Thursday, December 13, 2007 With ‘new’ heart, girl, 7, returns to foster mother By Charamaine Y. Rodriguez Of Sun.Star Cebu
HER smile lit up the room and her foster mother Josephine Velasco, 51, just could not hold back the tears.
Jelyn Bistes, an abandoned child who used to be under the care of the Reception and Study Center for Children (RSCC) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7, visited Cebu this week and saw Velasco again after three years.
She is now seven and is part of the family of Phil and Janice Lee, their two sons and two adopted daughters based in New Jersey, USA.
She is also in school and is into ice skating, ballet, gymnastics and swimming—activities she was unable to do after having been diagnosed with a congenital heart disease when she was still in Cebu.
Through inter-country adoption, Phil, 53, a banker, and Janice, 52, a school guidance counselor, took Jelyn under their care when she was four years old and was still among the foster children of Velasco of Barangay Talamban, Cebu City.
But a Sun.Star Cebu article published on July 16, 2004 made the couple discover that they came into Jelyn’s life at the right time.
DSWD 7 asked Sun.Star Cebu to publish articles on Jelyn to look for donors so she could have an immediate operation.
Heart ailment
The girl was found by candle vendor Alicia Bistes near the University of San Jose-Recoletos on Magallanes St. when she was only about three years old.
Jelyn was diagnosed by Dr. Rudy Amatong of having a dilated aorta and badly needed to undergo a surgery.
She had difficulty breathing and was frail.
Velasco, who took care of Jelyn for over a year, appealed to generous donors for help and had wished for someone to sponsor the operation.
A year later, the Inter-country Adoption Board approved Phil’s and Janice’s application and was authorized to bring Jelyn to the US after complying with the requirements.
After three months, they had Jelyn undergo the surgery at the Colombia Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
Doctors said if Jelyn didn’t have the surgery, she would have died in a year with her heart ailment.
“She was very strong. After five days, she was chasing the nurses down the hall,” said Jelyn’s sister Nikki, 17.
“She sees a cardiologist once a year (but) she’s living a normal life,” Janice said.
However, she had longed to see her “siblings” in the foster home of Velasco.
“He always talked about Mama Penny (Velasco) and her brothers,” Phil said of Jelyn.
As soon as she saw Velasco, Jelyn ran to her and hugged her tight.
‘Thank you’
“Thank you,” she told the teary-eyed Velasco with a smile.
Velasco, who was speechless, said it was the first time she had met with one of her 16 foster children again.
RSCC Head Leah Colis said the DSWD encourages adoptive parents to bring their adopted children back to the Philippines for a motherland visit.
“Usa ni sa among consuelo nga makakita sa among mga bata nga mobalik diri,” Colis said.
Social workers at the center share the joy of the children who are happy with their new families.
They are also grateful to them for sending to the RSCC packages of used clothing, toys and cash donations.
RSCC houses 25 babies, aged one month old to one year and nine months. They were mostly abandoned in hospitals, left in public places or with sidewalk vendors.
Aside from the government’s programs to provide jobs for single mothers and money to those who wish to go back to their hometowns, Colis said mothers of “unwanted” children do not need to abandon their babies.
However, they also return foundlings to persons who could show evidence of their parentage.
Most of them have left the babies in hospitals since they have no money to pay for the bills.
