“I have been clean for seven years. My car is a 2012, and I live in a trailer, but behind my front door is peace, love, and happiness—a family life I never imagined I would have. I tell my kids that they messed up getting Angel Klemas for a mama because they won’t be able to get away with anything. I am raising them in a Christian home and giving them a foundation in Jesus.

My daughter is turning 12. I started using drugs at that age. I am scared for her and do a lot of praying. It’s a lot different today than it was back then, but I am honest with my kids and try to teach them from the stupid things I did so they don’t have to do it.

When I was a dopehead, there were a few pillars in my life who were kind to me. A little bit of nice goes a long way, and they made me feel like somebody who could do good. I now try to be a pillar in other lives. My husband and I are over Celebrate Recovery at our church and have anywhere from four to 54 in our group. I tell them they could walk out of here right now and relapse, but they aren’t promised another recovery. Sometimes one more time is the last time. There are some in our classes who don’t make it. They overdose and die.

My passion is helping young mamas be restored to their kids. I want them to know that somebody cares about them and is trying to understand what is really happening instead of labeling them convicts, bad mothers, or junkies. The shame and guilt are already there. We do bad all by ourselves. There’s nothing you can say or do to hurt me that I’ve not already said or done to myself. I just need to be heard.

There are a lot of people in addiction who need help in Mobile. We need more rehabs and to make it cheaper and easier for people to enter them. A lot of people can’t afford intake fees for rehab, but a few rehabs are free. Court-ordered rehab also needs to be longer than 90 days because three months isn’t long enough for brains to rewire.

We also need more transitional houses that teach you how to function in life without substances and keep a job. Finding a job is also difficult for people with felonies. I have five felonies, and it is hard to find a job, let alone a career. I applied for a job at a laundromat, but when she asked what I had been in trouble for, she looked me in my eyes and said, ‘We can’t have somebody like you working here.’ That discouragement could have once been more than enough to throw in the towel and go back to that life. The Lord miraculously erased some of my felonies and blessed me with an amazing career.

I think the Lord has sympathy for addicts because the battle is unreal.  Being in the recovery ministry, you have to show everybody the same grace whether they come in one time or 12 times.  You can’t give up and walk away, because then what?

 I give God all of the glory that I am here today.  Life is still hard, and If it was just me doing this, I would have fallen back into addiction a long time ago.  But my worst day now is so much better than my best day in addiction.  I still go through storms, but now I have an anchor for my soul. That is where I find peace.”

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September is National Recovery Month. We have so much to learn from people in recovery or family or friends who lost a loved one to a drug overdose, so I am going to share some of these stories over the next four weeks. If you have a story of recovery, substance use disorder, or losing someone you care about to an overdose, message me because I would like to hear it.