PORTAGE, Mich. (WOOD) — Nearly after a week after the disappearance of a Portage mother of eight, the missing woman’s mom said she hasn’t lost hope that she’s safe.

“I’m missing her bad, and I just want her to come home,” said the woman, who lives near Covert and didn’t want to be identified.

She told News 8 that police have told her not to discuss details of the case. So far, she knows little.

The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office shared her daughter’s missing poster on its Facebook page.

It says Heather Kelley, 35, of Portage, left her home at about 9 p.m. Saturday, then spoke to her kids by phone at 10:20 p.m., telling them she’d be home shortly. She never returned.

She was reported missing the next day.

“She’s a very good mom,” her mother said. “She takes care of her kids real good; she goes to work every day, pays her bills. She just needs to come home.”

Her daughter, she said, “would not leave her kids.”

Kelley’s vehicle was found abandoned the day after the disappearance near North Sprinkle Road and East Michigan Avenue in Comstock Township. Police haven’t said whether they found any clues to her whereabouts in the vehicle.

Neighbors there said they’ve seen helicopters circling over the woods in that area.

The sheriff’s department and Portage police are working on the case together. They have said little about the investigation and on Friday refused to discuss the disappearance or the search.

“I’m hoping she comes back home alive,” her mom said. “I ain’t going to let my guard down until I found out, she comes home.”

Kelley is described as 5’10”, 130 pounds with long blonde hair.

“Heather, if you’re out there, please call, get ahold of me. I want to know where you’re at,” her mother said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department at 269.383.8821 or Portage Public Safety at 269.329.4567.