My heart aches when I hear stories of families like the Hernandez’s. Yolie and Humberto Hernandez were in a desperate position, unsure of how to provide for their family and faced with the real possibility of living on the streets with their four children.
But they, along with many other families like them, have found hope and restoration here at Orange County Rescue Mission. Please read on to learn how generosity multiplies to transform whole families, and changes lives for the better.
Yolie & Humberto’s Story
Yolie was trying her best to stay calm. It wasn’t easy, because her mind was sick with worry about what the future would hold for her family.
Her family was about to get bigger as Yolie and her husband Humberto prepared to welcome their newest child into the world. What should be a joyous time was instead filled with fear and pain. Yolie, Humberto and their family were facing eviction from their home.
For the past several months Humberto had faithfully looked for work. Anything to keep a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. But nothing had panned out. And with the baby coming any day now and her nerves stretched to the breaking point, Yolie had to come to grips with the reality that her family would be forced out of their home at any moment.
As a mother, Yolie tried to keep it together for her children while things were collapsing all around them. “I was thinking, What is going to happen to my kids? Where are we going to go? I had to support my husband and stay strong for my kids,” Yolie says.
For Humberto, having nowhere to live but their car or a shelter was the worst part of the family’s ordeal.
“As a man I was always thinking, ‘What am I going to bring my family?’ Being homeless…nobody really helps you,” Humberto says.
After many months of living with friends and then in shelters or their car, the family found out about Orange County Rescue Mission. The day they arrived at the Village of Hope, Yolie describes it as a “turning point” for her. “As soon as I came into the room I thought, ‘Now my kids can sleep well, have a place to play, have peace.’”
Humberto recalls, “For me it was a blessing. A transition. A relief. Going from the car, and now being in a place where you have everything. From the moment I stepped in this place, I felt relief from something heavy on my back.”
The Hernandez family has found support and new skills through the Mission’s programs, they have a safety net as they work towards self-sufficiency at their new jobs, and now they have a stronger foundation for their family. Their kids are in good schools and are receiving opportunities to grow as well.
Today, Yolie is thankful for the spiritual discipline she has learned at the Rescue Mission. She believes learning how to be obedient to God has led to positive changes in her kids, her husband, and herself. Yolie says, “We put our lives back together God’s way and honor Him with the way we live.”
Giving online is easy, safe, and quick. Your donation will make an immediate impact to provide meals, shelter and services for a homeless family in desperate need of a hand up to self-sufficiency.
