitors be working at making Romania better for the children in need, many of these young adults will try to reconnect with their biological parents.
One of those who is excited and a little nervous to do this is Corey Beus, 18, from Highland. He was adopted when he was a few months old and said his birth family are "like strangers" to him, but they do remember giving him up.
He said he spoke to his mother on the phone a while ago, but she only got the word "hi" out before she became too emotional to speak.
"You do feel a connection talking to them," Beus said.
Chance Worsley, an 18-year-old from Provo, who was adopted when he was 2 days old, said he is not as interested in finding his parents as he is in helping all the children there.
He said the only thing he is worried about is not having time to get everything done that they want to.
"It's not just that I want to make myself better," Worsley said, thinking about what his life could have been like, "but that I need to give back. There's never going to be enough to give back compared to what I've been given."
