Rosa's Story

“Rosa’s” face was flat and without expression the first evening of our Becoming Engaged Parents program. Her tears came only in small trickles as she spoke of her children, having numbed herself to their pain and her own, her hands trembling slightly as she stared blankly at the manual in her hands which she couldn’t read. But through the course of the interactive conversations and activities, she began to smile, first in her eyes and then in her whole face. She began touching, talking to and holding eye contact with her daughter, behaviors she had never received as a child. And Rosa realized when it came to connecting emotionally with her children, she was no longer poor: there was a wealth of simple skills and activities she had begun to practice with her children and she now had hope of how this could brighten their future.