My heart is to help those who are suffering with any type of addiction. I am completely in love with Jesus, who has saved me from this world and the devil many many times. I know my calling for the Lord is to help his children who are lost in this world who are suffering with addiction, mental disorders, anything that keeps them from knowing the never-ending love and peace of God!
So I am sending you my testimony. I pray you read and share it if that’s what God tells you to do. Thank you for taking the time in reading a servant’s story of love to the King who saved me from this world!!
When I was a little girl, I would always imagine that this handsome prince would ride up and rescue me on his white stallion and take me away to live in his beautiful kingdom forever and ever and happily ever after. I was a very imaginative child. Well, my prince never came, men came who thought they were a prince but were the devil in disguise with a pretty smile. Here is my story of a little girl lost and always searching like a lost puppy for love!
From childbirth the enemy has tried to take me out…..I was born at 6 months with complications; I had some lung disease and one of my lungs was not fully developed in 1980 they did not have all the sophisticated medical machines and stuff like they do today. My mom always tells me the story of how they wheeled her into this room and showed her the x-rays of my lungs and the right lung did not look good, but the left lung was fully drawled up like a fist (undeveloped). The doctors told my momma they had to take me to Indianapolis children’s hospital immediately to remove the lung. The doctors gave my mom the weekend and come Monday they were going to remove my lung.
Well over the weekend they took me to this church in Indiana and had me prayed for and come Monday morning when I arrived at the Indianapolis Children’s Hospital they retook the x-rays of my lungs and showed it to my mom and my mom said that the doctor had the strangest look on his face because the lung that was once drawled up like a fist had mordaciously developed into a full lung. The doctor told my mom there is no scientific explanation to why this happened, and my mom smiled back and said “No but there is a God explanation”
This is the beginning of many times the enemy tried to take my life: either by overdosing, cutting myself, or being on the streets. And each and every time God said, “No, this one is mine!!!”
I remember my childhood being full of love and heartache. My father was not in the picture until I was eight-year-old. I remember before he came into the picture, I would always look at other men with their children and long for a father and I could always tell if they were a good father or not. Well at the time my father came back in the picture my mom started to leave. She met a friend and started doing drugs. I did not know that then, I just knew that my mom and dad would always leave, separately for days. My grandparents were the stable rock in my life.
I have two brothers Shawn and Gary and they are older than me. My brothers and I always went to church on Sundays, Sunday night and on Wednesday nights beings that my grandfather was a preacher we always attended his church. I really enjoyed church, but my favorite part was singing with my grandparents on the way to church and on the way home. We would sing old gospel songs like “in the garden”, “lily of the valley”, and “how great thou art”. I think that is why to this day when I am down or scared, I will catch myself singing these old songs. I find comfort in them!
I gave my heart to God and got saved and baptized when I was eight years old. I remember one time in church my grandfather was preaching one of his sermons and I just started crying hysterically. I don’t know why, but I did. My grandmother was sitting behind me and my grandfather looked at me from the pulpit and stopped his sermon and asked me
“Are you OK?”
I loved him so dearly. He was such a Godly and loving man!! I was lucky to have him in my life for the short time I did. He died when I was 12 and that is when my life began the downward spiral. When he died my mother left, my dad was there but just physically, and my grandmother was numb. I got put in DHR custody at that time by my own hands.
I cut my wrists, superficial, I desperately wanted attention and I called 911. The cops came and took me to I guess it was DHR office? They asked if I wanted to go home, and I said NO. There was other stuff going on, but I am not mentioning.
So began my life in the custody of Department of Human Resources of Tennessee. I was in twenty-something different foster homes, group homes, psych hospitals, and shelters. In the beginning I liked all the attention and then I discovered how to play the system and say what they want to hear. For example if I wanted to be rewarded and move up in levels (the higher the level the more privileges) I would say and do what I knew they wanted to hear and see me do. If I just wanted to be defiant I would act out in various ways.
