Scared and broke: AJ Raval recalls hardships after first birth

Actress AJ Raval recalled what her life was after giving birth to her first daughter in a recent Facebook post.

Sharing photos of her first baby then, Raval reminisced how her life was so full of uncertainty.

“There were days I looked at us and thought, ‘How are we going to make it?,’” she wrote, recalling that “I was 17, scared, broke and trying to figure out how to be a mom when I still felt like a kid myself.”

For her, “it honestly felt like a child raising a child.”

“We argued, we cried, we struggled, and there were moments when life felt too heavy for both of us,” she said, noting that “We had no money, no stable income, no home of our own and just two girls trying to survive in a world that wasn’t built to make it easy for us.”

“We were so broke that we ended up living in a tiny 5,000-peso apartment (with) barely enough space, barely enough anything. I gave birth in (a) lying-in clinic. And there were nights I wished I could run to my parents, crawl back into that safety I used to have. But I didn’t want to be a burden. I didn’t want to feel like I was failing or asking for too much. So I held it all in,” she continued.

But life was still good for Raval as “we kept going even when it felt impossible.”

“You were small, but you saved me in big ways. Your tiny hands and loud little voice reminded me that I had something worth fighting for. You’re a blessing I never knew I needed, but the greatest one I ever received,” she recalled.

“Every challenge we faced made us stronger,” she noted even if “every night we went to sleep unsure of tomorrow.”

They have gone this far and now Raval’s daughter just turned eight, “Smart. Strong. Funny. Wild. Beautiful.”

In conclusion, she greeted her daughter “who turned my struggle into strength.”

“We made it through the hardest parts, and I promise the rest of your story will be filled with warmth, love, and a home built from everything we’ve survived,” she wrote.