“My younger sister passed away last year from an unexpected...

“My younger sister passed away last year from an unexpected stroke.  So I’m raising both my daughter and my niece.  In our culture, it’s an automatic.  It just kicks in.  She belongs to me now.  I’m a single mother so it’s not easy.  There are definitely months when I add up income and expenses and the numbers don’t work.  And both of them are thirteen so their moods are all over the place.  Today is like this, and tomorrow is like that.  But God has given us favor as well.  We can afford to share an ice cream.  We have shelter.  We have food.  And after four months of no work, I just found a new management position.  So we’ve come a long way.  My niece is beginning to heal.  Her grades are improving at school.  She still speaks of her mother in the present tense, but there’s no more crying at night.  And I’ve grown a lot as well.  Because more than I want to acknowledge, the struggle has given me meaning.  This is my purpose.  I have a little family.  And we share what little we have.”
(Johannesburg, South Africa)