Former Florida Foster Ward Searching for Daughter

Silvia has set up a blog here and  Facebook page here.

” It’s been 36 years since Silvia Aguiar last saw her first-born child who she says was taken from her arms when she was just 16.

But now, more than ever, she’s desperate to know, “Where’s my baby girl?’

Aguiar of Union City, N.J., was only a child herself when she gave birth to her daughter she named Milagros. She recalls her as having “the face of a doll” after her birth in a Miami hospital on May 17, 1977.

It was one year later – while living in foster care in Carol City – she was sexually abused by her foster mother’s son, and consequently deemed by social workers unfit to raise her beloved little girl leading to her removal, she says.

“The people who were supposed to protect us didn’t protect us,” she told the Daily News over the phone Thursday from Florida where she’s continuing her search to find her daughter, now aged 36.

“It was a crime that was committed. He got away with it, and my baby was taken away from me, disappeared off the map,” she said.

Now suffering from lupus, it took the heartbroken mother’s recent hospitalization to reignite her search if to only find her daughter and tell her she was never unloved.

While using her time in south Florida – with plans to return to New Jersey on Sunday – Aguiar has visited the Department of Children and Families and has set up a Facebook page and blog dedicated to her search that includes pictures of her child as well as her baby’s father.

She has also applied to the Florida Adoption Reunion Registry.

Success with this registry, which has more than 6,200 people enrolled, would require Aguiar’s daughter to register to complete a match.

“When I saw myself in February in the hospital, my biggest fear was for me to die and my daughter to never know the truth,” she said.

After all, her own story is quite complicated to understand.

After Aguiar was born in Cuba to two teenaged parents herself, she moved to Miami in 1962 at the age of 2 with her 19-year-old father for what they believed would be a better life.

Proving too much for her father to care for on his own, Aguiar was placed in foster care and moved from one school to another.

“Always something was happening,” she said, “but when I gave birth to my daughter I loved her and I wanted to have a future with her, and I was strong and determined and I was in night school and I was taking care of my baby.”

She claims she was robbed of a chance to provide a safe and loving home for her daughter.
It was “the older man who was not supposed to be there,” Aguiar recalled of the man who would allegedly sexually abuse her. “Every night he would come into my room, he was raping me, sodomizing me.”

When her foster mother was informed of the abuse by another girl who witnessed the crimes in their shared bedroom, Aguiar says the mother lied to social workers to protect her son who wasn’t supposed to be in the house at the time.

“The next thing I knew they sent two social workers,” she said. “They put me in a drug rehab … I didn’t even do drugs. I was going to night school.”

Then a letter came asking her to appear in court.
“When I got there, I saw the baby’s father was there and I asked, ‘What are you doing here? And he said, “I received a letter too.”‘”

“They gave me a clip board with a paper, I signed it and I said, ‘Where do I go from here?’ and they said, ‘No that’s it. Your baby has been given up for adoption.'”

As a frightened 16-year-old, she says she couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

Then the woman told her: Milagros was no longer hers.
“She said, ‘Ma’am, you abandoned your daughter,'” Aguiar said, saying she’ll never forget the social worker’s curt words.

Department of Children and Families declined comment for this story with adoption records considered court-sealed documents. Information on child abuse victims is also protected unless the person dies from abuse or neglect.

Aguiar, now with her health failing, believes the time is now to find her daughter.

“It was a burden in my heart that this is what I had to do,” she said of her efforts that she says had only been stalled due to her husband’s death and her own illness.

In a blog post recently written to her daughter, wherever she may be, she writes about the family and love she has in New Jersey – all waiting for her.

“Dear Milagros, I loved you, I missed you, I never forgot you. My arms ached for you, my always skipped wondering if you were okay.

“I had four more children after you, which I love dearly. You have two sister’s and two brothers. The youngest is Franky 16, Angela 26, Aileen 33, and Carlos 34. We all love you and miss you. I would never ever come between your family or your life. I just want you to be happy.””

New Jersey woman seeking public’s help to find daughter given up for adoption in Miami 36 years ago

[New York Daily News 8/29/13 by Nina Golgowski]

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