Jami is celebrating new life this Easter! Thank you for touching her life with hope.

Jami is celebrating new life this Easter! Thank you for touching her life with hope.

Jami is celebrating new life this Easter!
Thank you for touching her life with hope.

 

“I knew I needed help…”

There were two women who shaped Jami’s life—her biological mom, who struggled with addiction, and her mom’s best friend, who became Jami’s foster parent. “My biological mom lived with us until I was 15, then she just walked away,” Jami says. “I had a lot of abandonment issues. I felt like I wasn’t good enough.”

Jami began numbing her pain with drugs, and by the time she was 20, she was using regularly. “It was an escape from the feelings I was battling inside,” Jami says. “I was stuck in addiction for 20 years.”

Along the way, she had a son whom she wanted to protect from her lifestyle, so she gave custody to her foster mother. For a while, Jami visited him regularly, comfortable that he was too young to see that his mom’s life was spiraling out of control.

But, eventually, Jami found herself with no place to live, and her son had grown old enough to realize there was something terribly wrong with his mom. “He started asking questions. I would never hurt my son the way my mom hurt me,” Jami says. “That was the turning point. I knew I needed help.”

Jami entered our Higher Ground addiction recovery program, where Bible studies and chapel services led her to surrender her life to the Lord. “Now, through prayer, I try to make sure all my decisions align with God’s will for my life.” Her newfound faith and biblical counseling have helped Jami heal emotionally, as well.

 

“God has given my life a purpose.”

 

Jami graduated from Higher Ground, completed a ministry internship in our Equip program, and is now on staff, serving as our preschool lead teacher and as a house monitor in our transitional housing. She has also been reunited with her son! “My life has meaning,” Jami says.

Your generous support has filled Jami’s life with love, encouragement, and most of all, hope this Easter season. “I was broken, but now I’ve been restored.”

 

To read the most recent issue of Inside Story, click to download.