Rosalba grew up in Mexico City, and left there as a young woman to come to Los Angeles after her parents divorced and fractured her family. She remembers thinking it was really crazy to come all that way by herself, but she was in search of security, protection and stability and thought that the United States would offer her a sanctuary from a life that was broken. Within two years, she met and married and had a son, but the relationship became unhealthy. She moved to North Carolina and then to Half Moon Bay, pregnant with her second child. For Rosalba, Half Moon Bay felt like it would be a safe community. With her family growing and pregnant with her third baby, Rosalba experienced domestic violence and the breakup of that relationship.
Rosalba should have been able to find some peace, but instead, she was not in a good place. She wasn’t able to sleep, eat or function well. She didn’t know anyone in Half Moon Bay and she was beside herself with worry. This went on for a week and she started to pray. As she looked down on the faces of her sleeping children she realized she was going to have to give them up to foster care because she could not provide for them. Just at that moment, a social worker knocked on the door. The social worker hugged Rosalba and told her everything would be fine and that she would not have to give up her children. And with that Rosalba started to rebuild her life, again.
She reconnected with her distant relatives and started to regain her health. She remarried and everything was fine, for a couple of years, but then the stability she craved started to fade. Her husband said he wasn’t in love with her and despite everything she did to salvage their marriage, she found herself divorced again. She had to choose between family and her children, and of course, she chose her children. But she was asking, why again. Why alone? Why did this happen to me again?
Rosalba persisted. She tried therapy, medication, and slowly she got better again. She grew emotionally, and doors began to open. She got to a place where she was able to independently care for her children, but still something was missing – there was an emptiness inside her. Rosalba knew she needed to heal her spirit and find a connection to God. She had to get past feeling mad and God and thinking God was mad at her, so she changed the way she prayed.
Instead of being mad, Rosalba became grateful for everything that had happened to her. She came to understand that it all served to make her stronger, open to helping others and more compassionate. Her daughter was invited to Mariners by a friend and Rosalba decided to take the kids with her to church. In Mariners Rosalba found what she had imagined a church to be: full of hope, wisdom and peace. Mariners was a church that called on people to change their lives, with the help of God but by taking responsibility for their own actions. Rosalba began attending Mariners in committed way and her life began to change.
Rosalba is thankful to God for the people in her path who questioned and tested her faith and put her through the hard trials – they all helped her faith to be stronger She went from knowing God to believing in God and now everything has changed for the better. Rosalba had to lose it all to gain it all, with God’s help.
By Laura McHugh, Volunteer Storyteller
