Christ the Word News: Cummings Update & Prayer Request

The Cummings have recently sent out the following email update:

Dear Family and Friends,

We wanted to write to you as God has unexpectedly answered our prayers in a very wonderful way!

Last newsletter we wrote about our desire to adopt. We had no idea how quickly God would answer this request.

We have known about a situation in Santa Ana for about four months now. Our friends told us about a lady who had two girls who were in a terrible living situation. The girls were being abused by other family members and severely malnourished. One night, the girls’ uncle came back drunk and cut the hair of the youngest girl with a kitchen knife. The mother has tried to put the girls up for adoption before, but because they don’t have birth certificates, the government wouldn’t accept them. The three have been taken to safe homes before, and done well while there, but continue to return to the bad situation. We are not sure exactly what issues the mother has. We do know that she has three children by three different men. The oldest, a boy, the family wants and cares for, the two girls, the family calls “bastard children” and many times they won’t feed them because of this. About two weeks ago, we talked to our friends who know the mother, to see if she still wanted the girls adopted. She indicated that she did, so we went and talked to an adoption lawyer to get help and to see about getting the girls, Teresa (6) and Hanna (3), into our custody as soon as possible. This past Thursday morning, we went with the mother to the lawyer’s office and she signed the children over into our custody with the purpose of adopting them.

The girls had a rough first hour after they came with us, but settled into playing after a while and the youngest tired herself out and fell asleep. They also had some trouble going to sleep the first night as the mother had told them nothing. The next morning, we heard Teresa crying and Jon went into the room and she said “No te vayas.” “Don’t go.”

We had a wonderful day on Friday and no crying Friday night. By Saturday, both girls were calling us Mami and Papi! There will definitely be more adjustments to go through, but we are so thankful to God that things are going so well so far. We should find out from the lawyer soon what exactly we have to do in order to get the girls their birth certificates and start the adoption process. We took them to the doctor on Monday. Hanna has parasites and they both need a lot of lab work done in order to know exactly how they are medically. We are praying that God has spared them from any serious diseases.

We would appreciate your prayers for us over the coming days and weeks for the adjustments that will take place and for all of the paperwork that needs to be done. Please pray for the mother, Lourdes, as she is staying with our friends who are trying to help her turn her life around as well. Please pray for Lily, Ian and Elijah as they go through this big transition. They seem to be doing well for now, but it will be difficult sharing all the toys and sharing their time with mommy and daddy.