IRIS
My name is Iris and I am a 33 year old mother of three children, Rose 14, Jesse 13, and Angel 9 months old. In 2009, I went into a 6 month faith based in patient program. If you ask me now, I would say it was one of the best things I could have done with my life. There I build a foundation and a relationship with Jesus Christ. I did good for a couple of years but because I still held on to the things of this world, I started becoming distant with God and Church. In May 2013, it was official. I was pregnant with my baby girl which at the time, I didn't have a clue about what I was going to do. If I was going to keep her or not. Months went by and as I started getting bigger and bigger, I didn't have the heart to have an abortion so I started using drugs. Now I know the reason why I started using again was because I was self medicating myself. I didn't want to face my problems. During my whole pregnancy, I would cry out to God Jesus and would ask Him to help me to take this desire for drugs out of my life. I didn't want to live my life like that anymore. Little did I know that God had His plan for me. He answered my prayers to have Him never leave my side. The whole time He had been there with me. On February 23, 2014, I gave birth to my baby girl Angel. Unfortunately, she was not able to come home with me. She was put into foster care because during the last three months of my pregnancy, I started using drugs due to depression and other problems I was going through at the time. Due to my drug use during the time I gave birth to my baby, I now have an open case with D.C.F.S. (Department of Children and Family Services). I was asked to do a six month drug program with individual and group counseling, random drug testing and some parenting classes. So that's why I enrolled into MELA Counseling Services Center. Due to MELA, I learned a lot of life time skills in how to live a normal, healthy life. I made new friends and most of all, I learned all the tools that I use now in my every day life. Thanks to this program, I was able to get back custody of my baby and in six months from now, I should be going back to court to have my case closed. I thank my dear God for his Love and Mercy and I know it is because of Him I did everything I needed to do get my baby back. I know I want to serve the Lord.