A Night to Remember

A Night to Remember

On a Saturday night in September my world fell apart when I discovered my seventeen-year-old daughter had stolen my debit card and withdrawn over four hundred dollars from my bank account in order to buy drugs. When we confronted her she slowly began to confess, each detail stabbing at my heart. My husband reported the theft to our bank, and then we called the Police Department and had an officer come out to write up the report. We would be pressing charges against our own daughter for identity theft.

I cried from the depths of my soul. I didn’t think I would live to see daylight, the darkness felt so deep. I thank God for a dear friend who helped us make it through that dark night and the days following. With his help, we contacted a local substance abuse center. They were able to make a referral for Kellye to enter a ninety-day drug rehabilitation center about a hundred miles from our home. Though I was still suffering, I began to realize that positive things might come from this terrible nightmare.

She hated every day in rehab, but she loved her counselor. She learned so much about her addiction, and was finally able to admit that she, indeed, did have a substance abuse problem. She came home a changed person, more like the daughter I had known before the drug abuse. I still have white-knuckle times when she is out with her friends, but I attend Alanon meetings to learn more about coping with loved ones who battle substance abuse

Kellye is seeing a counselor on a weekly basis. She attends twelve-step meetings and has a wonderful sponsor, who works with her daily. Her court date is in January. The judge has assured us she will only get probation, which is what we hoped for. The probation officer will be another person in her life to whom she must answer, and she will have regular drug screenings as part of her probation. What a blessing from God! I'm so thrilled that all of this change came about just before her eighteenth birthday in January. I shudder to think what paths she might have chosen had we not been been awakened to the truth while she was still a minor, allowing us so many more options.

The night I wept and felt myself falling into a deep pit of despair turned out to be the turning point for my daughter. The Lord had His plan, and He set it in motion that night. The evidence of this was never clearer to me than last night. My thirteen year-old son got into an argument with his dad. Kellye got so upset, she said she had to get out of the house and go for a walk. She walked to a friend’s house, and on the way she passed by a place where she could have easily scored some drugs. Instead, she called her sponsor and talked with her a long time. When she called me she was crying and shaking at the realization of what she almost did. Seeing her make the smart choice on her own was the highlight of my year, no contest.

Pat Nelson
December 22, 2010
Word Count:568