“I was in the foster care system from the time I was five years old until I was 17. During those years I moved from home to home and was raped and molested over and over again, but I never told anybody what was happening. I was too afraid. When I finally got out of foster care, I made so many bad choices: I became very promiscuous and struggled with drugs and alcohol for the next 25 years. For eight of those years, I smoked crack, and it pretty much destroyed my life. My sister always helped me when things got too rough, but when she passed I was on my own. It took her death for me to realize that no one was going to rescue me anymore and that I needed to make a change. That’s when I surrendered to God. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. He took a broken, drug-addicted prostitute and turned me into a woman of God. It was a big surprise to me that he could do that, and I had a hard time receiving it at first, but that’s what happened, and I’ll be forever in his debt. I’ve been clean and sober for 20 years now. I’m working on my GED, writing about my experiences, and getting ready to start an internship at a drug and alcohol treatment facility. I want to help other people who struggle with the same things I struggled with. I want to help them figure out the reasons behind their addictions and get better.”
Adaline is a student at HopeWorks, a career-preparedness program.
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