Stephanie - 2019 Graduate
She just graduated from South Georgia House of Hope this summer. But, freedom was not always where she lived...
Stephanie Kelley comes from what would described as a “normal” home. Her dad, mom and siblings loved her. She remembers being fifteen years old, having friends and preparing for the tenth grade. Then something happened that rocked her world. Maybe it shouldn’t have, but it did.
Stephanie’s dad got another job in another city and state. It was a real step up.
Who could have known that the move would open the door for upheaval in her life. “It had nothing to do with my family,” she says. “It had everything to do with my
choices.” Stephanie hid the fact that she was angry for moving. Her anger grew and she became rebellious.
To cover the loss of her friends, and lack of happiness, she turned to alcohol and marijuana.
She made all new friends, with all the wrong people.
“The enemy found a way to steal my future from me. My son, my career, my education,” she says.
At 15, Stephanie began a slow and painful fifteen year downward spiral. By twenty-one, she was an alcoholic. “I woke up wanting a drink, I drank all day long until I passed out.” She would go to the club each day. She couldn’t keep a job.
Attempting to find her life, she enrolled in college but eventually was forced to drop out. Her heart was not in it. “My family did everything they possibly could for me.”
By 22, Stephanie was pregnant. She eloped with the father, “I just felt like we should get married.” That marriage lasted four months after her son was born. She was abandoned and was alone with her son.
Stephanie was 23, with an infant son and didn’t know what to do. She went back to college. Through sheer strength of will, she had quit the alcohol during her pregnancy. In school, she gave it all she had. She was making it until...
One day she had to have surgery on her wrist and the doctor prescribed pain pills. It was then she got introduced to adderol. “Adderol gave me energy to cope with the grinding schedule of college.” She found a doctor who would give her the highest dosage legally available each month. In a few days, she had used up her month’s supply. Her month’s prescription lasted four days. By day five, she was desperate. There were always people who would sell her their prescription. It took a lot of money to buy drugs for the remainder of the month.
By God’s grace, Stephanie graduated college and landed a great job, had her own home, her son and was on top of the world. But she had a secret addiction.
Then her boyfriend of four years introduced her to meth. “Meth became an everyday part of my life, every hour of every day. I went days without eating because I had no money for food. I remember looking for change at the grocery store parking lot, just so I could buy some chicken nuggets at Burger King for $1.25.” Finding that $1.25 could take hours.
At that point, Stephanie began living out of her car. Embarrassed and ashamed, she left her son with her parents, having lost everything she had. “I started breaking into abandoned houses looking for places to sleep, I was arrested a few times.”
“I was death warmed over. I needed help. I knew I would end up dead. My family found the South Georgia House of Hope."
At the House of Hope, all the emotions Stephanie had numbed with drugs through the years, came alive. “I remember feeling peace for the first time in years.” She stopped worrying about finding a place each day to sleep. She stopped worrying about her son. She ate regular meals. “I began to learn about relationship,” she says. “I trusted no-one. I heard voices that weren’t there. Slowly, I began to know how much Jesus loved me. I admitted my anger toward God. As I learned to trust the staff, I also learned to trust God.” It was hard for her to believe that the staff had her best interests at heart. "Every day was an emotional roller-coaster, one moment laughing and crying the next.”
“Also, I was not used to hugs. But Director, Sharon Wagner would hug me and I slowly began to melt.” She learned routine, being responsible, getting up on time, how to clean, make her bed, how to pull weeds and cut grass! “All these things,” she says, “built character.”
Today, Stephanie has graduated the program and is in Re-entry, where she is slowly being acclimated to the outside world. She assists the staff, helps the ladies, works and learns leadership skills. And, she looks forward to returning to dermatology and her son!