Amy

Amy tried to hold 2-year-old Austin out of harm's way as her husband swung at her. She used her other arm to shield her unborn baby.

Addicted to drugs and abused repeatedly by her husband, Amy was forced to flee her home and leave her son behind to enter a detox center. Members of her church recommended Open Door's Christ-based recovery programs and Amy put her name on our waiting list. Six weeks later, February 10, she moved into Lydia House.

"When I came here, I thought I had it all figured out and I'd wonder, 'Why can't they see I'm the most important person here?'" Amy jokes.

Soon Amy was digging into ODM's classes about emotional responsibility and learning more about herself, her addiction and her behavior. "It's been awesome," she says. "Before, it was hard to even think about coping or changing. But I've learned God loves us and forgives everything. I need to be right with Him, walk in His way and in His timing."

April 6, Amy's baby was born without a flaw! "It was God totally that Caleb survived the drugs and my husband's abuse," says the young mother. "Open Door Mission helped me with parenting classes and gave me a bassinet, diapers - everything we needed."

Better yet, says Amy, Caleb will grow up hearing God's Word and surrounded by good people. "I can't imagine how I would be caring for Caleb without the Mission."

Amy marvels at how her thinking has changed since coming to Open Door. "I used to ask myself, 'How am I not going to get hurt?' or 'How am I going to get high?' I don't think minute to minute anymore. I set goals and plan what I'm going to do with my life."

One of Amy's goals is to locate her husband and son, Austin. Throughout her stay at the Mission, she has prayed for Austin and tried to find him, but, she says, "The phone was disconnected and I've learned they left the house we were renting."

Even in times of uncertainty, Amy's thinking has changed. "Now I give it to God and ask Him how He can use me. I want to be available for Him." Amy

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