What does love look like when everything feels lost?
For Rachelle, a mother of five, love looked like courage. Courage to break generational cycles. Courage to keep her children safe, even when it meant asking for help from people and a place she didn’t know like the Tacoma Rescue Mission. Courage to show up for her kids — again and again — when the world seemed to turn its back on her.
“I didn’t want my kids to ever live in a shelter,” she said. “I went through a life of living like that as a kid… We lived in our vehicle. I was put through child trafficking to get through my stepmom’s drug debt. At 13 years old, I was forced to live a life I didn’t want to live.”
Rachelle was determined to give her children something different — a better life and future.For years, she tried everything to protect them — moving from place to place, staying in cars, couchhopping, escaping abusive and unsafe relationships and living situations. She worked hard, loved harder, and carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. But even the strongest love can’t carry a family through every storm — not alone.
When Rachelle arrived at our Family Shelter, her heart was full of fear and shame.
“I thought we were going to be on dirty cots,” she admitted. “I thought people were going to look down on me — like some druggie mom even though I’m not. But that’s what I thought shelters were. That’s what I grew up around.”
Instead, she found something else entirely.
“We got a room. We got showers we could use every day. They brought us towels, shampoo, diapers, wipes, even formula. We had beds. Pillows. Clothes. Snacks. I didn’t have anything else to ask for. I was just so happy. My kids were happy.”
Love met Rachelle there — with open arms. It looked like warm meals, a clean bed, and a welcoming smile. It looked like a birthday celebration in our Family Shelter’s common room for her teenage son. It looked …like her baby’s first steps toward independence.
“My autistic son made huge steps while we’ve been here. We were struggling with potty training for example and one day he grabbed the little potty seat and went in on his own,” she said. “I peeked in and there he was, standing like a frog, using the toilet. I was so proud. It was exciting! Now he goes all day without a pull-up.”
The courageous love Rachelle gave her children — the kind that kept them together through
homelessness, hunger, and hardship — was returned in small, daily moments of dignity and care. Her teenage son, who had withdrawn after years of instability, started playing football again and got back into wrestling. He made friends. He started smiling.
“One day he said to me, ‘Mom, some of these people feel like family to me.’ And I saw it. The staff greeted us every day. We had lunch together with other families. And we began to feel like we belonged.”
For Rachelle, healing came one step at a time with weekly meetings with our shelter case managers, with encouragement, and with people saying, “You’re doing great,” on the days she felt like a failure.
“They’re the ones that built me,” Rachelle said. “There were times I’d walk into my case manager’s office hopeless. But they saw potential in me even when I couldn’t see it in myself.”
That’s what courageous love in action looks like. It looks like a shelter that becomes an empowering community and lifeline. A moment of hope and love, extended again and again, until someone begins to believe they’re worthy of it. Because of people like you, Rachelle and her kids found more than safety. They found peace. Routine.
Belonging. They found each other again.
“Coming here gave us our happiness back,” Rachelle said. “I judged the shelter before I came here. But it’s been life-changing for me and my kids. A happy, healing, safe place.”
And today, she and her kids are living in a home of their own and Rachelle’s working for the Tacoma school district. This is the power of community. This is what your love and compassion makes possible.
Today, I invite you to come alongside more of your neighbors like Rachelle by giving as generously as you are able.
Thank you for being a faithful part of transforming lives in our community and putting love into action
