BETHANY HOUSE

Sheila Siffel

My name is Sheila Siffel. I'm forty-six years old. [In this photo], I see happiness. Happiness is a strength for me because I have been in a place where I didn't feel like I was going to be happy. But God is so good that he didn't let my heart get to that place. I still was happy. I still smiled. I still prepared myself every day that it's going to be okay. And some people struggle with that. Self-esteem goes down, which it should not be that way because we here in a shelter, they're here to help you. They make you feel better than what you felt like before you got in a shelter.

Once you do the experiment in the Bethany House, and then you take your journey, once they give you a housing, you feel so much better. You feel like you completed something. And if you're a firm believer in God, you feel like he was right there with you every step. And I felt like he was with me the whole time because without God, I don't think I would have been strong.