I remember when I was in poverty in the homeless shelter. After my ex-husband left and I lost everything. The shelter wasn’t open to everyone. Just female victims of certain kinds of crimes…for me, it was domestic violence.
Rags to Riches: Single Mom Cinderella Story
The shelter was a secret place. A big house. You needed a passcode to leave and they had to watch and see who you left WITH (to protect women and their identities from harmful men of their past).
No one knew where the shelter was. It was hidden, secret, tucked away. And there was a time limit to stay. You could only stay 30 days because there were others who needed help.
I was there 3 1/2 weeks. You couldn’t have food in your room, but I snuck a small 25¢ bag of chips. The things we take for granted….trial size chip bags for 25¢. 🙂
The rule was that if you bought something, you had to buy/share with everyone, and it was a lot of people, like 15 women and a few kids. I remember the bread man coming every week to bring bread and we all scoured it. It was the freshest thing we got. It was bread that didn’t sell at the day old bread store, so it was pretty old. 🙂
There wasn’t any can you’d open that wasn’t expired at least a year. No meat, no milk, nothing like that. Just year old expired stuff. Some people got sick, but it was just survival. Nothing more. I didn’t have enough clothes for me or the kids, so we used what they gave us. We didn’t get to go anywhere. Just courthouse for legal stuff and they drove us to and from. I remember thinking to myself, as I was at my 3 weeks point of being there, I’m going to be on the street.
This is it. One week left and nothing.
I was at the most rock bottom I could get. And it wasn’t my fault. He was the one having an affair. He physically abused me. It just happened TO me. I remember not feeling good enough….worthless. I wasn’t saved…I didn’t really know who God REALLY was. I had nothing.
No TV, no internet. I just read my Bible all day long.
Looking for answers.
Looking for hope.
Looking for something, anything.
A couple days before I was to be on the street, literally, my old apt, the exact same apartment number I used to live in like 2-3 years prior to that, opened up. Since I was a good tenant for 1-2 years before, they got me in. I had no income, they got me into the apartment! It was a miracle! No income…nothing…but I had rent covered. I had a credit somehow when I left the first time that I didn’t know about and it covered rent the first month, can you believe that?!
They waived the deposit for me. They fudged it somehow with the company who owned the apartments.
No money, no income, no food, no table, no couch, no silverware, no bed, nothing, but an apt. 🙂 I was grateful I wasn’t on the street!
Now that I had a place to live, I had a friend from church drive me 3 hours to my old house and gather everything that was mine and the kids that would fit in the truck.
Then, I started collecting and reselling free stuff. Anything to make $700/month to pay all my bills. And I did!
A few posts that might help you…
- How to live on $700/month
- Everything You Need to Know About Starting a Mom Blog
- How to Start a Home Business When You Have No Money
- How to Make More Money on Craigslist
- How to Get Free Stuff to Sell
- 10 Easiest Ways to Earn Extra Cash
- 15 Easy-to-Sign-Up Sites That Make You Side Cash
- 40 Things to Sell Right Now to Make Money
- 5 Real Ways to Add $500/month Steady Income
So….why am I telling you this?
Because it doesn’t matter how the situation LOOKS, you could be living in a homeless shelter as a non-Christian, only a few days from living on the street, with absolutely no income, no family to help, nothing, and God won’t walk away.
His power exceeds what we could ever dream.
He cared for me when I wasn’t even saved yet! He did that for me.
Do you think your situation, whatever it is you’re going through…is too big for God?
Sometimes He brings us to rock bottom, because that’s where we have to be to LOOK UP….to Him.
I don’t know what you’re going through, I don’t know the situation, but I do know we serve a God in the business of performing miracles!
That’s where my faith comes from. That story RIGHT there…because I lived it and it’s something you never forget.
Whatever it is…don’t lose your faith.
“The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand.” Psalm 37:23-24
He won’t be hurled headlong…God will hold him…this is one of my two favorite passages in the Bible.
You may fall, you may stumble, but you won’t hurled headlong…the Bible says so.
Don’t give up hope!
If you’d like to read more about my inspirational story (I went from being homeless to now being wealthy making 6 figures/year still as a single mom and able to make money online blogging as a stay at home mom (SAHM)), check out my most popular book, How to Become Financially Free – From Homeless to Well-Off: I’ll Show You How (available in my Financial Freedom Bundle).
