Rosi, a Single Rio Mom

Rosi and her baby.

Single moms have been on my heart and mind for a few weeks now. It all really started with Rosi. Rosi has come on and off to the soup kitchen for awhile with her three small children. About 2 weeks ago I sat down and started talking to Rosi about her life situation and her children. 

Four months before, Rosi's husband walked out on the family. Rosi has a seven month old baby, a 4 year old boy, and a 6 year old girl. Rosi, once a stay-at-home-mom, suddenly found herself without an income and in need of a job. She moved in with her mom, but still was unable to meet the needs of her small family. Rosi told me that she had gone to one of the children's homes we work with to look for a job. "I want to stay with my children," she said, "but that greatly limits my job opportunities." She went to the children's home hoping to find a job where she could work and care for her children at the same time. The children's home was going through it's own problems and was unable to hire her. 

"I want my children to be with me," Rosi said. I could tell from the way her children ran up to hug her and her soft responses to them that she really did care for her children and that they really did love her. Rosi told me that if she wasn't able to locate work soon, she would have to go back to the children's home and simply drop off her children. I told Rosi that we really didn't want that to happen. I shared with her the detrimental effects of abandonment on children and encouraged her to seek every other possibility first. I encouraged her to seek the Lord and ask Him to provide for her family. 

I began to pray for Rosi and her situation and began to think that she is just one of many, many single moms in the same position. Here she is a loving mom who cares for her kids, but simply cannot find a way to provide for them and keep them at home with her. How incredibly sad. I also began to think about the ministry we have in the Rio. We are ministering in the Rio community exactly for this reason: to support families and prevent children from being dropped off at children's homes. We do many things to help, primarily introducing parents to the Great Provider of their needs, and also helping with medications, food, clothing, and school expenses. However, when it comes to desperate situations like Rosi's, we really don't have anything to offer her. This has been bothering me a lot. Rosi is the reason I do what I do, and when she asks for help there is not much I have to give her.

Thankfully, Rosi kept trying and went to another children's home we work with to seek a job. There she was able to locate work and is now taking care of her own children plus 10 other little girls. I saw Rosi and her family at the children's home last week and asked how things were going. Rosi told me that she was still getting used to the work, but that she was thankful to be there with her kids. Praise Jesus that Rosi has a job and that her family is still with her.

My heart continues to be burdened for those single moms who are not as privileged as Rosi. It is not uncommon for us to receive requests for work from Rio ladies and single moms, showing that there are many women in Rosi's same situation. Nearly every week the children's homes we work with are bombarded with women who feel they have no other option than to drop off their children and look for work. I know that single moms are on the Lord's heart and mind as He promises to be a Father to the fatherless and the Defender of widows. I want to be open and creative to the many ways our Lord might want B2B to respond to this great need. I spent last week fasting and praying for our staff and our ministry. I'm encouraged and inspired with ideas of how we might come alongside single mothers, but ask for your continued prayers. This is a big need that I am convinced God wants to meet. Pray for His inspiration, creativity, connections, funding, and most of all for His heart for single moms to be impressed upon us all. He is Faithful and True and His love knows no bounds. I am expectantly waiting for His answer. 

Rosi's 4 year-old son, Efrain.