Defining her struggle with poverty is not easy for Valerie Estrada.

The mother of four children knows her life is different. She no longer has to move her children each time a lease runs out or money runs short, because she now owns a new home that she bought with help from Habitat for Humanity.

She proudly states that a secure position working for Department of Health and Human Services and the extra income of her new husband have brought more stability to her family.

But while Estrada feels she is winning in her war against poverty, she understands that the battle will endure for more than 200,000 families along the border.

"We (El Pasoans) know we are in poverty, and we struggle every day to get out of it," Estrada said. "The problem is that a lot of people make us feel humiliated. There is a lot of assistance out there to get a better education or get help buying a home, but people either don't know about it or are ashamed to admit that they need help."

"I wish I could talk to all of them about my life and what I have accomplished and encourage them to look for that help," Estrada said.

Estrada's income of about $22,300 seems normal to many El Pasoans, but according to the Department of Health and Human Services, which employs the mother of four, this pay puts a family of five below the poverty line, which is at $24,130.

The poverty line for a family of six -- the new size of Estrada's family since her marriage in February-- is $27,610.

Estrada is hopeful that her husband's contract work will place them above the poverty line, but she recognizes that his employment depends on various outside factors.

"I am not rich," Estrada said. "I am still poor and I stand with all the people who are poor, but what makes me rich is the love and support of my family. We (200,000 El Pasoans who live in poverty) know we are poor, but we are the richest people because no matter how much we make, or how much we are degraded, our happiness makes us as rich as anyone."

While Estrada has not established a long-term savings plan, she has devised ways to avoid payday lenders and plan for future expenses.

She now avoids buying items that are not necessary, gathers her loose change in piggy banks, saves her income tax return and tries to set aside extra money for Christmas holidays.

"This year is the first year that I haven't had to get a payday loan," Estrada said. "I try to save in every way I can. It took a long time, but I think we are finally starting to do better."

As Estrada continues to look to the future of her six-member family, she can think of only positive outcomes.

"There were several times in my life when I thought, 'There was no way out; there's no way I am going to make it,' but God has been there for us and we found a way out," Estrada said. "To me the most motivating thing is that my kids see that we have gotten somewhere."

Rodriguez family

After Esperanza Rodriguez cleaned the porch and windows of the apartment of her elderly neighbor, who has lost the ability to walk, the woman invited her inside. Rodriguez began to pick up around the entrance, as the woman asked what she could pay for the work.

"The same thing you have always paid me," Rodriguez said. "Thanks."

After a lifetime spent battling poverty, Rodriguez no longer considers it her fight.

She is still poor by federal standards, living on less than $8,000 she's paid annually in disability, but she chooses to spend her time in non income activities. She volunteers nearly 30 hours a week at the Ysleta Lutheran Mission's thrift store and also collects sunflowers -- both real and artificial -- to decorate her modest apartment in the Lower Valley's Kennedy Brothers complex, where she lives alone.

And she reaches out to others. Be it an elderly neighbor with a disability or a thrift-store visitor in economic need, Rodriguez does what she can to help. The compassion is an important element of her Christianity.

But she's referring to more than prayer.

"You must give what you have," Rodriguez said. "This is how you feel love."

Rodriguez said she hopes her four children follow her toward a spiritual life. She said they all attended church when they were young, but strayed later in life.

"My hope has always been to see my children converted to Christ," she said, "so that they may be saved."

The statement would surprise few who know Rodriguez. As a young, single mother, she worked as many as three jobs at a time to provide for her children and said she prayed that they could become documented U.S. residents. She wanted the kids to have more opportunities than she did, but she also sought a way to know they'd be taken care of if something happened to her.

Based on how she describes her faith, it seems that is still her concern.

"It's not easy when one walks in the path of God," she said. "But we won't be defeated; we prosper through God."

In her own way, Rodriguez enjoys such prosperity.

She said once her children had become parents and she began to feel the aches and pains of aging, she asked God to help her survive long enough to witness her first granddaughter's quinceañera.

Now 53, Rodriguez has already attended three such celebrations.

And, she added with a smile, four of granddaughters have not yet hit age 15.

"I'm blessed," she said.

This article was published in Week 6 of the El Paso Poverty Series.