Healthy Community Initiative

October is Substance Use & Misuse Prevention Month, and we’re highlighting stories from our community! Sharing your experiences, reflections, and journeys is a powerful way to inspire others, and we’d love to hear them. If you have something you’d like to share, please email ashley@healthycommunityinitiative.org.

I struggled with addiction for many years and almost lost my life. Addiction stole my family, friends, faith, sanity, home, children, and will to live. Losing my children was the most painful thing I have had to go through. The shame of knowing how badly you hurt the only thing you have ever loved or cared about. Still, right now, it’s hard to even put into words because the ache I felt inside was so horrible! I had this moment in my last treatment where I was begging God to take the pain away, and I heard God say, “What if it’s not my plan to reunite you with your children? Am I not still good? Do I not still have a plan for you and a plan for my children?” This pivotal moment helped me realize that regardless of what happens, I need to get sober for me, so my children don’t have to attend my funeral. Since then I have tried my best to follow God’s will for my life. Through this journey God has always given me peace surrounding the situation with my children and to trust his timing.

So this year, the day after my birthday, I was able to have my first visit with my daughter after years of being apart, and now she is staying with me for the entire summer! God is so good! I am so blessed to have had the support of Restore Recovery to guide me through sobriety. My recovery has given me restoration with my children, a new home, a meaningful job, a passion for helping others, eager hope for the future, and a new family in Christ. My dad always told me the road to ruining your life is short, but the journey to fixing it is long. While I am still on that long road back, today I can say that I don’t need drugs or alcohol to function.