{"id":15745,"date":"2012-07-19T15:41:51","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T19:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=15745"},"modified":"2012-07-19T15:41:51","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T19:41:51","slug":"single-mother-draws-on-strength-to-raise-6-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=15745","title":{"rendered":"Single Mother Draws On Strength To Raise 6 Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facunda Arenas<\/strong> remembers all too well her childhood. She, along with her sister, Margaret<\/strong>, were typical teenagers, and both of their lives could have turned out the way some of their peers did.<\/p>\n

But, Ms. Arenas<\/strong> knew her life had to be different, especially after she found herself alone raising six children.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf my six children, five of them are boys, so my focus as a parent was strong. I saw how the other young men they grew up with were turning out, and I just couldn\u2019t see my children going through that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI prayed a lot and sacrificed even more to make sure my children at least had a chance to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Arenas<\/strong> is proud of all of her children, especially her son, Javier<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After a successful football career at Robinson High School, Javier<\/strong> went on to be a star at Alabama, where they captured a National Championship. After completing his senior year, he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the second round of the 2010 draft.<\/p>\n

Ms. Arenas<\/strong> said Javier<\/strong> was a very funny kid growing up and helped her out a lot at her day care business. \u201cI remember being in the hospital with him when he was 5 or 6 and hearing the doctors say he was a special kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of my children got along great with each other. All of the boys were athletes and challenged each other to stay in top shape. They loved to fish together and just generally hang out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Javier<\/strong> said that his journey wouldn\u2019t have been successful without the values instilled in him by his mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing where I am now, I\u2019m just living for the moment. I enjoyed high school football, and to this date, I\u2019ve managed to keep the fun in the game.
\n\u201cI worked out more than others, because I just enjoy it. I\u2019ve managed to be with successful programs along the way, and I\u2019ve had great coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Javier<\/strong> said he occasionally works out with his older brother, Armondo<\/strong>, and when it comes to life after football, he\u2019ll lean on his degree in Public Relations.
\n\u201cAs far as my brothers are concerned, we all feel the same for each other. We always played together, and they are also my biggest critics.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as my mom is concerned, she is very special. She\u2019s always been a hard worker, and instilled in me great values, and the need to achieve to get to where I need to be. Because of her, if I weren\u2019t playing football, I know I\u2019d still be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporter Leon B. Crews can be reached at (813) 248-0724, or e-mailed at\u00a0 lcrews@flsentinel.com.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facunda Arenas remembers all too well her childhood. She, along with her sister, Margaret, were typical teenagers, and both of their lives could have turned out the way some of their peers did. But, Ms. Arenas knew her life had to be different, especially after she found herself alone raising six children. \u201cOf my six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}