LIFETIME'S LITTLE GIRL LOST

Improper Adoptee first wrote about this movie. I fell in love with this movie but Improper Adoptee also presented some other ideas as well. One of the many first mothers also stated that this is how they felt when they lost their child to adoption. I agree with their thinking on this totally. If you have the Lifetime or the Lifetime Movie Network, its worth watching if you get the chance.

Little Girl Lost is about a mother whose child supposedly died in the fire of their home. Luz Cuevas is the mother in the story. This mother didn't believe it. She kept telling people that she did not die. Everyone thought she was off her rocker on this. This is a true story.

I found a 2004 CNN article about it. In 1997, the Cuevas were having a Christmas party. Luz and some friends went up to see little Delimar in her room. In this scene, Luz closes the window and moves the heater a little closer to the bed. After she gets the boys out of the burning house, she goes up to get her daughter. The crib is empty and the window opened. When the firemen go upstairs, they bring down a bundle. Well she wants to see the child's body. When they go to the morgue, there is nothing remaining but bed linens and the mattress. Questions definitely begin enter. She and her husband seperate over the issue of whether or not her child is deceased. Years later, she runs into one of the women at that party. That is when she finds her daughter. She goes to the police and gets no help. She finally goes to Angel Cruz and he checks into it for her.

Here is the old CNN story:

Mother, child reunite six years after kidnapping

Girl had been presumed dead since a 1997 fire

(CNN) --The mother of a 6-year-old girl who allegedly was kidnapped at 10 days old rejoiced as she was reunited with her daughter, said a Pennsylvania lawmaker who helped bring about the reunion.

"The mother came out screaming, with her hands up, saying, 'She called me Mommy,' " state Rep. Angel Cruz of Philadelphia said Friday. " 'She accepts me as her mommy.' "

The reunion between Luz Cuevas and her daughter Delimar took place Thursday night at a private location, Cruz said.

"She was thrilled," said Cuevas' attorney, Anthony Cianfrani. "She was gushing over."

Delimar allegedly was snatched from her crib in December 1997 by a family acquaintance. Carolyn Correa faces charges of kidnapping the child and setting a fire to cover her tracks. Officials at the time ruled the child had died in the fire.

Cianfrani and Cruz said a communication barrier between the mother and child -- Cuevas speaks little English and her daughter speaks no Spanish -- will be an easy one to overcome.

"The mother speaks enough English to communicate to the child," Cianfrani said. "The mother can talk about foods and colors, and how do you feel, and that sort of thing, so the mother can communicate, but she understands that she needs to learn English so she could communicate better with her child."

Cruz said Delimar also will learn Spanish.

A New Jersey judge granted custody to Cuevas, but the final transfer will not take place until the judge has set up safeguards for the child's welfare, Cruz said. Cianfrani said that was expected Monday. The child is in foster care.

Cruz said Cuevas never believed that her baby had died.

"She said when she ran up and the baby was not in the crib, she said she knew that the baby was kidnapped and was not burned in the fire," he said.

In January, Cuevas attended a birthday party for the child of an acquaintance and was struck by the resemblance of a 6-year-old girl to herself and her other children.

Telling the girl she had bubble gum in her hair, Cuevas was able to take strands of her hair in hopes a DNA test would prove she was right, according to Philadelphia police Lt. Michael Boyle.

Cruz helped put Cuevas in touch with police, who launched an investigation and had DNA tests performed that confirmed the girl is her daughter.

Police said Correa, a resident of Willingboro, New Jersey, a Philadelphia suburb, started the fire and kidnapped Delimar, whom she passed off as her own daughter.

"This is a mystery story with a happy ending," Cruz said.

Correa is being held on $1 million bail.

Cuevas said Delimar became hysterical when told that Correa was not her mother but has since calmed down and is beginning to adjust to the news.

Cruz's attorney said psychologists are working with the daughter and mother on the transition.

"We do expect some problems," Cianfrani said, "but the natural mom has a loving home and other children, and she's just committed to doing whatever is necessary to make the transition go well."

Delimar's biological father also has come forward, hired an attorney and asked to be included in the process, but Cianfrani said his role would be "fairly limited for the near future."

"There's been enough turmoil in the child's life," he said. "She does not need some sort of split custody situation."

According to the movie, Correa had been previously arrested for arson and embezzlement in Florida. She had obviously set the fire and kidnapped Luz's daughter. There was quite a bit of newspaper articles from Boston to Puerto Rico.

The point of this story is never doubt a mother's love and bond with her child. The adoption industry could do well not to ignore this story and this kind of love.