Carren Lewis adopted her son Bedri almost 15 years ago while running her own holiday business in Marmaris, Turkey.
Speaking to BBC Radio Cymru’s Beti a’i Phobol on Sunday, she explained how she initially moved to the tourist hotspot from her home in Wales to work as a holiday representative after the end of her first marriage.
He told Welsh television: “I did not know what to do with myself – I did not want to go back to Penrhyn, I did not want to stay in Pwllheli. I worked at this caravan park in Morfa Bychan, where I would watch the pool. Read more related articles Read more related articles “Someone told me I was going to be a good holiday representative, that I was good at talking to people and enjoying a conversation. And I thought, yes – I could do that, it sounds very glamorous, it would be fantastic to live abroad and to get paid for it “. Carren then moved Marmaris to Turkey where she met her partner, Wales Online reports. After the two got married, they started a vacation business and wanted to start a family, but the couple faced difficulties. Carren said: “I wanted a baby, I wanted children. But when I waited, I lost every time. We decided to try IVF. It was really hard to have a business and try IVF. The IVF hospital was four hours away and I would we traveled back and forth, and trying to work at the same time was very difficult. “ Read more related articles Read more related articles Carren undertook three IVF treatments, which were unsuccessful. He described the experience as “stressful and heartbreaking”. It was then that the couple decided to try adoption. She explained to Betty: “We waited a year before we could adopt because we had given our names, but what they did not explain to us was that you could only adopt from this county – the county you lived in. “After a year, nothing came of it and we did not know why. We asked and they told us it was because we lived in a certain county and it was a rich county, where all the tourists went. “We did not know what to do and we did not want to move.” At this point, Carren admitted that her marriage was in a “bad position” and that it was falling apart. Read more related articles Read more related articles He decided to take a week off to see parts of Turkey he had not yet seen and visited Diyarbakir in the east of the country. As Carren mentioned on the show, Diyarbakır is known as the “unofficial capital of the Kurdish people”. He added: “I flew down there, it was such a beautiful place. There were so many children living on the streets – thousands of them, in groups of four to 15 years. “They were all so wonderful, I talked to them and they told me that they lived on the streets and that there were a lot of children there. I went back to my hotel, did a Google search, and read a UNICEF program that said 120,000 children lived on the streets of Diyarbakir. Read more related articles Read more related articles “I called my husband and told him where I was and that I was with these children, and he went very crazy that I was in the east and in a place that he said was dangerous, especially for a foreign woman alone. He demanded that I return home immediately and that it was very dangerous over there. I was determined to stay and continue my journey. “I asked him if he could check if we could adopt here – he knew the director of social services where we lived, so we contacted him and he said he would come back to us. He called the next day and said there was a huge welcome there to see the children”. With her husband and mom, Carren went to visit an orphanage in the Kurdish city. During their visit, they met two babies – a girl and a boy. Carren recalled: “I’m holding this baby girl – she was four months old when she first arrived [to the orphanage]. He had a lot of hair, those big brown eyes, plump cheeks and a pinched nose. “Mom was holding this little boy named Mohammed and he was six months old. He had a dirty nose, crossed eyes and signs of chickenpox everywhere. But when he opened his eyes and smiled at us, it was the best feeling. My mom said, “Look at him, look at how handsome he is.” Carren and her husband wanted to take home both babies and the day before Christmas they were told they could adopt. But when they arrived at the orphanage, they were told that they could only adopt one child and that they had to choose between the two babies. “It was a huge shock,” Karen said. “I wanted to take the girl because I felt I could give her a better life. My husband wanted to take Bedri because of the problems he had with his eyes. Read more related articles Read more related articles “We talked to the people at the orphanage and they said that the girls go here very fast because the families think they can give them a better life, as it is very difficult when they leave the orphanage at the age of 16 or 18. “The reason they did not allow us to take both was because I was a new mom and they wanted to see how I would do with one and then I could take the second. We had to choose in five minutes and we chose Bedri – it was the best decision I had made “. After the adoption, Carren found out how Bedri ended up in the orphanage. Read more related articles Read more related articles He explained: “A 15-year-old boy was going to school and thought he heard a kitten crying in these boxes on the side of the road. He looked through the boxes and trash and there was a baby wrapped in blankets. “The police were nearby and the boy called the police. They took him directly to the hospital and he was in the intensive care unit for a while before going to the orphanage. They named him Mohamed because that was the best name to give a child in Turkey to protect him.” The couple decided to name their adopted son Bedri as it was a name that was both Kurdish and Turkish, but sounded Welsh. Carren’s marriage to her second husband has come to an end, prompting her to return to Wales with Bedri. Carren, now an assistant professor, lives with Bedri and her partner Giles in Pembrokeshire. Her son will take a GCSE exam this year and dreams of becoming a nutritionist. Although it was not easy for the family, Carren said she was proud of her son. He said: “He is a strong boy, he is focused – he meditates and keeps himself healthy. He knows about his past. From the beginning we started telling him a story, but as someone else’s story and as he grew up we would change the story, to understand more. Read more related articles “Three years ago, we decided to tell him the whole story. He did not want to go back to Turkey … but this year Bentry decided he wanted to go to Turkey for a week this summer to see his dad and family. of. “I’m so happy about it – it’s so important. I have told him everything about the history of Turkey, we watch Turkish movies and we listen to Turkish music at home. He is very proud of his past and that he comes from Turkey, even though he calls himself Wales. “he is also proud to be Turkish.”
