Bringing a Family Together

Imagine coming to work one day and finding out you’ve won the lottery. That’s what happened to Doreen Cummings, a JF&CS Director who works with people with disabilities. But instead of a winning ticket, she brought home a beautiful baby girl, Angelina, adopted through JF&CS Adoption Resources.

Doreen and her wife Sarah Macri have been married for three years and were just beginning to think about starting a family. One day Doreen was helping a CHAI Works client photocopy an event invitation.

Adoption Resources and CHAI Works share space, and as they made their way to the copier, they noticed a beautiful baby girl in the office. While Doreen and the client oohed and aahed over the tiny four-week old girl, they learned that her name was Angelina, Doreen’s mother’s name, and that the family that was supposed to adopt her couldn’t after all.

Angelina was considered “hard to place” because she has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that affects the lungs. Doreen said, “The staff was distraught about finding a new family so I half- jokingly said, ‘I’ll take her home!’”

Within an hour Betsy Hochberg, Adoption Resources Director, had asked Doreen if she wanted to look into it. Doreen said, “It happened so fast. I ran upstairs and looked up cystic fibrosis, then called Sarah while Betsy asked the birth mother if she would consider a same sex couple.”

Doreen went to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation website and learned that although the average life span of people with cystic fibrosis is only 38, there are a number of progressive treatments and remarkable progress has been made in recent years.

Sarah said, “We thought long and hard before adopting Angelina, knowing that everyone — our families and friends — will be affected by her health. Then we realized we wanted to give her the best shot she can have.” Doreen added, “We went in with our eyes wide open.”

Angelina is now 2 1⁄2 years old and like all active toddlers she enjoys riding her big wheel and practicing her ever-expanding vocabulary. She follows a careful regime of medications and physical therapy and is seen every three months at Children’s Hospital. Sarah said, “She’s a hoot! She’s smart and very funny.” In a final coincidence, Doreen and Angelina share the same birthday.

Sarah and Doreen are teaching Angelina how to protect her health. Angelina knows that she has to hold her breath when she leaves a building in case smokers are outside, that she needs to wash her hands a lot, and that she can’t play with kids who have colds. The couple has a video of her at 13 months old, pushing the top of a hand sanitizer and clapping her hands together.

Surprisingly, one of the biggest challenges the couple has faced is that Angelina looks like a typical healthy child and is not disabled in any way. Sarah said, “The number one thing that makes us crazy is that people can’t see it. They walk by us and cough or touch her hand. We need to educate the public about safeguards for people with cystic fibrosis.”

The JF&CS community rallied around the new family, throwing a huge baby shower. Doreen said, “Everyone was overjoyed. The momentum and positive support was fantastic.” Sarah added, “It was a beautiful experience from start to finish. JF&CS was so welcoming from minute one.”

Doreen added, “It’s scary to think that I could have missed her if I didn’t go to the copier that day!”