My name is Alicia and I’ve been at GCH for a little over 2 months now. I’m 32 years old, was born and raised in Florida, and using meth ruined my life.

I never truly had a childhood, I was forced to grow up very fast. I met a guy at 16 and ended up marrying him at 18. A year later, we found out that I was pregnant with our first child. We were so incredibly happy to hear that. We were pregnant with our first child, and we owned our own company breeding Bearded Dragons. Everything in our lives seemed to be going so well. At the age of 21, I started going to bars to have some fun while my husband stayed home with our kid. After a few years of my heavy drinking, I met another man and fell in love. We started using meth together at that point. The connection I had with this man and the connection I had with meth was so strong, that I left my husband for him. I and this new man had 4 kids together and continued using meth for 6 more years. There were many ups and downs over those years, but mostly downs. We had multiple CPS cases open, my boyfriend was becoming increasingly more abusive, and everything was quickly going downhill. Once my boyfriend’s brother died, he began shooting up meth instead of snorting it. Since he was doing it, figured I would try it too. Was a WHOLE NEW MONSTER for me now, after shooting up my meth. 2 weeks later I found out that I was pregnant again, and that my mom had passed away. I used meth all throughout my pregnancy, only stopping a month before so my baby wouldn’t be born with meth in his system. I continued to heavily use meth, and 6 months later CPS ended up taking ALL of my kids away. I had now truly lost everything that I cared about. I got clean for a little while, had another kid, then relapsed hard again. CPS now took this child away, and also the newborn when I gave birth again a few months later.

When I came to Grace Centers of Hope, I was praying for God to take away my pain. Now since being here, I feel everyone should Support Grace Centers of Hope, because I feel a peace that I haven’t felt in a LONG time. I learned that if God still loved me after all my sins, then I could learn to love myself again. I cannot get my first 4 kids back from CPS because they have been adopted, but I have a chance to get my 2 young ones back. If you pray hard enough, amazing things do happen. I never thought I’d get clean, I never thought id get any of my kids back, and I never thought id have a relationship with God. Now all 3 of those are possible, only because of God’s love for me. 

I truly thank Grace Centers of Hope for opening my eyes, and showing me what an amazing life I can live if I keep God close to my heart! Support Grace Centers of Hope for all the good work they do.

– Alicia S