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A family from Argentina residing in Miami has been caring for two girls aged five and ten since March 7. Their biological mother left them in their home, and they are now seeking help from the community to cover the therapies and needs of the children.
According to a report by journalist Maylin Legañoa for Telemundo 51, Andrea Leoni, who already has two children of six and nine years, took in the girls when Nixmarie Barbara Melendez Rivera —identified as such in court documents— handed them over and said she was “neither willing nor capable of being a mother.”
Leoni immediately called the Florida Department of Children and Families, which responded to the home, verified the conditions, and within three days granted temporary custody to her and her husband after more than five hours of interrogation.
"They immediately came to my home and checked that they were okay, healthy, that it was a safe place for them, and within three days, they granted custody to my husband and me," Leoni recounted.
The situation for the girls is critical: the younger one, five years old with autism, has never received therapy for this condition, and both need urgent emotional and behavioral support.
Regarding her biological parents, Leoni learned that one had passed away and the other, identified in court documents as Jasson López, called her from prison. "He gave me God's blessing and thanked us for what my husband and I did, and he never called again," she said.
In almost two months living with the girls, Leoni has been able to grasp the extent of the accumulated harm. "They have no education, they have no sense of life because they were clearly abandoned, very vulnerable," she described.
The fear of abandonment shapes each day for the little ones in their new home. "The two of them are terrified all the time and keep asking me if I'm going to abandon them too," Leoni revealed.
The family claims that the child protection system failed to detect the situation before the mother made the decision to leave them. "It is very unfair that they went through everything they experienced, and no one saw them," she emphasized.
Members of the Department of Children and Family Services and the Police went to Leoni's home to collect a report of alleged abuse, as Andrea herself informed Telemundo 51.
The family has not received any financial support from the State so far and has created a campaign on GoFundMe to receive help from the community.
Leoni summarizes with a phrase the gesture of the biological mother that defines the entire story: "I don't know if the correct word would be abandoned. I believe she chose where to leave them."
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