Stories of Hope

Erika and daughter Jenna.

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Erika

My life was going nowhere and I was choosing drugs and alcohol over my children and I needed something more because drug treatment wasn't doing what I wanted it to do. It was just putting a Band-Aid on the wound and I needed healing from unresolved childhood issues. I was always looking for a father figure, so I was always getting into dysfunctional relationships. My daughter, who is going to be 15, she was my really big motive to turn my life around. When she was 5-years-old, I got into a really bad car accident with her. She had a hole in her intestine and a broken back and when we were in the hospital the doctors found morphine in my blood and I was scared that they were going to take her away from me, so I knew that I needed to do something. That was the ultimate bottom of all the bottoms that I've hit.

That's when I put myself in treatment. And that was the first stepping stone of many that led me to Shepherd's Door and where I'm at today. They didn't even know who I was. They just loved me and that was something that I wasn't used to. It was genuine and it was real. They just literally taught me everything: how to budget my money, and how to work. You know I never had to work a day in my life and they taught me that. I know that my son and my daughter both see a huge change in me and they know I'm not how I used to be.

My life has changed. I went through healing of things that have happened to me when I was growing up. I have learned to forgive and today my life is good. I'm clean, I'm coming up on five years clean and I hope that I have broken the cycle. Today I have a healthy relationship today with my daughter and we can talk to each other. That's something that I never had growing up.

I know the Lord today and I live for Him and it's because of Him where I am at today. Because of Him, and Portland Rescue Mission and Shepherd's Door gave me hope when nothing else was working. My future is to stay clean, keep loving the Lord, to excel in my life and just reach out to other women. There is healing for those who want it.