Life isn’t always easy and isn’t always fine. Life can present challenges that can give us courage to fight the obstacles and bravely face the consequences.
My family is good, happy and contented. We survived the days that life has given. My father strived hard to work just to feed his family. He was an ice cream vendor, and spent his strength to work just to have enough salary for his family’s daily needs. My mother is a housewife who made our meals and prepared our other needs. I have three siblings and I am the third child and the only girl.
My parents had much love and care for us. I couldn’t ask for more from God for giving me this family. But life’s circumstances isn’t always good. My father died unexpectedly. He died not because he was sick but because of the planted grenade at his friend’s burial. It was a total heartbreak for us and especially for my mother who lost her husband, the pillar of our family. At a very young age, life taught us about hard living. Our mother strived harder everyday for us to survive, working twenty-four hours and that is the reason why she got very sick. Her body was always exhausted from working. Because of that, my older brother and I decided to work for our family. I experienced selling ice candy during hot summer days, walking along the streets of different barrios. The hot rays of the sun kissing my bare skin did not matter to me. I also sold rugs in jeepney terminals and sold dolls every morning and went to school in the afternoon but unfortunately, the money we earned was still not enough to sustain our daily living. This went on till a friend told my mother about The Philippine Children’s Mission (PCM) which adopts children and supplies their needs.
I was just nine years old when my mother decided to entrust me and my seven year old brother to PCM. It was hard to wake up every morning at the orphanage knowing that my family was not there with me. But because I wanted to pursue a degree in education and finish it, I needed to be strong. I had to take every challenge and win the battle for me and for my family who kept on believing in me.
Because of PCM, my life changed. It shaped my whole being specially my spiritual life. I knew and received Jesus Christ (Yeshua Hamaschiach) as my savior with the help of God’s Glory Church and under the guidance of Pastor Nelson, Mommy Arlyn, Ate Elen and Tito Ronnie Dellota. And because God has a plan for me, He guided me and I was able to finish my Bachelor of Elementary Education degree in 2019. I have started to serve as a volunteer assistant teacher here in PCM for a year, a way to give back for all the help and support this institution has done for me and for my future.
