Real Eyes Faith Excerpt

I followed Dana into the Los Angeles Homeless Headquarters in Skid Row. Stares from my homeless peers burned through me.  The smells burned my nostrils. They didn’t know what to make of me with two children in tow.  We didn’t look like we were homeless.

The building became our haven, a safe zone with reach. A tiny office in the corner serviced this gargantuan auditorium crowd, each person possibly more in need than the next. This was the shelter. Maybe the people outside were waiting for their turn inside?

I swallowed hard.  Even inside, this felt too dangerous for me and my tribe to survive. So what do you have in store for us, Universe? I released a quick prayer, one child in each hand determined to keep up with Dana.

Samaj and Torah played. Dana and I waited. Eventually they called my name.

Dana held the door for me, into the tiny office. A disheveled young man asked me to take a seat.

“We need you to answer a few questions, so we can process your application.” He said. Nice enough, the man looked overworked, slightly frazzled but in charge. He asked the same questions that he’s asked hundreds before without looking up from his desk.

“Did you graduate high school?” He expected me to say no.

“Yes” I said. “Actually, I graduated from college.” He raised his head and made eye contact with me. It wasn’t his fault, but he could not hide his dismay.

“Then why are you here with five kids?” he exclaimed. Nobody was more surprised about my life at this time than I. If I compared my life as it was to what I expected it to be, I would have crumbled under the disappointment. I was here. It didn’t matter how I got here or how I needed help to get a roof over my head, and my children. My constant prayer was to get us to a better place.

Still it hurt to hear the shock and the question again and again. I mumbled something about how their father threw me out on the street, and blah blah blah.  The young man closed his folder.

“You will have an answer by the end of the day.” He walked out. I didn’t know what to think.

“That’s a good sign, Wendy”, Dana remarked. “Usually, they say that they are full and put you are on a waiting list.  But I think having five kids helps your case.”

I knew in my core that the Universe would provide for us.  How did I know? There were so many homeless people, it would be easy to despair. It was faith. Not blind faith, but a pure connection renewed with the Universe guiding me and guiding those helping me.

A tiny, beaten broken woman could not overcome any of this alone. I tapped into a Divine Source. A presence carried me these past few days. I was in partnership with God.

The call came. They had shelter for us. Not the best motel in not the best part of East Los Angeles, but the best possible answer I could hear. We had a place to stay.  I was grateful. My children would not be in the streets. Our latest temporary shelter would be exactly what we needed, as long as we needed it.

For all the rejection and all the people still waiting, there was no doubt in my mind that God was taking good care of us.  We would be OK. My growing real faith would help me transcend the unimaginable.

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