Today’s Sheinelle Jones, Kids Moving Houses After Husband Uche Ojeh Death

“People kept saying, ‘You’re so strong, you’re so strong,’” she told E! News last month. “And I’m just trying to survive, you know? At the beginning, I was just trying to get out of bed. It’s like, ‘I have to go to work. So I’m going to get myself out of bed. I’m going to get to work.’”

She added, “You’re doing the things that you feel like you have to do and somebody else sees it as strength. And I’m thinking, ‘Am I? Oh, me? I’m strong? Oh, OK.’”

But while Sheinelle knows others have been inspired by her vulnerability, she’s starting to recognize that she can inspire herself, too.

“It’s honestly, maybe not until now, that I’m thinking, ‘You know what? Maybe I should celebrate my own [strength],’” she shared. “We don’t do that for ourselves, but I’m finally starting to say, ‘You know what? I think I need to give myself some credit here, because it wasn’t easy.’”

Read on for a look back at Sheinelle and Uche’s cutest family photos.