For Emily Carranza and her husband Alex Lerma of Sylmar, this Thanksgiving is especially meaningful. After being foster parents for three of their grandchildren for nearly three years, the couple officially adopted the trio of adorable toddlers on Nov. 14.
“I’m very thankful that I do have all three of them in my home and I know they’re safe and they’re here to stay,” said Carranza. In addition to providing a safe haven for the little ones, love is plentiful in their home and family – from herself, her husband, their 18-year-old son Paul, their 13-year-old daughter Delilah, their two grown children and the rest of the extended family.
Although Carranza is filled with both joy and gratitude over adopting the siblings – Kenny, 4, Rose, 3, and 2-and-a-half-year-old Scarlett – it’s also bittersweet, she said. The children’s mother is her stepdaughter Nicole, 36, who has been part of Carranza’s life since she married Lerma – Nicole’s father – 30 years ago. Sadly, Nicole has battled substance abuse issues for years, and Carranza and Lerma have stepped in to care for her children to ensure their health and safety.
“They were all born with drugs in their system – that’s why the babies were taken away from her,” explained Carranza. “So they did go through withdrawals, and there are learning disabilities … and some delays in meeting their [developmental] milestones, but they have all received therapy and services, and they are all catching up. They are very smart and bright kids.
“I’m not gonna lie, it has been stressful,” she continued regarding the children’s day-to-day challenges and the journey of going from grandparents to foster parents to formal adoption. “We’ve had the same social worker for almost four years, built a good relationship with the therapists and now that the adoption [has been finalized] it’s like a big sigh of relief.”
Carranza, who is a cousin of the late Gabriel Fernandez and a child and family advocate who runs the Facebook page Gabriel’s Justice, knows all too well what can happen when children fall through the cracks of the foster care and child welfare system. Gabriel was just 8-years-old when he was tortured and beaten to death by his mother Pearl Fernandez and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre in Palmdale more than 10 years ago. Carranza was essential in bringing the case to the public’s view by holding news conferences and demanding that the couple receive the maximum punishment. Fernandez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, and Aguirre was convicted of first-degree murder and torture.
Carranza said she and her husband wanted to make sure that their own grandchildren would always remain in a safe, loving home, and not potentially end up in the custody of strangers in the foster care system, or be claimed by an unknown father who has not been in their lives. To do so, they made sure their home was in compliance with all court orders and foster care standards.
“It’s been a long time coming. We did everything we had to do so we could take care of them, and now we can breathe,” she said.
Sadly, the biological mother remains estranged from the children and the rest of the family.
“We don’t know where she’s at – we haven’t heard from her in about two years, but the children are happy and that’s what matters,” said Carranza.
For now, she said, they just keep moving forward and looking towards the future.
“We actually did our own early Thanksgiving dinner with our family – with all our kids and our grandchildren – last weekend, a few days after the adoption,” said Carranza. “We just wanted to have our own private celebration to give thanks for our family.”
