Throughout my addiction, my daughter had been taken from me. I had simply put my selfishness first. This did not help me by any means, in fact, my life fell faster, and had gotten darker. This affected me in a negative way. As a man and father, I am supposed to protect my family and my loved ones, not let them down or fail them as a parent and fiancé. The devil had literally taken me captive by leading me in the wrong direction and filling my life with nothing but shame and guilt. At this point in my life, my fiancé and I had decided that enough was enough. We were going to absolutely do whatever it took to get our daughter and our family back together. So, we went into recovery at a rehab facility in Portsmouth OH. Our plan for recovery went well for some time until it didn’t. For some reason after all the effort we had put into our recovery, the miserable detoxing from the drugs and alcohol, the time we had spent away from loved ones due to the 5 hours away we went for recovery, we simply decided to experiment another night. Just that one more time we always talked about. Well, this decision we had made changed my life forever. That night on May 25, 2023, at 10:35pm I lost my love, my best friend. My better half had overdosed and passed away in my arms. I felt her take her last breath, and saw life leave her beautiful eyes. After 32 minutes of CPR, and waiting on the ambulance, I was unable to bring her back. Right then and there I was going to die next and to be honest, I was ok with that at the moment. For days on end I cried, screamed, and begged for someone to help me for I was ready to give in, and I tried to do just that. But God had better plans for me. He had sent my probation officer an idea, whom I had absolutely ignored for some time, to incarcerate me at the county jail. I was truly upset with her at the moment but came to find out she did this out of worry for me. This lady had actually cared whether or not I made it through this. This was for sure God’s work. While incarcerated I had become closer with the Lord, realizing my Father isn’t done with me just yet. He’s only getting started with me and is preparing me for something better down the road. Which he absolutely did. He did this by giving me the opportunity to be at Family Care Ministries as a student not a prison number. I was saved by our Lord Jesus Christ and have been blessed by many others, like the Lytle’s and all of God’s children here at the ministry and other churches. Today my relationships with my children, my mother and my friends have become stronger and filled with love, peace and joy. Today I have been forgiven and washed free of my sins. Because of my faith in Jesus, I can simply live free and continue to build my relationship with my God. And I truly can’t thank this ministry enough, they have led me back to life.