Four-year-old Mihaela Florica Porumbaru, the disabled Romanian girl staying in Dundalk, did not live in a grim Romanian orphanage, but had been staying with a loving foster family for over a year before she went on holiday to Ireland.
Mihaela's story caused controversy after it was reported she was being forced back to Romania to a life of misery in a squalid orphanage. Some re ports said she would even be held in an adult psychiatric ward because her place at the orphanage was not available.
However, the circumstances are different. Mr Corneliu Voica, vice-president of the Dambovita Child Rights Protection Commission, which is responsible for Mihaela's welfare, said he could not understand reports from Ireland about the child's situation in Romania.
"Since August 1st, 2000, Mihaela has been in a family of foster parents who are very good, kind and dependable. She has not been in an orphanage for over a year, and there is no question of her being sent to a mental institution," he said.
Mihaela's foster parents, Ms Elena Gherase (49) and her husband, Vasile (49), live in a detached house in Glodeni Vale village, Targoviste, three hours north of Bucharest. The house has a large garden and sits on an 1,100 sq metre site.
Ms Gherase works as a full-time foster mother for the Targoviste Child Protection Agency, which inspects Mihaela's progress twice a month. She has two married adult daughters, one a schoolteacher. Ms Gherase also looks after her granddaughter, Andra, who is four. She said Andra had formed a particular bond with Mihaela and was anxiously awaiting her return.
"She says every time she sees a plane, that's the one that will bring Mihaela back. Mihaela doesn't call me mummy but granny just like my granddaughter, Andra," she said. Ms Gherase said Mihaela was so happy in her Romanian home that she had cried when told she was going to Ireland for a summer holiday.
"We thought she might be going, and the telephone rang. I had to go next door because we don't have a telephone and by the time I got back Mihaela was crying.
"She said `I don't want to leave Granny' . . . and I tried to explain to her that she is going to Ireland to get her legs fixed so she can play again with Andra."
The Gherase home is full of dolls and teddy bears which belong to Mihaela and Andra.
Ms Gherase said the child protection agency had been amazed by Mihaela's progress. "She's very smart. She has learnt a lot of poems since she came to live with us. She learns what Andra learns in the kindergarten."
She said she could not understand comments that Mihaela had put on weight in Ireland, and said the Child Protection Agency had no complaints.
Mihaela had even mentioned that the food in Ireland was different and that she preferred Romanian meals. "She told me that she likes the food better here, it tastes better. She doesn't know how to explain what she wants in Ireland. She said she ate a lot of salami [sausages]."
Ms Gherase said that while Mihaela was very bright, she had limited English. "She has problems communicating. She doesn't know the language in Ireland. They couldn't pronounce her name, Mihaela, and they called her Michaela, so she said, `Don't call me Mihaela any more, granny, because this is what they call me in Ireland now'."
The Gherase family said they loved Mihaela very much and were disappointed when she did not return on Monday.
"I would love to have her back. We can hardly wait to have her back. We love her a lot and we miss her. We think of her like our own child. In a very small time she was very close to us . . . I went today to Targoviste to wait for her but she didn't arrive," said Ms Gherase.
She said she wanted what was best for the child, even if that meant not seeing her for a while. "Somehow I am very happy because I wish her to be well, but I am also very sad if I don't get her back. The best solution for me is that she gets well and returns to my house."