My Mom.

My mom.

She's one of the most important, influencial people in my life. 

If there's someone who deserves to say that they've been through some hard times, it's definitely her.

Born in Guatemala, a family of nine, and poor. No shoes, at times nothing to eat. Every morning she would get up at 4 to make tortillas. Most of the time that's all they had - tortillas and coffee. After that, gather her few school items and walk barefoot ten miles to school. In the winter, by the time they got to school their feet were numb and sometimes even bleeding. In the summer, they would try to find as much shade as they could to not burn their feet. My grandparents could only afford to send her to school till she was in 6th grade. (There were no free schools down there back then.) She won a scholarship for three years. She completed school up till 9th grade. Aside from those, she also didn't have that great of a childhood parentwise, either. 

Her mother died when she was only 16. It's really hard for me to imagine that. A few years later, she was unwillingly married. The man showed no love at all. She got a divorce, and went back to live with her dad, and her two daughters.      Since it's so poor in Guatemala, she had to come up to the US to work, and send money down. I don't know about most people, but when I think about going to another country, I think of flying an airplane. Not for her. She had to save up tons of money, and take a bus from Guatemala to Mexico. From Mexico, she had to cross the border. She was caught the first time and put in jail  for three months. She did make it the next time, and had to walk from the border to MD. She would send money down for the main purpose of her daughters getting an education, only to find out a while later that neither of them were attending school. How hurtful must that have been?

Here's where most people know her from. She lived with my aunt, (Jehovah's witness) and Mrs. Tello invited her to church (IBC) one day. She and my dad met sometime around then, but my dad wasn't the type to go to church. He went to church, they both got saved, and then were married. My dad had been a consumer of  that 'strong drink' since he was in his teens. The next years were terrible. It was like a horrid painful nightmare for me, but I have no idea how painful it was for my mom. Yet, She still remained faithful to God, and continued to go, and take us, to church.

My dad stopped that habit about 3 1/2 years ago, and was back in church, and has been since. :) 

Yet, it doesn't stop there. She works at Southern Maryland Hospital as a supervisor. About a year and a half ago, the owner got very mad about something (Who knows what.) and fired her boss(es) and moved her to the evening shift. Not only to supervise, but to clean, too. Every night she comes home from work late, and extremely tired and in pain. She has tendonitis, and arthritis. 

 On top of all that, she still does her part in doing more house work. She will not relax, unless forced to. She is very selfless. You'll rarely ever see her spend money on herself. There's always something that can be bought for someone else, or something better that money can be spent on. I'll always see her reading her Bible in the morning, and at night when she gets home. (Around and sometimes past midnight.) She's also very patient with me, something that is a HARD task. Who knows how she does it? 

Happy Mother's day, Mom! I love you.