Arrianna’s mother left when she was just 2 years old.
She spent the rest of her childhood being passed from her drug-dealing father, to her abusive mother, and back to dad and step-mom, and finally, at 14, to an elderly great-grandmother. The only constant in her chaotic life was ballet.
In high school, Arrianna was an honors student. She also worked, took care of her grandma, danced ballet . . . and began drinking to alleviate stress.
In college, her drinking escalated.
“I didn’t know what an alcoholic was,” she says. “I’d wake up with the shakes and think I was just nervous, so I’d drink to calm myself down before going to class.”
Overwhelmed and unhappy, Arrianna dropped out of school to work, taking her alcohol addiction with her.
“I’d be out all night drinking with my boyfriend and have to be at
work by 4 a.m,” she says. “I got through the day on energy drinks with alcohol in them.”
Moving in with her boyfriend, she discovered a new way to cope — he dealt drugs and used meth. Arrianna did drugs until she found out she was pregnant.
By then, the relationship had turned abusive. Arrianna just took it, believing it would keep the family she so wanted together.
But as soon as her daughter Taylor was born, Arrianna returned to drinking.
During those dark days, Arrianna wandered into church. “The pastor told me that no matter what I did, God would love me,” says Arrianna. “No one had ever told me this before.”
She quit drinking — but her struggle wasn’t over.
Grasping for security and happiness, she married and divorced her boyfriend within a year. For a while she managed on a single income raising two children, but eventually she lost her home.
Back under tremendous stress, Arrianna crashed hard on alcohol and drugs. And left her family.
Finally, desperate to put the pieces of her broken family back together, she returned to her kids and her ex-husband took her in.
But the abuse became worse than ever.
In the midst of a dispute, police were called, a CPS case was filed and Arrianna lost custody of her kids.
Devastated, broken and deeply desiring to be the mom her kids needed, she applied to the Rescue Mission’s long-term recovery program.
Today, Arrianna and her children Taylor and Collin are reunited and living at the Village of Hope.
She’s grateful and growing every day. And experiencing real joy and peace for the first time in her life.
“I have stability, confidence and assurance in who I am in Christ and who Christ is in me,” she says. “I’ve overcome addiction and God is healing me.”
“I’m so thankful!” says Arrianna. “I have a place to call home, and a place where my children are happy and feel safe and loved. I’m becoming a better mom and an example of Jesus Christ’s power to eradicate my addiction, and I give Him all the glory.”
Arrianna’s transformation is one you help make possible at Orange County
