I was raised in a stable, two-parent, church-attending Christian family. I always felt like something was missing in me and I wasn’t sure what it was or how to find it. As a fifteen year old, I thought I had found what was missing in a new and exciting relationship – I soon became pregnant. My boyfriend was a tech at a pharmacy and stole a drug that was supposed to cause spontaneous abortion, but it did not work. The result was that my baby girl entered the world by emergency c-section weighing only 3 pounds, with several birth defects, and had to have open-heart surgery before her first birthday.

Barely old enough to drive, going to work, going to school, and taking care of a child seemed impossible, until my manager at work introduced me to crystal methamphetamine. For two years I was a functional meth addict, stopped, gained weight, and rationalized my relapse as a weight loss program. Ten years after my addiction started, my dad told me that I had a God shaped hole in my heart and I could keep trying to fill it with everything of the world but it wasn’t going to fit, I needed God. He was right.  I tried rehab my way, only staying clean for 4 months, becoming worse ever. I began to do all the things I said I would never do for drugs, including entering the dangerous world of manufacturing. My house was raided by the authorities resulting in a return to my parent’s home and a life-changing prayer at church.

September 22 - I prayed for God to take my addiction. I was willing whatever the cost.
September 23 - I overdosed and was in the hospital and on life support for 14 days.
October 11 - I entered Alabama Teen Challenge.

Since being at Alabama Teen Challenge I have found a relationship with Christ that I never dreamed was possible. I have learned to make my decisions through Him and based on His Word. Most of all, I have learned to love myself, not based on the number at the top of a scale, or as a man sees me, but the way God does – fearfully and wonderfully made!Psalm 139:14 “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.”

Samantha K.