These years are a blur to me. I learned how to protect myself by hiding out at times and by reinventing my identity on many occasions to fit in with my surroundings. I discovered at twelve how cutting myself would relieve all the different emotions I was feeling at once but still numb. I did this numerous times and some of the times were almost fatal. I was put on so many medications that one time my grandmother came and saw me, and she said I was just starring and drewling. I remember one day they took me to the state hospital to perform an EEG on my brain and the lady conducting this test told me that I would be institutionalized the rest of my life.
So I believed that and continued to act out even more. I just wanted my life to go back to before when I was with all my family and everyone was together. I was longing for love, real love but that longing would be unfulfilled for many more years. Finally at 16 I ran away to Nashville and I lost my virginity when some guy raped me.
The girl I ran away with and myself were caught and sent to juvi. Then I returned to the group home that I was in and stayed a little bit longer until I ran away again and this time my grandmother and oldest brother, Shawn came and picked me up and I went to Huntsville, Alabama to live with them. My brother Shawn was always my protector and faced his own demons of addiction, but he had a heart of gold!
When I was 16 my brother Shawn got killed in a car wreck, and once again my world got tossed upside down. He was such an amazing brother, but as many of my family members, including my other brother, was struggling with addictions. Shawn’s car wreck involved him drinking and a telephone pole. Shortly after this I began drinking with my friends to numb everything! With drinking came my boundaries being tossed out the window and I learned that people always want something from you and it is usually your body. So I used it to my advantage at times.
When I was 18 I was introduced to even a darker world of drugs and sex. I met this individual who knew all the right words to say. He engaged me into so many horrible things and one of these was drugs. My drug use started innocently enough with GHB and Ecstasy. I was at the time fascinated and excited because I had this new group of older individuals who accepted me like we were a small family.
This guy used me and became almost like a father figure/pimp. But no matter all the bad stuff he did the one thing he did that I had never experienced before was we would talk for hours. I mean we would stay up all night on the front porch and talk. He would give me his version of advice and I would just melt in his grips even more. He gave me the type of attention I had been searching for my whole life. But he knew what he was doing and he used my nieveness to his advantage. To say the least it ended with DEA/videotapes and me working at a spa.
After this misadventure I became hooked on cocaine, crack, and any type of stimulant. Like I mentioned I was working in spas at this time, and I also began to escort. I made sure I was blasted on one type of drug or another before I engaged in anything. I was so numb and when I wasn’t numb, I was searching for a way to become numb again. I didn’t care if I lived or died, and I didn’t care that every time I slept with a stranger, I lost another piece of my soul. So what! Nothing mattered but the drugs.
God tried to open my eyes and I became pregnant at the age of 19 and 7 short months later he blessed me with a beautiful child. I stayed sober while I was pregnant but one year later, I went to the next level. Using needles.
First I started shooting up cocaine and then I met my favorite of all drugs Crystal Meth. This drug was the scariest of them all. With this drug you never knew how high you were until the next day. When I was on crystal, I ended up all over Alabama: Chasing that high, well chasing the people who could get me high. Every person I ended up with treated me so harshly, but I didn’t care. I sure didn’t love myself and so I expected others to do the same and they did. Crystal lasted a little while but then the next stage of my drug life began I started doing crack. I was hanging in the most runned down, nasty looking places.
The people I was with were so far gone in this drug world they did not care about anything or anybody. One thing I noticed though, whenever these people where sober they wished they never started doing drugs, some even cried. Which got me to thinking in every addict there is a seed of hope, if you can nourish that seed and spread light on it than you can through Jesus save their soul.
I began to prostitute; I mean real prostitute at this time walking down the streets. Some nights I would catch myself singing some of my grandmother’s old gospel hymns she use to sing, as I was walking. I would think back on my childhood at times, remembering my grandfather, who was a preacher, up at the pulpit preaching and smiling at me, I remembered the day I got baptized when I was 8 years old.
Where did I go wrong?
How did I go from being a preachers granddaughter to prostitute addicted to crack?
