September - October 2019

These girls inspire me! It has been very difficult for most of them to be separate from their families. Our newest girl arrived a little over a month ago. She's only 13 years old. Her mother knew about us through the wife of Pastor Emiliano Cervantes, Mariana. She recommended that she bring her daughter as soon as she finished elementary school and so she did. When they arrived in town, she called me and told me that she had brought her daughter and asked if I could go pick her up because she didn't know where we lived. Rosita, my niece who is helping me full time with Soy Mujer, went with me and we found them. We exchanged greetings and introduced ourselves. The little girl is very small. After talking for a little bit we said goodbye and the little girl climbed into our van and we headed back towards my house.

I hadn't realized that since she had told her mother goodbye she had started crying. She wasn't sobbing so I didn't hear her. It wasn't until we got to the house that I realized what was going on.

I spoke encouraging words to her and I assured her that she would be okay and that she would come love being in the company of the other girls. At the time it happened only there had arrived already and we were waiting for the rest to come back for when school started. I tried to cheer her up as best I could. I needed cheering up as well because this was the first time one of them had let themselves be seen crying. I know that others have cried, but they have never done it in front of me. A little while later I went to invite her to come eat. The table was set and we were ready to sit down. I went to the room and I was very surprised that she was still crying inconsolably. My heart was grieved for her. She sat at the edge of the bed and just cried and cried. I sat next to her and hugged her. A thought crossed my mind, "What am I going to do with her?" But the Lord never abandons me and several thoughts came to me and I verbalized them.

"Sweetheart, nobody is forced to be here. Did you want to come to this house?" I asked her.

"NO!"

"Did your mom bring you against your will?"

"YES!"

Oh, no. What was I going to do now? I then promised her that if in two weeks she still wasn't happy here, I would take her to her house myself.

"I really promise," I told her. "But please don't cry anymore, we all care for you here." She looked at me with hope in her eyes.

The days passed and 10 days later she was happy and so was I. She is a very sweet girl and is very dedicated to her schoolwork. As I said at the beginning, these girls inspire me with their resilience and their strength they show when they come and make this home their home.

Last month three of our girls were baptized. That was an incredible milestone in the history of Soy Mujer. God is good and faithful!

Thank you very much to all of you who give us the opportunity to embrace these young girls and give them what they don't have. Not only in the necessities, but your support allows us to change each on of their lives and the course of their existence of the girls who live here.