An Eleven-Year Wait

Blanca is an incredibly hard-working woman whose three teenagers have been in an orphanage for the last ELEVEN years. Eleven years ago, while Blanca was at work, a neighbor babysat them, and someone reported that the kids weren’t being well taken care of. The authorities showed up, took the kids from the neighbor, and took them to an orphanage.

Blanca went to the child welfare office to try and get her kids back, where she was given inaccurate information, leaving her to believe that she would never be approved to get her kids back because she couldn’t ever meet the unreachable economic standards that she thought were required for her to get them back home.

She had given up hope of ever getting her kids back home and had settled on visiting them as often as possible, often going weekly to the orphanage where they were living.

But at a recent visit to see her kids, everything changed

During a visit to the orphanage, her three teenagers told her they wanted to go home with her, and they had learned more about the steps to do so. Her kids had seen several kids at the orphanage get reunified with their families (thanks to your support of Embraced) and started asking questions. 

They found out what the process was, and the first step was showing up at the child welfare office in the city and filling out a form to request them back, followed by psychological evaluations, a home study, and if she passed those, supervised visits with her kids at the child welfare office.

So Blanca went to the child welfare office, where she began the process. There, the lawyer explained that the information she had been given nine years ago was inaccurate and that she could begin the process of getting her kids back.

However, during the home study, the social worker found...

that the apartment she was living in didn’t have enough space for her and her three kids or beds for each one to sleep in. She needed to improve her income to be able to maintain the costs that come with all three of them returning home. 

So, we began working on an empowerment plan with Blanca. 

She committed to finding a larger home to rent in her budget where her kids would have more space (pictured above). We committed to getting her beds for her kids and supporting her with what she needed to begin a business to make and sell tortillas in her community, which would provide a higher income and keep her from needing to work outside of the house.

We are so proud of Blanca because she found a home quickly and worked on developing a business plan for her tortilla business. Her initiative speaks volumes of her love for her kids and her desire to have them back home after so much time apart. 

Blanca now has the space, the beds, and her business and is ready for her kids to be reunited with her in the coming weeks, and we are so happy about it!

Thank you for supporting Blanca and so many families just like her.