Tauranga woman Daniela Brown was adopted from Romania at age 3 and grew up in Whangaparāoa, Auckland. Photo / Alex Gilbert, I'm Adopted
For much of Daniela Brown’s life, her birth family has been a “mystery”.
The 38-year-old Tauranga woman was adopted from a Romanian orphanage at age 3 and grew up in Whangaparāoa, Auckland.
Her efforts to track down her birth mother and siblings have been documented in the second episode of the third season of the documentary series An Adoption Story, released on February 12.
The YouTube series is an independent project created, produced and edited by fellow adoptee Alex Gilbert, who runs a New Zealand and worldwide support network for adoptees.
Brown said Gilbert approached her at the end of 2024 to be part of the series.
She told the Bay of Plenty Times she was born in Jilava Penitentiary prison during the communist regime in Romania and transferred to an orphanage.
Brown said her birth mother was incarcerated under crimes of solicitation.
She was adopted by Auckland couple Rod and Jeanette Brown, along with her younger brother Jaxon, also from Romania.
Brown said Rod was already learning the Romanian language before their adoption and spoke some at home, while Jeanette ensured the children were immersed in Romanian culture.
“I’ve always tried to learn the language, but I’m useless at doing it properly.”
She said her parents had a 10-acre lifestyle block where they grazed horses.
“As millennials, we look back with nostalgia with our childhood. It was very unattached to devices and quite freeing.”
She was also involved in the local church community.
When she was 12, the family went to Romania to learn “a bit about our roots”.
During the trip, she remembered coming to terms with the “grim reality of this was my life, this could’ve still been my life”.
One difficult moment was remembering a friend from her time at the orphanage.
She was told he was still there when she visited.
After finishing school, Brown completed her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Teaching degrees in Sydney.
Her first teaching job was at Tauranga’s Bethlehem College. She now works at Bethlehem Tertiary Institute as a secondary teaching lecturer.
From 2015, she spent two years living in London and went “back and forth” to Romania.
She volunteered at several places, doing art therapy and at a rehabilitation centre for people with intellectual and physical disabilities in Romania.
She also volunteered for Love Light Romania – a Christian organisation whose mission was to do good in the community, such as housing orphans living with HIV/Aids.
She said that volunteering at Love Light Romania “changed my life in terms of finding the mystery about my family”.
By assessing paperwork from her mother’s incarceration and making some phone calls, Brown was connected with her birth mother’s cousin, Georgetta.
Georgetta told Brown she had a birth brother and sister.
“Literally the next week, I was all together with them.”
Brown said it happened “so intensely and so quickly”.
“I come from that Christian perspective, so I just had peace flooding through me.”
Brown said she believed God helped find her family.
“God opened the doors for this to be the right time to meet my birth family.”
In 2021, Georgetta’s husband told Brown that her birth mother was still alive and gave her a phone number.
Brown left the phone number untouched for years.
“I just thought if she wanted to reach me, she knows she can, and I don’t want to insert myself somewhere ... I’m not wanted. I’m very happy with my life.”
The first time Brown called was when filming the documentary episode last year. Her birth mother did not pick up.
Brown said she had “a lot of questions” for her birth mother, including about her time in prison.
Her “dying wish” was to know if she had heard a song Brown wrote, which she described as a letter “to release her of obligation”.
Brown said she felt a “peaceful pragmatism” at where things stood with her birth mother.
Gilbert said creating the series was important “as we all have a story to tell“.
He said the series had helped adoptees talk more openly about their stories through family, friends, or I’m Adopted - the charity he founded and runs.
“What I liked about Daniela’s story is that she spoke openly about the ups and downs of her story, and of course, there was pain in her story with her birth mother ... but she understood that her life wasn’t easy.
“As an adoptee myself, I understand that with my own birth family. Adoption always comes with its complexities on all sides.”
Gilbert’s adoption story was also available on his YouTube channel.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.