If you had met Danny years ago, you might have thought he had it all together.

He toured the country as a musician. He built a successful small business. He grew up in a happy, “normal” home.

But beneath the surface was a meth addiction that followed him for decades. “It hijacked my brain for 35 years straight,” Danny says.

He tried to quit again and again, only to find himself relapsing a few months later.

Deserea’s story looked different. She grew up in foster care while her mother struggled with addiction, earned a psychology degree, and worked hard to build a life for herself, only to have it all fall apart. But after experiencing abusive relationships and years of instability, she found herself bouncing between hotels just to keep a roof over her head.

Eventually, she landed somewhere she had sworn she would never go: a roach-infested motel. That’s where Deserea finally dropped to her knees and prayed for the first time in years.

Two days later, she met Danny in the motel laundry room.

“I was down and out the day I met Deserea,” Danny remembers. “I hadn’t eaten in four days.

Neither of them knew it then, but their lives were about to take a very different turn.

Danny eventually came to Orange County Rescue Mission (OCRM). Deserea visited him every weekend, but after some time, they decided to try making it on their own.

Soon, they were back to hotel hopping and sleeping in their car. Deserea knew something had to change.

“We’ve got to go back to the Mission,” she told Danny.

This time, they would do it together. They got married and waited for a spot to open. And while they waited, they received another piece of life-changing news: Deserea was pregnant.

“I came here five weeks pregnant,” she says. “You gave us our baby’s first home while we prepared to give him his next home.”

Because of friends like you, Danny and Deserea finally had something they desperately needed: a safe, stable place and time to rebuild.

They received couples and trauma therapy, parenting and marriage classes, recovery support, case management, medical care, and even a baby shower filled with newborn essentials.

Today, their lives look remarkably different.

“This family of mine is a success story, because I was almost dead a year and a half ago,” Danny says. “Now, I love my life. I got another chance. This place has done everything for me.”

And they know the support of our amazing OCRM community made it possible.

“You could donate your money anywhere,” Danny says. “Thank you for making a place like this exist.”

Thank you for helping parents like Danny and Deserea build a beautiful new life for their family!