In God We Trust

Cora felt battered by life and by love. For 10 years she had struggled to hold her family together despite abusive relationships and her own addiction to alcohol. But when she was injured in a car accident while riding with a drunk driver, the state removed the children from her custody.

For a while Cora drifted. Her children were gone, her husband was in jail, and she was homeless and alone. Finally at a Christian shelter in Chicago, Cora gave her life to Christ and decided to trust God to direct her life.

Last fall, Cora regained her children and moved to Des Moines to live with a friend. When the arrangement didn’t work out, the family moved to a local shelter but could stay only a few days. Then she found Hope Family Center.

Hope Family Center offered Cora and her children a homelike environment and nourishing meals each day. The long-term, Christ-centered recovery program allowed Cora to work on her addiction while attending life-skills classes that would help her provide a more stable home for her family. She also enrolled in Celebrate Recovery, a Christian support group at Point of Grace Church.

“The staff at Hope Family Center gave me the push I needed, but I didn’t like it at the time,” Cora admits today. “Now I realize the stability we have today is, in part, because they pushed me, gave me guidance and the tough love I needed.”

Cora struggled with helping her sons, both diagnosed with ADHD and other health issues, manage school. Her daughter, 13, missed the stability of a father in the home.

“At one point I told God, ‘I can’t do this!’ I had to surrender the boys’ problems to Him and He provided me with medical cards to help with expenses!” she says.

Today, Cora and the children trust God to help them create a stable, loving home. “This is a waiting and discerning time for me,” Cora explains. Each day, she unloads semi-trucks to pay the bills and each week she continues to attend Celebrate Recovery. Recently, another group member paid her outstanding traffic tickets so she could get her driver’s license! “I’m going where God tells me to go from now on,” she says.