“They have taught me how to be loved and to love myself. I’ve forgiven myself for all the mistakes I’ve made, and I am healing from being hurt and from hurting myself.”

I grew up in a very raging alcoholic family, my mother had left me and my dad to go live with other men and drink all the time when I was two or three. My life was almost taken one day when my mother decided to kidnap me from my aunt’s house while my dad worked to take care of me. My dad found me by the grace of God. I’ve been in my dad’s custody from that day till this day. My mom has been in and out of my life all my life. I picked up drinking and taking prescription pills by the time I was eighteen. I was also pregnant and married. By the time my oldest daughter Taylor was seven months, I had left her father, my husband, and lost our home and vehicle. I moved in with one of his friends and his family and got a job doing housekeeping at a hotel. Less than a year later I was using meth and cocaine and depending on my family to support me and my daughter. My ex-husband took my daughter one day and I was lost and ragging with anger. I was able to gain custody back and I moved in with my dad. 

I started hanging around my friends again and before I knew it I was pregnant. This time I was living with my dad and using drugs/pills. I had a mental breakdown and was admitted into a mental rehab which I was released with medications for depression/ anxiety/ bipolar, and sleeping medication. 

I then went to my church where my father and I were members for eight years. I asked my pastor and his wife to help me find a place in Georgia, but not close and they reached out to HOC and I got accepted into the program.  I went home and started packing a bag. My dad told me to stop and he told me to get into the truck. So, I got in the truck beside my thirteen-year-old daughter and I asked her where we were going. She told me shopping. My dad and daughter bought me a brand-new wardrobe and duffle bag. That night I was hurting from detoxing so bad, but I broke down and cried. I told my dad and daughter that I loved them, and I was ready to get to Atlanta. I remember leaving with my pastor and his wife, it was so hard to get out of my dad’s truck and into my pastor’s. But I did it. HOC is by far the best place I’ve ever seen and probably will see. They have taught me how to be loved and to love myself. I’ve forgiven myself for all the mistakes I’ve made, and I am healing from being hurt and from hurting myself. Also, I know that God is my savior and without his grace and mercy, I would have never made it to HOC and never met the beautiful people who own HOC and also the workers here who have changed my life and given me a great new hope to keep pushing in the will and way of God.

-L