I have loving, good parents and grandparents. I was raised in the church. It wasn’t until my adult years that I turned to drug abuse. I wanted to fit in with the crowd. It began during break time at work. We would go out and smoke marijuana. That’s when it started. It went from using marijuana, to cocaine, to snorting cocaine.
I pulled away from my family. I started stealing. I began lying. It destroyed my life. It became so bad that I would do anything to satisfy my drug habit. I even sold my body. I was in and out of jail like a revolving door. I was arrested for prostitution, shoplifting, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. The printed record of my arrests is about 16 pages long. I just destroyed my life by the time I was thirty years old.
My husband helped me a lot. He cried. He prayed. When I would go back out and do wrong again, he would come looking for me. He would forgive me. He has been there for me. The night we met I was at the Waffle House. The only thing I ordered was a grilled cheese sandwich because it was the cheapest thing on the menu. He came up to me and asked me if I was hungry. I said, “Yes,” so we sat down and ate. From that point we talked, and he eventually asked me, “Where do you live?” I told him, “I can meet you somewhere else.” I think he knew I was living on the street. He was so kind he agreed to meet me at another location. I would actually stay at my mom’s so he could pick me up. After a few years of dating he picked me up, and we rode to Ringgold, GA, and just walked around the courthouse. He said, “One day we are going to get married in there,” and we did. We knew each other for ten years before we got married. My lifestyle took me to my lowest point before I decided to make a change.
I would stop abusing drugs for about four months, and then I would start back. This continued until I was finally was arrested and was given a sentence of ten years. My sentence included the option of getting help with my rehabilitation. I took a step to change my life and enrolled in Teen Challenge. It changed my life.
I learned about allowing God to be my guide instead of just being lost out in the world. I couldn't see my way out. It was as if God said, “Lift up you head and face it, and I will take it away,” and he did just that. God took it.
I’ve been drug free for four years, the first year at Teen Challenge and the last three on my own. I now have a job as a preset at a dry cleaning business. I have seen my family restored. I now have a home, thanks to my husband, in Harrison, TN. Proverbs 14:1 says, “A wise woman will build her house, but a foolish woman will tear it down with her own hands.” I was tearing my house down, and I didn't know it. Now I’m building my house with God. That’s amazing.
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