Our Story
Rebuilding your life when you feel you’ve lost everything, due to a family members addiction, irregardless of the type; alcohol, meth, pot, crack, whatever the case may be, can seem impossible. We share that pain with you. We have two sons who are addicts. Both, by the grace of God are currently recovering, but this is after years of struggling, prison sentences, divorce, lost child custody and so much more. We all agree that there will be challenges ahead. We created this blog to help both our family, and we hope yours as well.
Along the way, we will share our stories so that you may understand the addiction experience more clearly from both the side of the addict and family members.
We will offer suggestions as to some of the things that have helped us, and kept our family together over the years. We will talk about the recovery programs, meetings, and recovery and treatment facilities that we have dealt with directly, and facilities and programs for recovery that we have had the opportunity to learn about and visit.
Talk may often be crude and blunt, that is one of the realities of an addicts life. That is the truth for family as well. There is nothing nice or gentle about the addicts life, and, recovery is no more glamourous.
We have tried to deal with the authorities when a drug dealer was taking our son out of our house in the middle of the night, at 12 years old, to indoctrinate him into that lowlife, dark world. We have walked into the room where our son was passed out with a needle in his arm from shooting up meth. with his three year old playing next to him. We have experienced many things that as a mom and dad we never expected to see. We raised our sons with the high morals and principles that we were raised with. We have learned DO NOT JUDGE OTHERS. Every family has been impacted by addiction in one form or another.
We have met hardcore inmates, covered in tattoos, who have offered us sweet spiritual words of wisdom. Unexpected hope in unlikely places. We have dealt with police officers who were understanding, and helpful. Others who were nasty and mean.
One of the things that we will post here are letters that we have sent to our sons, and letters we have received from them while they were locked up. Doing hang time as the inmates call it.
Award winning writer Joe Nelson will post to this blog on occassion, along with comments, harsh and soft from our family. Drug counselors will have discussion on ocassion, but primarily we hope to serve as a place where both addicts and families, and friends of addicts can share experienes and help each other to sustain sobriety, or encourge those that have not begun to walk that path to begin the journey. We hope to help you and ourselves when the countless number of tears are shed, the lonely moments when your child is, God knows where, when you cannot reach out even to each other. Know that there is someone out there that knows the pain, has seen Hope. Do not give up if there are backslides, those happen. It really is true that an addict can only get clean for themselves and they must be at their own personal bottom before they can climb back up.
Our Thoughts and Prayers are with You. Keep Up the Faith!