Reunited After Losing Everything

Antonia's neighborhood in November of 2020.

Three years ago, Antonia's community was completely flooded when two hurricanes hit Honduras.

Their family had to quickly abandon their home and take shelter in a nearby town as the water rose to the rooftop of their home. She lost everything she had spent years working for as a single mom.

While they were at the shelter, Antonia’s youngest son, Alexander, got really sick. She took him to the hospital, where they found out he had developed pneumonia, and because of a deficit in his nutrition, the social worker from child services was called. They knew that he wouldn’t be able to recover quickly by returning to the shelter, so they made the decision to place him in an orphanage where he could recover and focus on his health.

Alexander was placed in an orphanage just over an hour from where Antonia lived. Although she was a single mom working as a cleaner at a local high school to provide for her kids, she still made the time to take a bus to visit her son in the orphanage regularly.

Until one day, Antonia stopped showing up for the visits, and her phone number was disconnected.

It wasn’t until the social worker from the child welfare office and our team went looking for Antonia that we found out from a neighbor, her absence wasn’t because Antonia had lost interest in her son, but because she had been diagnosed with cancer and had spent the last few months fighting for her life. 

That day, Antonia was at a clinic receiving her final treatment. The social worker shared her phone number with the neighbor, and just hours later, she got a call from Antonia explaining what had happened and that she hadn’t had the money to be able to visit Alexander because of her cancer treatment.

The next week, Antonia showed up at the child welfare office for a scheduled supervised visit with her son. Alexander told everyone in the child welfare office how happy he was and how much he wanted to go home with his mom, and he thanked the staff for finding his mom and for soon making his dream of leaving the orphanage come true. 

Before his dream of returning home to his family could come true, Antonia's home needed some essential repairs because the effects of the flooding were still evident. The drywall that once separated the two bedrooms was rotted from the flooding, the windows were broken and were replaced with old box springs and curtains, the metal front door was rusted and didn’t shut, and the waterline to the home was broken. 

We were able to work with Antonia on a complete remodel of their home. With new drywall to divide the bedrooms properly, new doors and windows, a fixed waterline, new paint chosen by her sons, and new furniture, their house is now a safe and comfortable place for their family to live.

Alexander was reunified with his mom and brothers two weeks ago and is thrilled to be home!

Alexander is excited to go to school for the first time, since the orphanage that he was living in didn’t have a school, and he loves getting to be back with his family. 

Thank you for supporting Embraced so we could empower Antonia and her sons and for making it possible for Alexander to be home again. 

*This family has given permission to share these parts of their story and their pictures.