The Effect of St. Joseph's House on My Life
by Aura Garcia

When I was 13, a spirit of rebellion and evil overtook me.  I think that part of the reason this happened was because I was raised by an extremely protective and religious mother who always exerted her religion on me.  At this time, I did many things I wasn’t supposed to do which caused my mom much grief.  I became a destructive and angry person whose evil actions knew no boundaries.  I had also lost all respect for God and myself.
           
After I was expelled from school, my mom was at a loss of what to do with me.  However, she came to the conclusion that it would help me if I would be sent away from her for a while.  She found out about SJH and decided to send me there.  Of course, I didn’t want to go at first, but now I realize that I can never be grateful enough for her God-ordained decision.

In the summer of 2004, my mom took me to PA to live with the Kurtz family, managers of SJH.  I’m still amazed at the generosity with which they accepted me into their home.  They took me in, with all my bad habits and rebellious attitude and provided for all my needs asking for little or nothing in return.  They did this despite the incredible inconvenience and burden to their already-large-enough family and despite the fact that they had never even met me or knew much about me.  To do something like this takes a lot of love-driven determination and submission to God’s perfect will and I believe that they definitely possess these essential qualities.

Life at SJH was completely different from what I was used to and I was altogether overwhelmed.  My family, friends, and my previously wild life were gone.  I had never been dropped off, thousands of miles away from home, with a bunch of strangers (a family of 18 kids to be exact) and had to live with them for a while.  I also had to live their kind of life too, completely cut off from everything that was familiar to me.  So, for the first few months, I was in a state of shock.  I hated being there and this reflected in everything I did and said.

Day after day went by, however, and I eventually got into the flow of daily life and the Kurtz’s.  Having somehow become “part of the  family”, I was given simple tasks such as washing the dishes and cleaning the bathroom; things that seemed like tremendous work to me because I wasn’t accustomed to doing anything contrary to my will.  This though, I must say, greatly contributed to my healing process because occupation certainly gets one’s mind doing something other than feeling sorry for one ’s self.

Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz and their children treated me very graciously and welcomingly, despite my rudeness.  They became like family to me and I’ve grown to love them.  When I came to live with them, I was automatically a big sister to the boys and had to be a good example and role model to them.  I’m not saying that I did a good job at this, but I never had this kind of pressure before.  Also, the girls became my older sisters who watched over me and made sure I was in line.  So, the positive peer pressure definitely got me wanting to change.

All these things caused me to try to forget myself and start thinking of others.  Because I had opportunities to serve others, even though it was against my will, I began to get more in touch with what was really inside me, namely the beauty of God and not just sin and vice alone.

Though God was pulling me closer to Him and my desire for Him grew, He was never really real to me since I was 12 and I just lost sight and sense of Him.  At this time, I was in a stage where I experienced a great thirst for God.  In my soul, there was a lacking which longed to be fulfilled.

By this time, I had already recognized my great selfishness which I didn’t pick up on before I came and I was working on diminishing it, being inspired by all the good example around me.  The selfless love given out here convinced me that life wasn’t supposed to be all about one’s self.  If it was, it would be miserable and I experienced that.  So I was working on becoming more selfless.  Though I never succeeded in this, I’ve experienced the effects of it by just trying.  As I attempted to give of myself, I discovered the good which exists in me.  I soon began to realize that I was made in the image and likeness of God, who revealed Himself to me be revealing myself to me.  

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 The greatest factor of my conversion, I believe, is the influence of Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz.  I think that a lot of the positive peer pressure at SJH is due to the fact that they, who are the best parents in the world, inspire all of us kids.  Over the past three years that I’ve been here, they have truly become like real parents to me.  I believe that God willed that they should be my second parents because they gave to me many things that my own mother and father could not.  Among these things was love between each other.  Growing up was  hard for me because my mom and dad were separated when I was five.  Being able to now have parents who love each other, it gives a sense of security and helped me to realize that marriage was possible if God was in the center of it.  Also, though my real parents took good care of me, provided for all my needs, and gave me love and affection, they never really gave me role models, people I could admire or aspire to be like and did not reflect true Christianity.  So I believe that God sent Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz into my life to fill in the par that was left void.

      Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz have both made a huge impact on my life.  Just to have been able to observe the things they do and listen to what they say, I was totally inspired to become like them.  They had shown me how a true Christian is really supposed to live and exemplify every Christian virtue heroically.  They reflected Jesus Christ to me so clearly that sometimes I feel like they are a link between me and Him.

      First of all, their wisdom astounds me because they are so enlightened by the light of truth and so connected with the Holy Spirit.  Every day that I’ve known them, which is not a very long time considering how long some of their older kids have lived with them, they have been tirelessly self-giving, devoting all their time and energy, day in and day out, to us and to others.  They are completely committed to each of their children.  Though they have a million things to do, they are never too busy to give individual attention to those who need it.  Even when I don’t ask them for time to talk to them, they always make time to talk to me when they feel like I need to express myself to someone or to receive good advice.  They have given me many good counsels and I’m sure that all my brothers and sisters have benefited the same way.  Besides our emotional needs, they also take care of our spiritual needs, leading us towards heaven by talking to us as a group about God and about what we should to in order to get there.  And they always encourage us to be sorry for the things we’ve done wrong and to start a new life.  We all know that their goal is for us to get to heaven.

      Though they have 19 kids of their own to take care of, it doesn’t stop them from thinking of others, which they consistently do.  Another thing that impresses me about them is that they are always willing to fight for what is just and right, which is part of the reason why they adopted so many children.  Though I mentioned all these great things about them, the greatest aspect about them that I especially admire is their humility.  They accredit all their doings to God and know they are just instruments in His hand to fulfill His will.

      Another one of the ways that they’ve greatly affected me personally is that they trusted me.  Throughout my entire life, I have never really been trusted.  Now, because I’m trusted, I just don’t ever want to let them down.  And this is one of the reasons why I’m so hard on myself, among other reasons.  They tell me not to be so, but I guess I can’t really help it.  Being trusted has helped me to become more responsible and to grow in maturity.  It makes me desire to live up to that trust by fulfilling my duties and by trying to be a contributing member of the community.

      Also, an important gift I have received from SJH is my high school education.  At SJH, there is a little school for homeschoolers called SPA.  At SPA, I’ve had the opportunity to be classically educated using the MODG curriculum.  I graduated in June 2007; something I never would have done without the help of SJH.

      All of my experiences at SJH have also deepened my love, understanding, and appreciation of my Catholic faith, which is practiced consistently at the Kurtz’s.  Living at SJH and having attended SPA, I’ve learned that faith and reason go hand in hand; something I’ve never been brought to realize before.  I discovered that the Catholic Church was founded on truth and reflects this in all her teachings.   Her glorious triumphant have become my heroes and role models, people whom I’ve been trying to imitate and from whom I ask for intercession and guidance.