A New Plymouth woman is hopeful she will soon be able to adopt the orphan she has fostered for four years after news her Romanian residency application is being fast-tracked.
Alana Cleland has spent the past four months in Romania after authorities demanded she return seven-year-old Iani Lingurar, who had
been living with her and her family in New Plymouth for two years.
But following extensive high-level lobbying, Ms Cleland has learned her application is likely to be treated as "a special case", allowing her to bypass Romanian law banning inter-country adoptions.
Her mother, Beryl Cleland, said her daughter had initially been told she would probably lose Iani.
"We're just very grateful that she is being treated as a special case and that it won't be the seven-year stint that they initially told her it was going to be," she told National Radio this morning.
- NZPA