Baby Girl Lost

Part one of a short story about a little girl and situations that will mold her throughout life.

The baby looked very frail laying in the plastic box filled with numerous pipes exiting in every direction. Every time her tiny belly rose there was a beep that followed. The monitors were displaying all of her vital information and without the machines she would not make it through the night.

She was a premature baby girl born February 19, 1979 in Kings County Hospital; Brooklyn, New York. Weighing in at one pound and a couple ounces, Angelica Miracle Davis, was the talk of the maternity wing and it was uncertainty of knowing if she would survive the night or not that loomed in the atmosphere. Why? Well, numerous amounts of drugs were in her system not to mention the constant physical, mental, emotional, drug abuse that her mother endured during her pregnancy that caused the early term labor and size of the baby girl.

Upon the baby’s delivery, Deloris Jane Davis had countless amounts of drugs in her system and physical scars, old and new, all over her body to prove abuse. Deloris was a party girl, known to live in the moment and she shared her life with all types of men in hopes of one day finding that one man that would make her feel complete. She was forced to live with her grandmother when her mother was imprisoned for killing her father after finding him in bed with the babysitter. Deloris was unaware of her pregnancy because she carried it well and never experienced the true feeling of morning sickness because she was always high on some type of drug.

 

Deloris’s mother was imprisoned in 1967 when she was only nine years old. Her grandmother taking in 10 children total, because of her 9 brothers and sisters was often overwhelmed; therefore, Deloris easily became the black sheep of the bunch. She was the 5^th child born in Brooklyn, NY to Margaret Anne Shaw and after her imprisonment Deloris had started skipping school, running away from home, hanging with the wrong crowd, and beginning to experiment with drugs and alcohol. Here she was twelve years later at age 21, not knowing what had become of her life. Throughout the years, she had many boyfriends and was placed in many confusing situations that her life seemed like an everyday theme park.

When Angelica was born, the doctors did not expect her to survive; unfortunately, she proved them wrong. A strong baby girl with no faults of her own, fighting for her life in an incubator had made it through her first night. They called it a miracle, but she would later call it a chance. After three months of hospitalization Angelica was finally released from the hospital, except there was one problem. Angelica was a month old when Deloris disappeared without leaving a contact address or telephone number; therefore, she was now placed into the custody of the Child Welfare Administration of New York State. 

Angelica was bounced from foster to foster until she was placed into a more semi-permanent home at age 2. The woman that fostered her was a middle-aged social worker named Francesca Moore; she had never been married or had ever had any children and Angelica’s particular situation was rare and emotional to her because she was the social worker that initially started working on the case in 1979. 

Throughout the 2 years that Angelica was being fostered by multiple families, Francesca had been taking foster parenting classes and upgrading her living status in order to be able to bring Angelica home in hopes of one day adopting her as her own. Having been abandoned by a drug addicted young mother, and not having any family members to speak of was difficult when it dealt with filing the proper documentation required to adopt her, because the law at the time was that the child welfare administration would work diligently to find the biological parents or family members by the time the child was of age 5, after this deadline she would be a complete ward of the state and be able to be adopted. The deadline was quickly approaching and no one had any luck locating a blood related relative of Angelica’s.

A month before Angelica’s 5^th birthday, the phone rang and Francesca rushed to answer it.

“Hello.”

“Hi, Francesca, its Anne. 

I have some updated news on Angelica’s relatives.”

Francesca clutched the phone as her hands began to clam up. Her heart sank and as she looked over at the little girl dressed in a red and white polka dot jumper, she began to smile as a tear struck her cheek. It was a bittersweet moment for Francesca, as well as, for the baby girl that had been lost in a system where many children do not get a second chance at a real family.

“So that’s good news isn’t it Anne?

What is the update, did they find her mother?”

Francesca could hear the shuffling of paperwork over the phone as Anne proceeded to give her the news.

“Well Francesca, from what I see here Angelica’s mother named Deloris Jane Davis, now 26 years of age has petitioned family court to reinstate her parental rights."

As Anne spoke, Francesca began to sit down on her living room window bench as she continued to stare at Angelica playing. So many emotions ran through her body that she did not know how to react or respond. She could remember the first time she took a look into the toddler’s eyes, and saw confusion and wonder. All Francesca wanted to do was give her a safe stable home that would help her grow into a beautiful intelligent individual. She knew that this was going to be either a beneficial experience allowing her to grow up with her real mother, or an opening for a woman to give a child an unhealthy advancement in life. Anne continued to speak,

"In the petition she states that she has completed parenting classes, behavioral and drug counseling, and has just been awarded a low-income apartment within the New York City Housing Authority.

There is a court appearance in place for Monday, February 3 at 9 a.m. in Judge Walsh’s courtroom.

Francesca, I know…”

Francesca sadly interrupted,

“No Anne, don’t say it.

I know that I should of have not allowed my emotions to become too attached to this case, but this woman, Deloris?

She just left the baby, without a trace or number, for almost 5 years…”

Anne jumps in,

“Francesca you can’t do that.

We are unaware of this young woman’s path that prevented her from being in her child’s life.

Drug addicted people do crazy things and later hit rock bottom and then remember where they went wrong.

A child should always be with their parents, remember?

That is why you and I took an oath to help these children, along with any situation that they came with.”

Francesca begins to cry, and all she could do is shake her head as Anne spoke. There was brief silence on the line. Then Anne began to reassure Francesca that everything would be okay.

“Francesca, we will make sure that whatever happens we will continue to monitor the well being of Angelica’s life.

At least until she is of age.”

A distraught Francesca answered.

“Thank you Anne. Please fax me the court appearance paperwork and I will draw up a briefing on the case.

Will you be able to tag along, or is your caseload full?

Anne shuffled through some more paperwork in the background and replied,

“Yes, I will rearrange a couple of cases, but I will definitely be there for you and little Angelica.”

As Francesca walks over to turn the television to a different cartoon network she thanked Anne, assured her that she would call her in the morning, hung up and placed the phone on the receiver. She then walked over to the sofa where Angelica sat playing with her little teddy bear watching cartoons. Francesca sits right next to Angelica; her body goes numb with emotion and fear, as she begins to flow through memories of when she first brought the lost little toddler home.

 

Author's Note

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Stay tuned for part two.