Imagine if you were a teenage girl – where do you turn if your mother is an addict and your baby’s father is abusive? Where do you go when you live in constant fear and don’t know any other existence? What do you do when you’re in emotional pain 24/7?
The answer is usually drugs. That’s what happened to Stephanie. The pattern happened over and over and always back with the abuser and drugs to manage the pain even at the expense of her two young children.
Stephanie was calling out for help but didn’t know where to turn. After getting having her children removed from the home and arrested one day asked the policeman to get her some help to escape this lifestyle. She pleaded for him to send her to a rehab program. The cop coldly told her she was a horrible mom and she ought to just kill herself because she doesn’t deserve to live.
After being homeless for a period God miraculously got her into Hope Gardens. At the Gardens Stephanie found safety from her abusers, rest for her body, calmness for her emotions, renewal of her mind, healing for her soul, and recovery over drugs.
Saturday, a group of us from Deed & Truth moved Stephanie into her new apartment in San Dimas. A pastor from Hollywood and his two sons, joined Mike and Terri Morris, along with Betty and myself. We collected donations of furnishings and turned her house into a home.
After we put everything in place we sat in her new living room and she told us she had never had her own place and it felt like a dream that was never going to come true. She had been conditioned to believe that nothing good could ever happen to her.
Stephanie told us her story and ended off sharing her plan to get into the church down the street, an AA or CR group, apply for a job at the URM Thrift store just a short bus ride from her new home, and lean into a relationship with a mentor we provide to the mother’s we help with H2H.
Her biggest prayer request is to be able to prove that she’s healthy enough to get one if not both children back. Her daughter has a family member willing to adopt her but not her son. In the same breath Stephanie said, “As much as I want to be a mom, I have come to be content knowing it’s in God’s hands and he knows what’s best for me and my children.”
We have another H2H family to move in next weekend… and another within the month. If you would like to help you can donate lightly used furnishings and kitchen supplies to Lynne Muslin. However, we almost always need to purchase items and that can cost between $2,500 – $5,000 per family. If you’d like to sponsor one of the families please donate below.
DonateAs always, thank you for your prayer & financial support. If you’d like to volunteer to move a family you may call contact Betty Anderson (betty@deedandtruth.org).
Check out these two poems Stephanie wrote: The first one is about the horrors of addiction from her former life… the second one she wrote today about how she feels about moving into her first, ever, home.
