Testimonials

NewLife for Women

"I am certain that if it were not for NewLife for Women, my life would be drastically different. When I entered through those doors at 29 years old, I had lost my way. I had just been arrested and charged with nine felonies and spent the last 3 weeks withdrawing from heroin in a cold county jail dorm. My only options were court ordered treatment or prison. I specifically requested NOT to go to a faith-based facility. God had other plans for me. While I was so busy being angry with God, he was still making a way for me.

While at New Life, I was given the tools for recovery. I was given structure and taught how to be accountable. My counselors there poured into me and showed me that I was worthy of a good life no matter how many times I had messed up or made mistakes.

I was once broken and angry. I was selfish and self-centered and a burden to my family and community. Today I am a productive citizen, a trustworthy family member, and a dependable employee. Most importantly, I now have a relationship with God. I will always be grateful to the women that work at NewLife. They empowered me to make a better life for myself."

I came to New Life for Women angry, scared, and broken. I had abused drugs for almost a decade. Recovery doesn’t happen over night, it’s a life time commitment. Mrs.Lauri and the staff at New Life gave me the tools and knowledge to get my life back. I am now 4 years clean and sober! I have all the things I thought I would never have and more! I could never repay them for them showing me love, support, and God’s grace.

On June 7, 2012 I was arrested by my local drug task force for trafficking of methamphetamine. The unimaginable, just became reality. I had gone from a devoted Christian to a criminal. I wasn’t your “typical” drug addict, or so I thought. At the mere age of 15, I began dabbling in drugs and alcohol. From that point on, I lived a double lifestyle. Never, not once, did it cross my mind that the behavior that I was exhibiting was that of an addict’s. You see, I was a “functioning” addict. I had a corporate job, a home, a nice car, a boat, etc. I had a daughter and an amazing supportive family. I had created an appearance that I had my life together. However, I had been living a secret life and it finally had caught up with me. I was at rock bottom. The judge granted me a conditional bond of drug rehabilitation and that is how I found myself at New Life. It wasn’t until I arrived that I realized I had much larger issues than abusing drugs. I learned I had allowed my insecurities and fears to take control of my life. I had been using drugs to cover up all of the messiness inside of me that I didn’t know existed. New Life taught me that I have a voice and most importantly, how to use my voice. New Life taught me how to overcome all of the fears and insecurities that were lying within. New Life gave me hope, and a New Life. A life that I can live without being bogged down by little lies that I create in my own head. A life of serenity and the necessary tools for when it’s out of our control. New Life was and still is a blessing, almost 7 years later.

I was 21 years old and had a 4 month old baby when my husband who was in the Army about to be deployed, suddenly passed away. In no time I had turned to drugs which would almost take everything I had from my daughter and family to even my relationship with Jesus. I was not in a good place at all. Drugs were my new way to cope with life. After going to jail multiple times, I was sentenced to rehab. I did not want to go, I thought I could do it on my own without having to leave my family. However, this time I could not get out of it. I finally got a bed at New Life for Women and it changed my life forever. New Life taught me new ways to cope with life and basically how to live. I got my family back and most importantly, I gained my relationship back with Jesus. After completing rehab, I also completed 18 months of the drug court program. Upon completion of all these things, my felony charges were dropped. I then was able to get into nursing school and I have been an RN for 5 years!!!! I got to watch my daughter grow into a beautiful teenager and was able to purchase a new home!! None of this would have been possible if it hadn't been for God placing me at New Life for Women!!! My time at New Life gave me just that....A brand new Life worth living!!!

My name is Ashley. For ten years my life had been in a downward spiral with seemingly no hope that eventually led me to the Shelby County Jail. I was charged with distribution of methamphetamines in January 2005. I was held without bond and had no possibility of getting out. It was when I was sitting in that cold dark cell that I finally looked up to God and begged for my life. I told Him that if He would get me out of jail that I would become the person He wanted me to be and do whatever He wanted me to do. A week later, after much prayer from my family, I entered New Life for Women. It was here that my life changed. I learned all the necessary coping skills to deal with my problems instead of running to drugs to try and escape them. I learned about my triggers and how to deal with them once I got out of treatment. Most importantly, I learned how to have a true relationship with God. I was raised in church all my life, and I believed in Jesus when I was a little girl, but I never knew how to talk with Him and let Him lead me. Six years ago I was seen as a drug dealer and a menace to society. Today all that has changed. I am a wife and mother and even though I still have many problems, I try and seek the counsel of God instead of turning to drugs. I have a great relationship with my family, which was almost destroyed because of my drug abuse. I am blessed to have been able to give my testimony on several occasions. Nothing is more exciting than watching others find recovery from substance abuse and to watch first hand God’s miracle of forming a new creation in Christ. For many women who have become blinded by addiction, God uses ministries such as New Life to offer them hope, just as He did for me. Without New Life I would be sitting in Julia Tutwiler serving a ten year sentence. However, after five months of treatment, and help from people affiliated with New Life, I was shown mercy and given probation. Romans 8:28 says, “And God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose.” God turned my life into a testimony of His bountiful love, forgiveness, and mercy. Thank you, New Life, for leading me back to Him.

