“SAVING GRACE”
Cecelia has been able to rebuild her shattered life, thanks to you.
Growing up in a tiny town east of Orange County, Cecelia felt isolated. She strained against the lack of opportunity and longed for the excitement of the Big City.
The youngest of three children — and a self-described spoiled brat — she admits to “not being the family favorite.” Cecelia became a loner and a bookworm, but also an A- and B-student. She wanted to excel so people would notice and care.
But doing well in school was not enough to replace what was missing in her life. Cecelia decided to give something else a try. After dropping out of school, her life took a turn — and not for the better. She left home and started hanging out with a “bad boy,” who invited her into his party lifestyle. She was eager to please. It only got worse.
HARD TIMES
Cecelia got her first real taste of hardship when, at 19, she became pregnant and miscarried. “Losing a baby so young, I didn’t know how to handle it,” she says. That dark experience pushed her further into drug use, including meth. “I started using more heavily and doing things I never would have done before.”
Now deeply mired in addiction, dealing with an increasingly abusive boyfriend — but still able to hold a job — Cecelia began a decade- long nightmare of dysfunctional relationships, partying, and heavy drug use. Eventually, believing that somehow drinking would be better for her, Cecelia traded drugs for alcohol. She got drunk rather than high.
While she was occasionally able to stay sober for short periods, Cecelia just couldn’t find her footing. With no ability to resist the bad influences around her and no goals beyond partying, Cecelia was going nowhere. “I was just in a big fog,” she says.
BACK ON TRACK
By her late 20s, Cecelia was the mother of two young children. But her lifestyle attracted the attention of Child Protective Services, which took her kids and placed them with a foster family. They told her the only way to get her children back was to complete a qualified rehab program. That’s when Cecelia came to the Rescue Mission to take advantage of our proven approach to getting back on track in a faith-based environment.
During her time with us, Cecelia has been able to maintain her sobriety, earn her GED, participate in addiction counseling, and be mentored in the Christian faith. “The Rescue Mission taught me how to be a functioning adult — skills that no one can take away from me,” she says. As you read this, she has graduated and begun a new life of stability in her community.
Cecelia has a job, a place to live, and the goal of being reunited with her children in the future.
“SAVING GRACE”
As she looks back on all of the lost years, Cecelia can see that she had no self-love, no self-worth. “I didn’t feel that I was good enough, because of all the mistakes I made.”
But today, she says, “The Lord is my Saving Grace. I didn’t know what a walk with the Lord was until I got here.”
Cecelia sums it all up this way: “The Rescue Mission has given me everything I didn’t know I deserved . . . everything I lost in my addiction.” Thanks to you, Cecelia is moving forward and blessed to have a second chance. Please give again to provide even more second chances!
