The harsh awakening

Sia Felauvai-Kelsall's life has not been what her parents had hoped for.

Sia Felauvai-Kelsall clutches her 3-month-old baby as her other children run in and out of her small, three-bedroom flat, which costs US$150 ($213) a month.

Inside, the living room is lined with leis and photos.

Felauvai-Kelsall left Western Samoa in 1979, arriving in Los Angeles a month short of her 12th birthday.

She came with her adoptive grandparents, fulfilling a dream of her parents who remained behind. But it was never her dream.

"I was always yearning to go back and live with my parents. It messed up my childhood and teens."

Now she faces a tough life as a single parent of five children. Her eldest are 11-year-old twin girls.

Felauvai-Kelsall has had jobs, her last as an office assistant to a university professor, but that ended when her daughter developed a bone condition requiring fulltime care.

Now she gets about US$700 ($974) a month and food stamps from social services.

She recently found inner peace by "going back to the Lord".

"I'm starting to accept that it all was meant to happen. I am blessed with my kids and my goal is making sure they do not have to go through that life."