I was hooked on crack cocaine for five years, powdered cocaine for a good twenty years. I didn't think I had a problem cuz I was working. I never thought I was homeless because I had a car and I could store all my stuff in it and it was an SUV so I could sleep in it -- it was my home.

Thank you to my Saving Face and by the grace of God I am clean of drugs today.

It tore apart my family separated me from my children and my family.

I was adopted the day I was born so for a long time I was lost and I always felt a piece of my life was missing. So I did drugs to bury my pain that nobody could understand or at least I thought nobody could understand, period.

Today I am clean. Just a little over 10 years I bought a house, I own a car and have a great job. I have found my biological family. On my mother's side, I have two sisters and two brothers. On my father's side, I have two sisters and one brother plus countless nieces nephews and cousins that I'm still finding out about.

I never thought there would be a day where I could actually look in the mirror and love the person that was looking back at me. Today I can do that.

I'm so thankful for what I have today. It wasn't easy to get here, but with a great support group and a homeless and Indigent Christian Ministry that I just happened upon one day literally saved my life.

Don't ever give up hope. Don't ever be numb to the problem at hand. Do your research, know what your kids are doing, make time for them to sit down and spend an hour a day talking about how their day went. It's a difficult thing to get them to do, especially if you're single parent, but it's something that we must do. You need to take time for your kids. You're an adult. You need to tell them to sit down and talk.

There's a thing out there called tough love and sometimes that's the hardest thing to do is to give them that tough love... but do it!!!!! In the end it will be worth it!!

How do I know this???

I'm standing here and I am no longer an addict.