I have a really good life. And I am very aware of the fact that it didn't always look like this. I have known lonely times and homeless times and rejected times and times that I was a mother without her children because I had rendered them up to the world in the throes of a violent addiction. That was almost eight years ago, but if I close my eyes and think for just a second about that other life I used to live...I can actually feel the dark coldness of it. And as bad as that feels, I never want to forget it. Our minds have a way of romanticizing times that were bad, and I never, ever want to forget that last day of my "wilderness experience." I have been gifted with the opportunity to DEMONSTRATE to my children that even if they have issues and problems and make bad decisions that they are ashamed of and think that is just how life is going to be for them, there is always HOPE that they too, can be transformed into new creatures if they are so inclined to SURRENDER to the WORK of Everlasting Transformation. And then I get to SHOW them what Grace and Mercy an Love and Radical Forgiveness looks like! I am so profoundly grateful that things got just as bad as they did because now I am completely and utterly convinced of my need for Restoration, Redemption, and Reconciliation. I require no further testing, evidence, or empirical data proving otherwise!