Happy Mother’s Day from Casa Bernabé!
Mother’s Day at Casa Bernabé is always beautiful, joyful, and deeply emotional at the same time.
For many of our children, Mother’s Day carries complicated feelings. Some have lost their mothers. Some were removed from unsafe homes because of abuse or neglect. Others were deeply loved by their mothers, but poverty, illness, addiction, or difficult circumstances made it impossible for them to stay together. And some children have never truly experienced the steady love and care a mother is meant to give.
That’s why the women who serve at Casa Bernabé play such an important role in the healing journeys of our children.
We asked Sara Salguero to share what motherhood at Casa Bernabé really looks like behind the scenes:
“Many people consider being a mother one of the hardest and most important jobs in the world. Even in ideal circumstances, mothering requires everything you have and makes you rely on God for strength and wisdom beyond your own. But being a mother to children who have experienced deep trauma and loss is something even harder.
“At Casa Bernabé, our children often arrive with broken ideas of what a mother should be. Some have experienced abuse or neglect. Others have never known the comfort of a mother’s love. And some were deeply loved, but the brokenness of this world separated them from their families.
"Imagine having children from every one of those situations under your roof in addition to your biological children. It's not an easy balance to strike. Our moms must choose love not just as a feeling, but as an action.
“They choose love when a child pushes them away or treats them like the enemy. They choose love when caring for children with medical needs, behavioral struggles, or emotional wounds. They choose love when they stay up late helping with homework, comforting nightmares, calming fears, or sitting beside a child who simply needs to know someone is there.
"They choose love when they sit every afternoon going over homework for 10 different children and sometimes 10 different grade levels. They choose love when they wake up in the night with children who have nightmares, get sick, or sleepwalk. They choose love when they sacrifice weekends off, date nights, or special family activities so they can be present for their kids at Casa Bernabé.
“They choose love when it costs them convenience, rest, personal time, or energy. They choose love over and over again, even when it’s hard.
"Our house moms choose to love even when its hard and even when they aren’t loved back. They fight for the kids God has placed in their care. They work to give them the very best life they can for the time they have with them, and then they swallow their tears when they have to say goodbye because it’s time for the kids to go back to their biological families.
“And through it all, they keep showing up. They fight for the children God has placed in their care and work to give them safety, stability, and the love of Christ. They truly become mothers to the motherless.”
This week at Casa Bernabé, the children and men on staff celebrated all the women who mother – who nurture, guide, teach, comfort, protect, and love the children on our campus. Our house moms, teachers, cooks, nurses, psychologists, support staff, house helpers, and so many others were honored for the ways they pour into the lives of our kids every single day.
Celebration is a huge part of Guatemalan culture, and the men and kids on campus worked hard to make the day special — decorating, organizing programs, preparing gifts, and even contributing from their own pockets to honor the women who mean so much to them.
Mother’s Day at Casa Bernabé is not simple. It holds both grief and gratitude. But it is also a beautiful reminder that God continues to place loving, faithful people in the lives of children who need them most. He sets the lonely in families.
To all the women who mother in big ways and small ways at Casa Bernabé: thank you. Your love matters more than words can say.