A Home for a Child

Lapasan
Cagayan de Oro City
1991

I stayed in Cagayan de Oro City for my community exposure and during this time I lived in our convent in Lapasan. I worked as Campus Minister at Cagayan Capitol College which is now Capitol University.

One afternoon, I arrived home greeted with a cry of a baby. I saw my sisters cutting a bed sheet into several pieces and sawing the edges. I asked them where the cry was coming from and what were those sheets for? They said that we have a visitor staying in one of the rooms and she has a newly born baby. I pressed for more information and I learned that she was single, a student, and got pregnant. But when the boyfriend knew about it he cut communications with her. She also does not want to go home for fear that her father will kill her. She took care of the baby in her womb but she could not take care of her needs now that she is born so she wanted the baby to be adopted and she was asking our help.

After supper that evening, we were all in the room where she stayed and my elder sisters were convincing her to go home and tell her family about it. My sisters promised to accompany and assist her financially for the trip. She said that her father will be good to her as long as we are around but as soon as we go, he will beat her to death. Her father already warned her to bring a diploma home and not a baby without a father. And that was exactly what happened, a baby without a father.

My sisters explained to her of the pain later on for the sense of loss and maybe of guilt for giving her child away. But she insisted on having her baby adopted. We started looking for a couple that would adopt her baby. We asked our friends and I was told to go to different subdivisions to see this family and that family to no avail.

We presented the problem to the parish council and they told us that maybe we can talk to one of the parishioners who was teaching in Don Mariano State College. We went to their house and my sister presented the case. Their son who was around 8 years old heard the story and was so excited to have a baby that he started jumping for joy and convincing her parents to get the baby. We did not get a positive response that time but we were told to go back the following day to give them time to talk it over.

The following day they came to our convent with clothes, diapers, toys and cans of milk and so many baby things. They went shopping for the baby and were there to get her. We introduced them to the mother and they offered her to stay in their house. They were even willing to send her to school to finish her studies. The mother was so happy for the couple who adopted her baby.

After a week, the mother came back to our convent. She was so grateful because she saw how much the couple loved her baby but she cried with pain. The wife gave up her beauty parlor to personally take care of the baby and another helper was hired to take care of the household chores. She was assigned only to cook because she was still studying. But her heart bleeds seeing her baby in the arms of another woman instead of hers. She decided to leave and stay in a boarding house. The couple consented knowing the pain in her heart. She was told to come back when the baby turns 16.

The mother’s pains and sufferings became a source of joy for that family. It was a disgrace turn to grace. Isn’t this a mystery? Isn’t this a miracle of love?