For Jodi, it was a long, terrible road to the Rescue Mission. She grew up in a home where drugs were used openly. She used them in front of her own kids. And worst of all, she wasted years on one thing: feeding her addiction.

Drugs finally took over her life, bringing the loss of her children and a long, agonizing year of homelessness. With no place to go, and her kids in the care of a relative, she slept in the back of a broken-down pickup truck parked in a driveway. Finally having reached absolute rock bottom — and desperate to get her kids back — Jodi accepted a family member’s referral to the Rescue Mission.

“I had no idea that a place like this even existed,” she says.

Since coming to Orange County Rescue Mission, Jodi has worked hard to overcome her past and prepare for a new life of sobriety, stability, and strength. “With the Rescue Mission’s help, I was able to get “With the Rescue Mission’s help, I was able to get “I always believed there was a God. But I never knew how to walk with Him,” she says. “At the Rescue Mission, I learned how to steer toward what God has for me and be obedient.”

She is more determined than ever to succeed this time. “I can’t let anything come between me and my sobriety and salvation,” she says. “You try your hardest to be the mom your kids have always wanted. And you’re finally there. How can you take that from them just to go back to your drug addiction? I’ve seen the smiles on my kids’ faces every day. There’s no way that I can mess that up.”