By the time that I was 21, I had five kids and an addiction to methamphetamines.
All of my life, my family has been drug addicts, prostitutes, and different things. I didn't grow up in a very good household.
My mom died in a drunk-driving accident when I was nine. The man that she was with molested me when I was a child. I was also molested other times as a child, and when I told anybody, nobody did anything, so I stopped telling.
I got busted for manufacturing methamphetamines. I got seven felonies and a misdemeanor. I had never been in jail, never been in trouble, nothing.
While I was in jail, I got a letter in the mail. It was a pamphlet, a yellow envelope. I’d never received a piece of mail before, so I opened it, and it said, “Do you know Jesus as your personal Savior?”
“Well,” I thought, “I don’t have anything else to do, so I might as well read it.”
That week I went to the Bible study at the church that they had there at the jail. I thought the books of the Bible were Mathew, Mark, and Luther King. That is what I thought they were. It was the biggest joke in the dorm, and everybody laughed.
I spent a lot of time with people that are now my family, people that God put in my life to be my family. I’ve never had anybody who cared, loved me for me, and did things for me - until I turned my life over to Christ, and now I have Christ-brothers and -sisters. They love me better than my own family.
I have been six years clean today. I’ve had my kids back for five years. I didn't think I would ever quit using meth, and I didn't think I would ever be with my kids’ dad. He has been clean for five years, and we have been married for a year.
It doesn't matter what the addiction is or how you've been treated your whole life or the things you have been through—the sexual things or the drug addiction. You can overcome it. Only God can take the pain and take the hurt. But if you don't tell anybody, nobody knows to be able to help you.
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