“I was lost. Running from my pain and trauma just led me to more pain and trauma,” she remembers. “I’d turned to drugs to cope and survive. It was just a downward spiral. It wasn’t a life I wanted to live anymore.”

Eventually, she decided the best way to escape her drug addiction and past hurts was to go somewhere new and start fresh. So she moved to Chicago. But it didn’t take long for her old life to catch up to her . . . and nearly destroy her. An accidental, life-threatening overdose landed her in the hospital.

“I realized that my life wasn’t going to be any different just because I’d relocated,” she says, looking back. “It was only going to get worse with the choices I was making. Something had to be different.”

In the summer of 2021, Tiffany found Hope Ministries through a Google search and decided to return to Iowa. “I was nervous,” she recalls of her first day at our Hope Center for Women and Children. “But there was a lovely staff member who saw how nervous I was and she prayed for my nerves to be still and for me to trust in the Lord. It helped me so much.”

“It was definitely the first day of the rest of my life,” she adds, “and I knew it.”

That first day led into weeks and months that filled Tiffany with a hope she’d once thought was impossible. In classes, counseling and recovery, she dug deep. “I have perseverance,” she says. “Even in hard situations, I’ll find the good of it and I’ll fight until the good comes to light.”

The good has come to light in Tiffany’s life in so many ways! She’s just a few months away from her two-year sobriety anniversary. She’s excited to be a part of a church family and has reunited with her adult children. She has a full-time job where she was recently promoted to manager and is saving up for her own place. She’s active in a volleyball league and finds time to enjoy her other hobbies, too—frisbee, swimming, Bible studies and walking.

In other words, she’s found the hope and new life she longed for . . . as well as a new dream of someday working at Hope Ministries. “I want to be a part of something that’s so much bigger than me and that was such a blessing in my life.”

But for now, she’s simply grateful for the miracles God has worked in her life . . . and for everyone who made it possible.

“If I could talk to the donors of Hope Ministries, I would say thank you. Your generosity helps so many. I can’t even fathom how much it makes a difference. Without you, there wouldn’t be a second chance, an opportunity to make my life better. Thank you.”