My friend Robin in SMA sent this article to me, Madre Chuy has been nominated for an award, very deserving. She is the driving force of Santa Julia where Paola and Daniela live.
Madre Maria de Jesus Ortiz Balderas, otherwise known as Madre Chuy, or ‘Choo-Choo,’ to the littlest children she raises, has raised perhaps 500 children in her 50+ years, none of them hers. A Catholic nun, she decided when she was about nine to live a life of service and spirituality. The Order in which she took her vows has missions, seminaries, and children’s homes to tend, and it’s the latter that speaks to her heart. In return, her heart goes out to orphaned, abandoned, and abused children as she goes about the task of being a professional mother. Here Madre Chuy and little Dulce!!
As superior and director of Casa Hogar Santa Julia in San Miguel, she is in charge of the three other nuns at the home and the 41 children that they are resurrecting and righting. Officially, this Sister is head of the nuns’ community, The Community of Our Lady of the Angels. If angels are God’s messengers, she is an absolute angel among us.
Having taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, this amazing mother must raise all the resources it takes to feed, clothe, heal, educate, transport, house, and otherwise provide for her 40 girls and a baby boy, because there is almost no assistance from the church or the government. Her day job, so to speak, begins at 5 a.m. and officially ends around midnight, when her night jobs of tending one of the babies and 8 of the adolescents begins.
Nevertheless, she is merry, mirthful, and wise. As bond mother for the infant girls who come her way, she always has a hug. As disciplinarian for any errant soul, she offers consequences rather than punishments. For her 14 adolescents, this progressive woman offers reproductive health, among other life skills. And to those kind souls who have heard of her life’s work and have stepped up to help, she always has a kind word, an inquiry into their health and happiness, a blessing.
The buck stops with Madre Chuy where legal, social services, parents, her nuns, and her children are concerned. Yet, the home seems very democratic and unregimented, though orderly. She is their only driver, as well.
“We create family here,” says Madre Chuy. “We do this with acceptance, humanity, and spirituality.” And acceptance crosses religious boundaries, for Madre Chuy believes that there are many paths to know God.
Hope you enjoyed this article..
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