11 Aug 2015 Josh’s Story
I am 16 years old. When I was 5 days old my mother passed away while I was sleeping in my crib upstairs. A few years later my dad remarried to a lady who turned out to be an alcoholic. My dad was a college basketball coach and he was on the road all the time. While he was away my stepmother would brutally beat me while my baby sister watched. When I was seven, my dad finally realized what was going on and they got a divorce. I had no respect for people in authority. I was always in trouble or in a fight. Towards the end of 6th grade, I started getting into drugs and got suspended for fighting. One day when one of my best friends and I were riding our bikes a drunk driver hit and killed him. There was nothing I could do. He died instantly in front of me.
A year later, another friend of mine was hit and killed by a drunk driver. I was so overcome with grief that I took a handful of pills and started cutting my wrists, but before I could finish, my dad found me and the next day I was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, which did not help.
In 8th grade, I got kicked out of school so my dad sent me to live with friends in Indiana. I hated it, but they were good people. They loved me and got me through school. Before I left there, a man I called my granddad got very sick and died.
I returned to Florida and my school life included drugs, being expelled several times and many arrests. I was court ordered to House of Hope, which meant having to submit to authority and stay clean, or else it was right back to jail.
I hated the idea of staying clean until I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. Ever since then I have had the strength and will to stay committed to catching up in school, staying clean and living a new life in Jesus Christ. I now feel loved and I have a lot of mothers at House of Hope – who really show me they care.