“I grew up in the foster care system. I didn’t have that mom and dad where you could just go and just be comfortable with. I moved from house to house, and it was never permanent until I was 7. When it was permanent, it wasn’t safe. I had some pretty extreme experiences, and I never felt like I had a family. You always knew where you stood as a foster care child. You weren’t anything but an outsider,” said Ronita Miller. Ronita currently works at Cornerstone here in Texarkana, TX, and after working for only 9 months she won the iCare award, an incredible award given to those with service, dedication and passion for care. Her passion for helping others is what led her employer to reach out to TXKToday to help share her story, and to help share everything she is working towards for the Texarkana community.
Ronita does much more than just work with seniors in our community, in fact she has taken in 3 of her own foster care children over the last ten years, on top of raising her own two boys. “I was contacted several years ago in regards to my two nieces who were going to be placed into the foster care system. I was asked to take them, and without hesitation I said yes! Since then I have fought for them continuously, and I won. Now they are thriving teenage girls. A few years ago in 2018, their younger sister Maddie came to live with us also. She has become another permanent part of our family,” says Ronita. In taking on so many children, Ronita has had to rely on the help of community members for groceries and many other items throughout the years. Now, she is the one who is taking the time to help others in the community who need help.
“My whole goal in life is to help others. I want to help other teens in our area who don’t have a normal life at home. I want to help the single mom out there who is struggling to work three jobs just to support her family. I’ve helped other moms with bills and groceries from money out of my own paychecks. I’ve seen what it is like for kids out on the streets, and I want to be able to work with our teens and kids in the community to be able to provide them with a safe place to stay. I want kids to be able to come to our house and say ‘Ms. Ronita, I need a place to sleep tonight,’ and I want to be able to provide that safe place for them,” says Ronita. Ronita has an extreme passion for her community. A passion that is shown in her dedication and care to others, and her desire to help those around her, even when she has needed help sometimes herself.
Ronita and her children work within the community daily and weekly to provide groceries, meals, and so much more to those in need. “My kids will know what it means to give back to the community. I also don’t want them to ever know what it was like to be in the foster care system, and I do everything I can do to ensure they stay healthy and happy with me. I have lived paycheck to paycheck just like a lot of other single parents. No one knows what we go through everyday, but it’s the strength we have from within that helps us keep going,” says Ronita.
While Ronita has a lot of love and help to give others, she has been blessed with the help and love of the community from her church at Walnut Church of Christ in Pleasant Grove. “One of the couples at the church, who have turned into my own family, are known for building beds for those in foster care. Once they learned about my family they were over at my house building beds for my kids. I cannot thank them enough for their generosity, kindness and love that they have shown me and my children in the last few years. In the years since, my own children have been able to work with them and build beds for others too,” says Ronita.
Ronita is the kind of woman in our community who deserves the praise and support of everyone around her. Thank you to Ms. Ronita Miller for all that you are doing to help support and encourage those within the Texarkana community who are in need. Your dedication, love and passion for others does not go unnoticed.