I started taking pain pills in 2005. What started out as taking maybe 2 every 3 or 4 months turned into a 120 pill habit every 3 days! Yes, I said days. You see taking all of those pills turned me into a superhero at work. Well, that's what I was for a very short time. I started making mistakes and I thought I just needed to take a few more pills and I would be fine. I was way too stubborn to ask for help. I knew I was in trouble I just didn’t realize how much trouble. I broke the law by forging a prescription for Lortab. I still thought I could handle this all by myself. I was my own worst enemy. Fast forward to 2007, I was court ordered to rehab. Thank goodness, a counselor from NewLife was representing clients that day. She said, “We will take her as a client.” I learned so much about myself and the love that Jesus Christ has for me. I stayed at New Life for 6 months. The place I went to kicking and screaming turned out to be one of the safest places I have ever been to.
As with all hardheaded, stubborn people I thought I had this addiction licked. I knew that I was going to be okay. Well, it's a great big scary world. I went back to my old ways of getting in trouble by not asking for help. I wound up in jail with no bond and was sent to prison. I FINALLY started realizing what the counselors at New Life always taught me, BE ACCOUNTABLE AND DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ASKING FOR HELP! I got through the next 6 months working on myself. I took my bible with me to prison. In it, I found so many scriptures that I had underlined and studied while I was at NewLife. That's what gave me courage to accept my circumstances and what lead me there.
I have been clean since 2010. I know what my weaknesses are. I strive every day to account for each minute of the day. That means having a schedule and sticking to it. We all know that life can't go according to schedule every day. It's hard, but I am doing it some days minute by minute other days hour by hour.
I thank God every day for NewLife for Women and the awesome counselors that took time to try to make me realize what my triggers are and how to deal with them.
Thank you New Life for my new life! Jer 29:11

I began smoking marijuana at 16 and so began my love affair with drugs. I then chose to use pills and cocaine. This continued until I was 25 years old. I fell in love with my boyfriend, now husband, in 11th grade. We used alcohol and drugs together from the beginning. My marriage was not easy. My husband liked to drink, dope and bar hop. I started messing around with prescription pills. I was blessed with two baby girls just before I was 30. I was able, by the grace of God, to maintain or as the quote goes "be a functioning addict." No such thing! I rationalized my use, after all, I had been deserted by both my parents, was sexually molested, grew up dirt poor, and I loved a man who I felt did not love me. Just excuses! I was prescribed methadone in 2003. After 13 years of using what was prescribed plus street dope, I came to a point that I could not function with or without the dope. I begged my family to help me. I threw down a bottle of pills and, on June 10, 2016 at 56 years of age, came to New Life for Women and my life was changed! I am forever grateful to the staff, counselors, and clients for my experience there. I am most grateful to God for leading me there. May 30, 2017 was 1 year sober for me. We must hold ourselves accountable. We are not our past. We must open our minds to think and feel differently!

I thought for sure that I was a lost cause. At 29 years old, I was in the throws of drug and alcohol addiction, completely empty, completely hopeless, with no end in sight. Then, in January of 2012 I arrived at the doorstep of New Life for Women. I was received with love and was told that I was not a hopeless case, that there was a solution, and that solution came in the form of love. The counselors and staff at New Life did have hope in me. They believed in me when I no longer believed in myself. I was taught to live my life in a whole new way. A way that I didn't know existed. My faith in God was restored and I was given the tools I needed to become the woman God had always intended for me to be. I am proud to say that I am nearly 3 years sober, and God has blessed me with a precious son. None of this would have been possible had it not been for the love and the grace I received at New Life for Women. I am in your debt forever.

I am beyond excited to share what New Life for Women treatment center and God have done for me. I used to be in active addiction, but by the grace of God, I am not anymore! During my addiction, I was so lost in a world that I thought was my happy place. I was living life in the fast lane where I barely chose to see my children, where I barely chose to go into public because I thought people could tell that I was high as a kite, where I barely even knew how to love myself much less anybody else. I would stay up long periods at any place that was available to me (mostly the woods or down some cut road) with not a care in the world. Then there were days that I would say to myself and others that I am not doing this again, after this binge, I am done. That was always a cycle, it never failed. I would always start coming down, crying over my kids, and just how I made my life to be in general, never knowing there was a way out. Let me take that back, I knew my way out, the devil just had me so far gone and deceived that at times I did not want a way out, I just wanted more. I just knew that one day I would have enough money saved up to get my kids and myself a place to stay and then they would be home with me again. Boy didn't that devil have me fooled! I would pray, on the days that I was not too high to remember to pray, for God to help me. I knew God could and would answer my prayers, just in his timing.
I was put on probation in 2014, but stubborn me, I always had a plan to stay clean long enough to pass my drug test the first of the month and then get high afterwards. Well that worked for a little while. I caught charge after charge while being on probation, which did not stop me. I just was honestly making myself more miserable every day, but God answered my prayers February 12, 2016! I was arrested once again on a charge that violated my drug court. I was at the bottom and I had done all there was to do. Enough was enough! I was just about to give up on life itself, but the God I know does mighty things and if He has done it for me I know He can do it for anybody else too. I am so grateful that He chose a sinner like me to restore my life! My children are with me now, I have a job, I have a roof over my head, and most of all I am a recovering addict. I was sent to New Life for Women in Gadsden, Alabama where I learned about drugs, more than I thought I already knew. I learned the tools I needed NOT to use them and when I get triggers and cravings the things to do to stop them. I learned how to love others and myself again. I am forever grateful, every day of my life, because without them I would not be where I am today. There is hope! I am living proof. I have been clean 16 months only because of the Grace of God. I am not happy with my past, but I am forever grateful that I am not where and who I used to be. God placed people in my life to get to me to where I am now and I will always remember what broke me.