Growing up, my life seemed normal from the outside, but inside our home I experienced physical and emotional abuse from my dad. We occasionally went to church, but as I got older, Jesus wasn’t my focus. What I remember most was a deep feeling that something was missing. I wanted to feel accepted… loved… whole.

When I was about 15, I found alcohol and marijuana, and for a while it felt like that emptiness disappeared. But it always came back — and before long I moved on to harder drugs.

As the years went on, heartbreak and loss piled up. I lost my grandpa to cancer, later my grandma passed away, and my family went through painful struggles that left me hurt, angry, and confused. Instead of healing, I kept running deeper into addiction.

I became a mother to my son Jacob at 19 and later to my daughter Parker, and I truly loved my children. I wanted to be the mom they deserved. But addiction kept pulling me back, and eventually my family had to step in and care for them while I battled the shame and brokenness I didn’t know how to fix.

For 17 years, addiction controlled my life. All the pain, guilt, and emptiness just kept building. My grandma had always told me about Jesus and what He had done in her life, but I never truly reached for Him myself.

Then on August 9, 2022, everything changed.

I had reached a point where I was exhausted from fighting for someone I didn’t even like anymore — myself. I felt hopeless and decided that would be my last day to live. I spent the day using every drug I could find, and eventually I overdosed on fentanyl.

The next thing I remember, I woke up surrounded by police and EMTs who told me I had barely survived.

In that moment, I knew God had saved me. I knew He wasn’t done with me yet.

I tried to quit on my own and had been accepted into WeCare, but the shame I carried pulled me back into old patterns. Soon after, I was arrested — and what felt like a failure became the moment God redirected my life. While I was in jail, I had time to reflect, and I reached out to ask if I could still come to WeCare.

Two weeks later, I walked through those doors — and from the moment I did, I could feel this was exactly where I was supposed to be.

Today, God has redeemed not only me, but also my relationships with my children and my family. That hole in my heart is gone, and my heart is no longer in pieces.

Today I am a mother, a grandmother, a daughter, a sister, a friend — and a Beacon of Hope for others who feel lost like I once did.

God has restored my life in ways I never thought possible. I can love again, trust again, and truly experience joy. And the most beautiful thing is this: I know I never have to go back.

Matthew 16:24–25 says,
“If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Tonight is about more than a program.
It’s about redemption.
It’s about restoration.
It’s about the moment a woman realizes she is not forgotten, not beyond hope, and not beyond God’s love.

I know that because I was that woman.

Because of WeCare, my story didn’t end in addiction.
It continued in healing, in family, in purpose, and in hope.