All I wanted in the beginning was to find a friend find someone who loves me and accepts me for me. Yeah sure, I have my family at home who love me and are worried about me, so why isn’t that enough? Why do I always come back to this lifestyle? Why do I want to cause myself and my family so much pain?
At this time I took an overdose of some pills and was found face down on the floor of the apartment of this guy I was living with and not breathing. No one knows how long I was not breathing for because the guy I lived with left for work about 6 that morning and did not return until 4 or 5 that afternoon and I took all the pills the night before. So know one really knows how long I was well for lack of better words “dead.”
The last thing I remember before taking all those pills is thinking “it’s never going to end” and “It’s always going to be this way”. I was put in ICU for three days with a breathing tube and the only thing I remember was hallucinating seeing this beautiful garden and I tried to get to it but could not. And I was not talking right. I would talk and in my brain it made sense but the words that came out my mom said was “gibberish.”
The doctors told my grandmother they were worried about brain damage because of lack of oxygen to my brain. My brain is fine now (I think) Well the state committed me this time to a state hospital in Decatur. I was put back on meds again. I stayed a month and went home.
My family often asked me why don’t you just quit? Or how could I put them through what I have put them through? I never intended to purposely hurt the one that loves me. But they just do not understand I want to quit but I can’t. Every time I try to this image of doing drugs and the feeling I get when I do them pops up in my head and then I have to have the drug. It is almost like I become another person and my family’s existence becomes obsolete.
Finally, after so many horrific things I have experienced, after being in jail, after knowing several girls being killed, after being in the devil’s palm for so long, the first time in years I truly cried out to God. I was lying on the floor in some apartment surrounded by people and in my mind, I cried out
“God if you will give me a way out, I will take it, I am so tired God. So tired of living like this, not knowing where I am going to sleep, not knowing if I will wake up tomorrow, not wanting to wake up tomorrow. Please God Please help me.”
And he did.
After that experience I went home to my mother whom I have hurt so badly so many times. I would love to say that I lived happily ever after, but that is not true. The years that followed was even harder than the previous years when I was on drugs. The battle in my mind was so strong, so constant; at times I questioned my sanity.
The enemy was trying to win, but the Holy Spirit that now resided in me was pulling me closer. I will admit I did give into temptation a few times one of them times landed me back in jail again. But as the years past and my spiritman became stronger I did not want drugs. I had to be healed from the inside out by God and my brain had to be rewired. But I was getting better by the grace of God and God alone.
I rededicated my life to my loving savior Jesus. I have been off the streets now completely for going on 6 years. (The longest since this drug war had begun) I completed my schooling for Medical Assistant. (First thing in my life that I have ever completed). When I look back now over the past years I am baffled at what I did and how sneaky the devil and his army can be, but most importantly I am amazed at how wonderful, loving, and forgiving God is.
I still battle with the same mind games the devil plays with my mind, but now the difference is I know that’s what it is just another tactic the enemy uses to try to steal your peace and try to sidetrack you from your walk with God. I will forever live with the scars on my body that the life I use to live has left. But that is O.K. because for the first time in my life I have eternal happiness and I have found a true friend finally after searching in all the wrong places he was always there just waiting for me to cry out to him. My real true friend is Jesus.
I have been off drugs and off all medications for going on 6 years. My God has healed me and truly loves me!! At times the fear tries to overcome me but then I just remember where God brought me from, and this little stumbling block is nothing!
I am literally learning to live again. For so many years I allowed others to control me and shape me who they wanted me to be and I lost who I really was. God has taught me it is OK to not be perfect and it is OK to not understand everything just to trust in him and he will lead the way. I am learning to love again and accept love from others.
If I could just say one thing to those who have loved ones who are battling with any type of addiction; just keep in mind, the Jesus, you taught them when they were children is still in them today. Your loved one still remembers the Jesus of their childhood, and that same Jesus will save them from their demons that they are facing today. I know, that is what saved me.
