I don’t know where to start, but I’ll start by saying it seems so overwhelming when I think about it. Somehow I managed to become financially independent and my kids are doing great.

How did I begin? Welll, the first thing I did was to believe in myself and by surrounding myself with good friends. Then I thought about what am I good at—languages. I thought to myself what could I do with that and without a bachelors degree? I set out to contact all the international companies who might need my language skills (French, Dutch, a little German) and sent them my resume. An international company contacted me and I started working for them, using my language skills. By having a stable income, I could provide a stable environment to my 3 kids and made sure that they could stay in the same school, in order not to disturb them even more.Learning how to budget and allocate my income effectively made that all possible.

We rented a small apartment in the same neighborhood and my kids were happy. We didn’t have much, compared to a lot of people around us, but we had each other and we continually expressed how much we cared and loved each other. We also talked a lot about how to deal with peer pressure and I insisted how more valuable it was to “be” someone rather than “to have” stuff. I tried to stay optimistic by surrounding myself with good friends and mainly by believing in myself.

Then I lost my job. A good friend again gave me the advice to focus on what I am the best at— teaching French. I knew I didn’t have the credentials to be an accredited teacher in Texas, so I sent my resume as a part-time teacher or French substitute to all the private schools. Jesuit contacted me and I was called in for an interview. The position was actually for a full-time job!!!! I thought I was dreaming. I couldn’t sleep for 2 weeks. They hired me and then told me my degree from Belgium was totally insufficient and required that I started my Bachelors Degree in the US from scratch!!!!

I was so grateful to have this job that nothing could have stopped me from doing what was needed to keep it. So I graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Education/Business 4 1/2 years later, with a higher GPA than my kids, because as they would say “I had no life” and that all I did was study. But, I did it. And my kids are so proud of my accomplishment.

Now all 3 of my children are happy, working and I feel like I have come a long way, but if I could do it in a foreign country, anybody can do it. Single mothers are strong people and I hope that my story inspires another single mother in her effort to become financially independent.