AMAZING STORY
Rehabbed Mom Graduates with Honors
By Amy Reid
The 700 Club
CBN.com
–"I had track marks, literally, from my feet to my neck. I was covered. It was a quick, easy high. And it was something that I could do anywhere," recalls Samantha. "It consumed every part of my life."
Samantha Mosley started using drugs when she was twelve years old as a way to fit in. By the time she was eighteen, Samantha was a hardcore drug addict. She ran away from home and got involved in an abusive relationship with a man twice her age.
Samantha remembers that time. "He introduced me to harder drugs where I became addicted to crack cocaine. I began doing anything to feed my addiction, and I ended up getting arrested for possession of drugs."
Samantha was six months pregnant and high when she went to jail.
"When I was there, it was summertime and it was hot and I didn't want to go outside for recreation. And the alternative was to go to a chapel service. When I started to go and hear about God and Jesus and His forgiveness and His love something pricked my heart and I knew that there was something greater," says Samantha. "And I just started praying and my prayers were so simple, but it was, 'God, I need to get out of here. I need to do something better with my life for my child. I don't want to have my baby here.'"
Samantha reached out to her parents for help.
"They started looking for programs," Samantha says, "But everywhere that they found said I could come, but once I had my baby I would have to leave. And I knew that wasn't an option and I knew I needed somewhere that I could have my child with me."
Then Samantha's mother learned about New Life Home for Women and Children, a rehabilitation program sponsored in part by CBN. The program allows mothers to bring their children as they go through recovery.
"She got all the information and sent it to me and I just started praying. I used to just sit and stare at the picture of the house," Samantha recalls. "And I said, 'This is where I'm going to be.' And one day I just knew in my heart that that was going to happen."
Samantha went directly from jail to the program.
"I will never forget, I pulled up to the front of the house, and when I got out of the car, there were two staff just standing outside and they just embraced me. And it was just the most incredible feeling because they just loved me," Samantha remembers. "Back then I didn't know what it was, but I know it was the love of Christ that just -- it embraced me; it consumed me. And it was like that same consuming feeling with the drugs, but it was love and it was something I never experienced before in my life."
Samantha gave her life to Christ. After her daughter was born, she started planning for the future.
"I had my GED, I never went to high school, but I really wanted to help women and I knew, through the encouragement of grace and the staff here, that going back to school would be the best way to just even achieve those goals."
Samantha chose to attend Regent University's online program to get her Bachelor's degree in Counseling.
"Regent University just offered me the opportunity to be able to go to school online, to get a degree in a secular discipline of psychology with a Christian basis, and be able to take care of my daughter. Even though I was an online student, I still felt like I knew my teachers and I could talk to them if I had an issue or a problem, or if I just needed clarification on something. I loved learning Psychology with a Christian foundation." says Samantha.
Samantha graduated with Honors from Regent University in May 2012. Today, she is an active mother and works to counsel other women in the recovery program at New Life Home.
"I don't have to live under that stigma of, you know, 'I'll be a drug addict for the rest of my life.' I've been set free," says Samantha. "And I think walking in that truth and that newness of life is what changes us. And knowing that we don't have to be those people from the past, that we do have an opportunity and a second chance at life that only comes through Christ."
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