From Hopelessness to Healing and Hope

Jamie and her son at Heritage Home

Do you see the smile on this young mother's face? You couldn't have imagined what she had been through before she walked through the door at Heritage Home. I want to share with you an essay that she wrote for school about her life before Heritage Home. The school board was so impressed with her essay that Heritage Home was awarded the proceeds from their annual food drive during the Christmas Holiday.

It was two days after my sixteenth birthday and I was riding as a passenger in a friend's car. Suddenly we were struck by another vehicle, it was a semi truck that was barreling down highway 101 at seventy miles per hour. I heard screeching tires, breaking glass, and screams of fear as the vehicle flipped over and over across all lanes of traffic. I was trapped, bleeding and in an extreme amount of pain.

I cried out to God with more sincerity than any prayer before in my life as the firemen cut me out of the vehicle. The pain in my back was getting to be unbearable. At the hospital I learned that my back was fractured in two places. Recovery from the accident was slow and difficult.

Slowly I forgot about the promises that I had made to God from within the crushed vehicle. I went back to my normal teenage life but this time with a boyfriend.
Things seemed to be okay at first until I found out he was abusive and had a violent temper. I tried to end the relationship but it only became worse. One day I was home alone with my little sister and wouldn't let him in my parent's house - that didn't stop him - he kicked down the door and started grabbing me violently. I screamed for my sister to grab the phone and hide in the back room. Inside the house he went on a rampage. He yelled at me as he trashed the inside of my house. He kept grabbing me and hitting me. As I laid there in pain, he started down the hall for my little sister.

My mother worked nearby and was just arriving home as he was getting into his truck. He saw my mom running up to the house to see if we were all right. He sped up and turned his truck towards her hitting her and injuring her arm. The police came, they took pictures, they asked us questions, and they helped me file a restraining order.

On the outside, I made it seem like everything was going to be all right, but on the inside I felt terrible. This sent me into a deep depression. I turned to drugs to alleviate my pain. I did cocaine, acid, ecstasy, and crystal methamphetamine. Crystal meth soon became my drug of choice. I used every day. I dropped out of school and I constantly fought with my family. I had lost a tremendous amount of weight and my family was getting concerned.

I was checked into the hospital for the first time for overdosing on crystal meth. I again went back to my old ways. The next few months was a mess of drugs, hospitals and police. Finally, I was checked into a drug rehab. After my rehab, again went back to my old ways.

This time things were harder. I left home and lived in cheap motels and dirty garages. I was getting desperate and I knew that something had to change, and soon.

I started living with different people that I knew and then my options ran out - I was on the streets. Then I found out that I was twelve weeks pregnant. In order to have a place to stay, I cleaned rooms at a dirty rundown motel. I constantly lived in fear because my room didn't have a lock. I didn't know what to do - I was lost and felt hopeless.

My prayers were answered when I went to Community Pregnancy Center and I found out about Heritage Home. I was admitted a few days later. Heritage Home has been such a blessing to my baby and me. I have a safe, warm, loving place to stay during my pregnancy that holds the same Christian values that I desire for my life. Right now, I am focused on getting my high school diploma before my baby is born. After my son is born, I plan to go to college and become a drug counselor and eventually a registered nurse. I want to help other young girls who are lost to find a new life with the Lord. God has made such an amazing change in my life and I am living proof of the power of his love.
Since Jamie wrote this testimony, she has graduated from High School and received a scholarship for college, she delivered a healthy baby boy and is working to re-establish her relationship with her parents. We are very proud of her. She continues to mentor other women at Heritage Home and has spoken at several churches and other groups encouraging others through her personal testimony - that real change is possible.