Giving a Mother’s Day gift to a prostitute has a way of making me think long and hard about a lot of things.

Like how grateful I am, and how helpless I feel, and how I wish every mother could be home with her child and not selling her body on the street corner.

Today is Mother’s Day in El Salvador, so last night we gave Mother’s Day cards and a snack to our friends who work on the streets to support their children. Their reasons vary, but all of them agree that they can’t make that much money, that fast, at a time when they aren’t getting their kids to school or helping them with their homework. I think every working mother can appreciate their struggle.

The chances of these women ever leaving the streets are slim to none. Once a woman becomes involved in this lifestyle it’s incredibly difficult to get out of it. It damages her mind, her body, and her soul. There are some stories of hope, some stories of women who have made it out.  Right now there is one woman considering taking steps to get out. Please pray for her. But the odds are not in these women’s favor.

But we care about them anyway, without an agenda. We simply want these moms to know that they are valuable, and that they matter. Tears rolled down their cheeks as we encouraged them to continue to care for their children, and as we prayed for God to guard their lives each night as they stand on the corner.

I am grateful to God for the blessings in my life. The childhood I had, the country I was born in, the opportunities I have had for an education, and the ability I have to work in a fullfilling job. It’s easy for me to forget how many woman around the world tonight will go to the street corner again to make the money they can in the hope of giving their kids a chance. Some of them may love the extra money, some of them may not believe there is another way, some of them may be forced by a pimp or a boyfriend to stand on that street corner. But all of them are women, they are mothers. Like me. Like you.

So I want to say to all the mothers on the street corner tonight, “Your life matters.”