Hi, my name is Catherine. I don’t know whether my story will help much but I’ll tell it and hopefully it’ll help others. Well when I was a child I was raised by nannies. My parents were both pilots and always out of town. They would be home 3 nights a week then be back off again. I’m the youngest of 3, and there is a pretty big age difference between us. My oldest brother Cody, who is now 48, and my other brother Jonathan who is now 36, I am 26 years old. I could never go on the trips or anything with my family like my brothers did because I was too young. So I had to stay home with nannies and never got to experience much parental love.

I was introduced to drugs at 13. I began smoking marijuana everyday, and after about a year, I yearned for something stronger. I became addicted to both marijuana and acid at the age of 15. However it was getting hard to pay for both, and my other expenses. My parents were still always traveling and the two hundred dollars they would give me weekly to cover, my shopping, grocery, school, friends gas money, etc... Would all be spent on these drugs. I would go at times with no food in the house for days. When I would run out of money I would trade things for drugs.

My parents became aware of my drug problem at the age of 16, when I was caught with possession of marijuana at school. I was sent to juvenile hall for a few days then let go on probation. My parents lowered my allowance and with that I was desperate for money to fulfill my drug needs. I was offered $35 by a 25 year old man to have sex, and I sold myself and my virginity for $35 to a stranger. That began my life of prostitution at the age of 16. I started charging for everything from dates, to oral, to sex. I wasn't happy with it at all, but it got me my acid, and my weed.

One day when I came home stoned and drunk, my dad was there. His flight got cancelled in Chicago and he was able to return home. When he saw me in this state he insisted on doing whatever it takes to change this path that I have chosen and to get me sober again. He moved us to a different city where I didn't know anyone. But I considered my self "extremely lucky" when I got hook ups to acid and weed, the first day of school. So moving didn't help much and in fact encouraged me more because the drugs took me out of my misery.

When my parents realized that moving didn't help either they started coming home more often, but that didn't stop me, I still came home stoned and really didn't care what they had to say, or what they thought. They met a Reverend that lived down the street. My father got advice from him to send me to a treatment center. He still thought of me as a little girl since he didn't get to spend much time with me as a child, so it was very difficult for him to leave me in a treatment center. Instead we started going to church. I still remember that Sunday morning, it was the first Sunday in years where I was sober, almost as if god was calling out to me. When we got to church I indulged every word they said and from that day turned to God for support. At that point I still didn’t want to stop doing drugs, I still liked them, but I just wanted all my problems to disappear.

A few weeks later we went to dinner with my father’s friend, the reverend, and he was accompanied by his son. With his jet black hair, and gorgeous blue eyes, I fell in love at first sight. But Jacob would have never been interested in a druggie like me, and that made him my motivation to quit. The more I thought of him and longed for him the more I hated the drugs, but my body still needed them. I turned to the Lord for support, and told my dad I wanted to be treated.

He sent me to the best Treatment clinic in the state, it was so hard for me that I left and returned three times. My body yearned for the drugs and I couldn’t do without them. But the third time I was there, after 2 weeks, I got an unsuspected visitor. Jacob came and told me he believed in me and that I can make it if I just stick to the steps, and the rules. We hung out for about 2 hours, and those two hours felt better than all the drugs I’ve ever done.

Almost two months later, I left the clinic completely sober and for the first time, not looking for drugs but for Jacob. We ended up getting together a few months later, and got married the next year. And now, four years later I remain drug free. It was very hard at times and even until now I still get days where I want to go back to smoking up, or taking acid, but I steer towards god and ask him to help me out with it. He’s never let me down. I’m happy now, happier than I’ve ever been. I have the world’s most wonderful husband, a great father and mother in law and my father and I have a much better relationship, since I didn’t know him much as a child, and for the first time in my life, I can actually say I’m daddy’s little girl.