He often came knocking on the woman's door, begging for food and clothes. At night she would often find him sleeping under the staircase. He was a very cute eight -year-old boy. When the woman asked his name, he told her Iulian. After a few months of giving leftover food and old clothes to Iulian, the woman heard about our partner organization. She investigated their children's home and asked if they would take in Iulian.

We discovered that Iulian first came to the streets when he was seven – until then his family lived together in a nice apartment. But Iulian's father started going out drinking with his work buddies. He quickly squandered the family's money. Then Iulian's mother left them. He and his brothers had no choice but to go to the streets.

After Iulian came to the children's home, his father began to visit him more and more frequently. He would always show up at the door drunk, begging Iulian for money. Though embarrassed, Iulian would dismiss the incident by laughing it off. These recurrent events became a crossroads for Iulian. He had on one side the father whom he loved and on the other side an opportunity for a new life. What kind of world do we live in when a 9-year-old child is forced to make a decision like that?

Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God , who shall not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.” The decision to leave his father stood as a challenge to Iulian. He knew that alcohol was the root of his family problems that eventually drove him to the streets. But Iulian would not let the addiction of his father bring him down again.

Every relationship demands a value system on which it can be built. If Iulian's value system had accepted his father's drunkenness, their relationship would have been severely limited. But the best way to grow in his relationship with his father was to provide it with boundaries. If he refused to see his father when he was drunk, then his father would have only one choice: to be sober if he wanted to spend time with Iulian. Coming together on Iulian's terms was the only way that they could come together.

A system of values is a new concept for Iulian. On the streets there was no such thing. Even now he recognizes that he daily fails to live up to this standard. But Iulian is traversing the crossroads; he strives to challenge his family and to transform the system of values in all his relationships.