It was late November of 2018 when I moved into the Recovery Home. I remember it quite well because a week later I celebrated my baby girl’s first birthday. The overpowering gratefulness of having somewhere of our own to take her presents shook my being.

Prior to moving into the Recovery home, I had just gone through a horrific separation and heading towards divorce.

I barely had a job, definitely had no money, and was raising my baby in my parents’ crowded household. I hated and resented the fact that life around my daughter was so unstable.

But resiliency has always been one of my strengths so I kept pushing, believing that faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not yet seen. God was making away. And He did.

It is now august of 2021, my daughter has celebrated 3 birthdays in this house, and each time that grateful feeling came back to my heart as I drove her gifts home.

I have learned to budget money, I even learned to speak in front of people, turns out I’m a pretty good teacher. I started a degree in metaphysics and plan to use it towards life coaching. I also gained a promotion in my career and will be a boss this year!

But most of all I have become a woman that my daughter can look up to. I type all these things that I have accomplished and I remember the little girl I was at the beginning of this journey, no confidence or self-esteem. God has brought me so far and I thank him for all the people who supported me as well as guided me along the way.

I send peace, love, and abundance to all the men and women who get to call the Recovery House their home. May It always be a place of transformation and enlightenment.  May they also gain the knowledge that there is nothing you can’t do with Christ!

Sincerely, Shayla Ausmus