Raising 8 El Rio grandmother doing her best to raise eight grandchildren
Corrina Arenas, 55, holds a tissue in her hand for tears during services at Victory Life Christian Center in Oxnard, while her daughter, Corrina Gutierrez (left), 32, has resurfaced in her life for now, to see her and her four children.
A little more than two years ago, only Corrina Arenas and three of her children lived in their quiet El Rio home.
Then Arenas, 55, was granted custody of four grandchildren.
Cheyenna Reyes, 13, (from left), Fernando Reyes, Jr., 11, Destiny King, 13, Drake Gutierrez, 7, and his brother James Gutierrez, 9, head off to school on foot from their grandmother’s house in El Rio.
Now she is fighting for custody of her four other grandchildren who have been living with her since June.
Estrella Morales, 21, is home from her graveyard shift at a gas station and helps her mother, Corrina Arenas, 55, with the child custody application process for her four grandchildren by Arenas’ son, Fernando Reyes, 33. Morales is concerned for her mother officially taking on the second half of her eight grandchildren that arrived in June.
Arenas is not alone raising grandchildren. Of the 65 million grandparents in the United States in 2012, 7 million, or 10 percent, lived with at least one grandchild, according to Co-resident Grandparents and Their Grandchildren: 2012, a report released in 2014 by the U.S. Census Bureau.
James Gutierrez (left), 9, does homework while his brother Drake, 7, gets a hand with it his from their grandmother, Corrina Arenas, 55, with whom they have been living for two years. Bella, one-of-four huskies, a few weeks away from whelping, is allowed occasional house privileges. Her puppies will provide income to Arenas for the second and likely last time before being spayed. Vanessa Nodal, 20, (right), enters the living room followed by Cheyenna Reyes, 13, a grandchild to Arenas, then Estrella Morales, 21, at the doorway, Arena’s daughter and Vanessa's partner.
The percentage of children who lived with a grandparent in 2012 was also 10 percent, up from 7 percent in 1992.
The Reyes children arrived to the Arenas home with their father, Fernando Reyes, Sr., 33, when school let out for the summer. Reyes just recently left the Arenas home, according to Arenas, at her request.
Arenas says she is trying to be a better parent to her grandchildren than she knew how to be to her own six children.
A major challenge is getting them to embrace structure and follow the house rules.
Lisa Lemos (left) sits next to Corrina Arenas at Oxnard College where they take a night course in alcohol and drug rehabilitation counseling. Lemos knows Arenas from when Arenas ran two sober living homes in El Rio; "Babash's Angels” for women and children and ”Back to Reality” for men and children.
In her heart she grapples with showing them the love and affection that she says she did not get as a child.
Estrella Morales, 21, sits behind her mother, Corrina Arenas, 55, on a trip to a warehouse store with granddaughter Cheyenna Reyes, 13, and an old friend of Arenas’ in the back seat. The friend, Lisa Ramos, is staying at the Arenas household in respite for a few days.
Bubbles (left) and her father Zeus escort Corrina Arenas, who is sleep deprived, home from her trip to the local warehouse store during the middle of the same week that she files custody paperwork for her remaining four grandchildren in Oxnard.
Faith is helping push her through the obstacles.
Corrina Arenas was awarded custody of her remaining four grandchildren.
