Today, I was so moved at church. We had a group from MN Teen Challenge visit, while our pastor was at his Navy Reserve weekend. If you are not familiar with MN Teen Challenge. They offer a variety of programs to people trying to overcome addiction. The work with teens and adults. They have 28 day, 60 day and a 13 month programs. We were able to hear the stories of these young adults. OH man I should of brought the kleenex today. It was just amazing to hear how far they have come, and even the stories of those who have just began their journey. I am so proud of them because truly the first step to anything is to seek help and admitting that you have a problem. There was one gal who really touched me. She is 27 years old. She was addicted to meth for 10 years. She would leave her daughter to go get high. Her mom called child protection services on her when her daughter was 2. She had the oppurtunity to get clean, and turn her life around so thats what she did but soon after exiting her 60 day program(at another program other than MN Teen Challenge). She started using again. She signed her rights away to have her mother raise her daughter. A year later she found herself in a very dark and scary part of life, and decided to change. She as been in Teen Challenge for 9 months now. She is slowly rebuilding her life, and her relationship with her daughter and family. Her daughter even calls her "mommy" now, and she has done that in months. And, on September 8th she gets to take her daughter to kindergarten, something that 9 months ago she never imagined.

It was stories like that touched my heart. In some aspects I know how the families of these men and women feel. I had a cousin that used and sold drugs, and landed himself in jail a couple of times. It was so hard to watch. My cousin and I are 6 months apart, and grew up together. It was a very struggling time in my life watching him go through that. He is better now, and has 4 kids.

I know what addiction is like. My addiction was food. (I know not any were near what drugs and alcohol do to you but still). I ate myself through my pain of my cousin dealing with addiction, my aunts bipolar, and my daily battles in my head with my own depression. I have slowly been breaking my habit. It is very hard to not help yourself to that 2nd or even 3rd piece of cake, or 2 helpings at dinner. It is a battle. I am slowly but surely winning. There is nothing harder than to tell yourself "no" or that you can get through this. I am glad that I have a great support system. Just like I am happy that these young men and women have began to rebuild their relationships with family, so that they will have a good support system to help them through.

I would like to ask you to pray for these men and women. That they continue down this path they are on of self discovery. That they can continue to rebuild the broken relationships. That they build a strong foundation of faith to get them through the rough times that are coming once they get out of their program. They will face so much when they get out. We can not judge them they have already beend judged way to much, and we don't were they've all been or how they got to were they were at to use and abuse but we can just hope that they will stay clean for the rest of their lives. I want nothing more than to see them all succeed. Will you do that for me?

Down below is a link to one of the songs they sang, it was of my favorites! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWndDW_271g