You may think that taking your children to church did not mean a thing. But actually, taking your children to church, bringing them up in the Lord will save them and come back to them in Gods time not in your time. God knows and hears all your prayers and your tears he is just waiting until the right time to go to your loved one’s soul and knock on the door and say
“Come Home my child, Come Home. All is forgiven.”
Since this was written I have discovered God is really real and his love is enduring and never ending. I am beginning to love myself and my self-esteem is slowly recovering! I have learned that I do not need a man to define who I am or to be happy because Jesus is everything that I need!! I am beginning to learn to see myself through the eyes of my father and what I see is no longer a little girl lost searching in every corner for love and acceptance from anybody and in any way…
No what I am beginning to see is a young woman who has conquered what all the enemy has thrown at me to try to destroy me (thus far). I am a beautiful princess who is adored by her father, and I AM FORGIVEN! My prince on the white stallion was always there to rescue me; I was just blinded by sin so much that I could not see him!”
September 2010 – This year has been full of heartache, trial, and change. But through it all God has been developing his character in me so that his love can flow freely through me. I hear his voice so clearly than ever before and I know that Greatness is ahead. I know that life will always have surprises and some of which will devastate, but I know in whom I trust to strengthen me in those times and love me with the fatherly love only he can.
Wow! Thank you very much for posting this up it has brought my spirit and faith up so high again. And you taught me a lot with your story, to seek God first and he will give me everything. I knew this before but i have been going through a painful situation that makes me feel like giving up sometimes and ive been constantly telling myself that God is here and i should just trust in him and everything will be okay. His plan for me is way better than the things am searching for right now. Thanks again and may god bless you in everything that you do.
Omgosh, uve been thru sooo much and u have sooo many testimonies..drugs, prostitution, broken home, depression, many more, in just that one letter, its amazing, at what god can do if we just let him. I saw where ur family lived in huntsville, im from stevenson,al (45 mins away) 🙂 small world, but anyways I pray that u stay on track and bring others to god with ur testimonies, like that scripture says, we go thru things to help comfort others that gunna go thru the same things in the future..god bless you girly!
This is sooo inspiring god has really been testing me as well I can’t really get to indepth with my situation because it’s really painful and at times I feel like I lost myself in the world I used to be a good virtuous person but wit my being sooo needed to feel accepted i’ve changed for the worst and I wanna get my self esteem as well as my relationship with god back. I loved ur testimony it has helped me.
I completely lost my self esteem in the battle of drugs and I thought that it would never return to me. but God hashealed me and I now have God given confidence and self esteem. If I can say one thing it would be Dont Ever Give Up!! All you have to do to revive your relationship with the Lord is cry out to him. you dont have to have a 30 min prayer with all these big words all you have to say is “God Please help me!and forgive me.” Once you say those words the doors of Heaven will open and God will be right there feeling you with the peace that only He can give. He is the only one who can silent the battle in the mind and restore to you the innocense that was lost! Call out to Jesus!! He Loves you and Believes in You and so do I!!
Just wanted to say…WOW…i like your testimony!
I was born in Indiana (close to Indianapolis), and
my cousin lives in Huntsville Alabama.
i read your testimony. i had the same story.almost.just got out of prison and struggling.thanx.it gives me hope.i just hope i makeit this time.im sick of it all.
Your testimony really touched me and I thank you for sharing. You are truly an inspiration for all that you have conquered through CHRIST! I have someone near and dear to me who battles through life, actually almost “just existing”, because of childhood sexual abuse. The seed has been planted in him and it is testimonies like yours that give me hope that GOD WILL FINISH WHAT HE STARTED! I was brought to tears and I LOVE how you acknowledge that your prince on the white stallion was always there to rescue you. How true this is! And it is up to us to be receptive of this!! I am glad you opened up your heart to our Father and now have this relationship with him. This life is nothing without HIM. God bless you on your continued journey…
Dear one,
We enjoyed reading your testimony. Our newsletter-Caught Up & Called Out is our prison newsletter that features stories of lives changed through Christ. If you are interested in sharing your testimony in one of our upcoming newsletters, please contact us.
Thanks for your consideration in advance.