HERE’S MY STORY
I grew up in Monitor, Oregon in a farming community. I would say I had a pretty normal life, but there were things that happened that were not normal. When I was a young girl I was sexually molested by multiple relatives. If I could guess at what age it happened I would say about 5 years old, and it lasted until I started my menstrual cycle, so until I was 13. That exposed me to a warped way of thinking and living.
I was raised as a Jehovah Witness by my mom. I remember having to get dressed up to go to the Kingdom Hall, and also go out door to door. I disliked it so much that I used my anger to my advantage to not have to go. I would throw temper tantrum’s so wildly to the point where my mom would leave me home with my dad because of how bad my attitude was. I don’t know the exact time, but maybe when I was about in 6th grade we stopped going to the Kingdom Hall. We never went to any other church after that.
As I got older, I found myself getting in trouble shoplifting, running away, and following after the wrong crowd of people. I was introduced to drugs like marijuana, alcohol, and methamphetamine at age 15.
I ended up dropping out of school my freshman year and I became a teen mom in 2004 when I was 17 years old. My life was a mess. I was not a good mom. I would leave my son with my parents while I continued in the “party life”.
Because of my way of living, my parents kicked me out of the house for a couple of months and they told me that in order for me to come back, I needed to get off drugs and get a job. So I secretly stopped using drugs and decided to come home. My dad took me to apply for several jobs in the Silverton area. I was hired at a meat packing factory in Silverton and that’s where I met my now husband – Daniel Padilla. That was back in 2006.
In 2011 my husband and I had our first son together. On and off I continued using meth and living selfishly. In 2015 we had our last son together. It wasn’t until a year after my third son was born when I went full-blown meth addict. I started smoking meth every day and mixing it with marijuana and hard alcohol, packs of cigarettes and constantly leaving the house. I started losing my mind. I would have psychotic episodes of flaring anger and just crazy radical behavior. It kept getting worse and worse. I was physically destroying my life and relationships.
At one point I started thinking about how I was going to kill myself. I just wanted to get out.
At the beginning of 2017 I hit a rock bottom. I was desperate and knew I needed help. That’s when I asked God to help me. I remember calling out to Jesus to help me. God is real, and He heard me that day.
That was just the beginning of my journey. I went through several rehab programs, where I got kicked out of one for my behavior, and another one where, as soon as I completed it, I went back to using drugs. It wasn’t easy. I couldn’t stop. I was getting desperate. But God never gave up on me.
November 14, 2017 is when my husband drove me up to a Woman’s discipleship program in Rainier, Oregon called Mountain Ministries. That is where Jesus Christ saved my life. It was a year-long program. I spent that time, reading the word of God daily, and listening to God‘s word on a CD player on my downtime. I was taught to live life with God in it everyday. God did a radical awakening in me where I was hungry for the His Word.
After completing 13 months at Mountain Ministries, I moved back home where I was quickly in the battle field, but this time I had Jesus helping me. I started memorizing large portions of Gods word and using it to direct my thoughts on what is true and to fight off the temptations. (Psalms 91)
I have new desires now. God has put it in me to go out and tell others the good news about the salvation that He offers only through what His Son Jesus Christ did. Jesus Christ came and died for the sin of the world, and then He rose again from the dead on the 3rd day! Jesus defeated death! He loves us so much that He made a way for us to be saved. God calls everyone to repent from their sins, and to trust in Jesus.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I will continue to live my life running to Jesus and shout from the rooftops the amazing things that God has done! I pray that whoever reads this will have a desire to repent from their sins and put their sincere trust in Christ Jesus alone. “For by Grace you have been saved, through faith and not of yourself, it is a gift from God, not of works lest anyone should boast”. Ephesians 2:8-9
Thank You Jesus my Savior!
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