I have no idea what is going on, if the cosmos is trying to tell me something or get me to tell someone else, but almost every time I've gone online the past couple of days, stories about Moldova have presented themselves before me; not just Moldova as a country, but Moldova as a country with orphans and people who adopt them.

Even yesterday's JK Rowling posts had a Moldovan touch, as her Children's High Level Group has a hand in Moldova.

So ... all right, already ... I'm writing about Moldova.

Starting with the US State Department's page on adoptions from the country, that makes it sound like the process is complicated and involves long waits. Until the US ratifies the Hague, it is even more difficult for Americans.

There were only 16 immigration visas issued to Moldovan adoptees in 2006, down from 54 in 2005, and international adoptions are permitted only in exceptional cases.

This article states flatly that "Movdovans may be the world's unhappiest people".

Quoting a Romanian saying puts it in perspective: "When you think you've got it bad, thank God you weren't born in Moldova."

Yikes!

According to the former associate director of Children's Emergency Relief International, a group working in the country, Moldova is plagued with poverty and corruption, is the poorest of the former Soviet Union countries, and is the leading country for human trafficking in all of Eastern Europe.

"The British Helsinki Human Rights Group did a study in 2000, and they said 60 percent of the girls that are being trafficked out of all of Eastern Europe are coming out of Moldova," Davis [CERI former director] said. "That would include countries much, much larger than Moldova. Russia, Ukraine, Romania, countries that are considered to have really bad trafficking problems, and here's little Moldova ... and more girls are coming out of here than anywhere."

CERI works with orphanages and state-run boarding schools, and has begun taking on kids who have aged out of the system, hoping to stem the tide that now sees around 70% of teen girls going into the sex trade, either voluntarily or through sex slavery and trafficking.

In addition to CERI, the Moldova World Children's Fund, in conjuction with Wide Horizons for Children -- A Better Life Moldova supports children's projects through a variety of programs.

One practical endeavor was to install a heating system in a school ... a good idea in a country that lies along the same latitude as Minnesota.

And finally, an actual adoption story from Moldova, proving that it can be done, and like most international adoptive parents, this couple adopted not only a child, but the country.

"Our total direction of our lives has changed," Martha said in an interview in her Greenville home following her most recent trip to Moldova in May. "Where we put our energy and our effort, our thinking and our emotions, all of that has turned toward Moldova. I don't think we anticipated that."

Yeah ... we know how that works, don't we?

The story of an adopted child growing up to be an adoptive mom and falling in love with a place she'd barely heard of, it's worth a read.

So, that's it for Moldova for a while. I'm hoping this post accomplishes whatever it is I'm supposed to accomplish, as I'm pretty sure the fates were telling me something. If news from Moldova keeps slapping me upside the head, maybe I'll have to start planning a trip there.