A Whole New Life: A Mother Stepping Out in Faith and Finding Restoration

Sadly, this is a question that’s all too familiar for many of the mothers who come into our Family Care program with their children, and this was the question Melissa was now asking herself.

Melissa and her two sons—one being 13 years old and the other 2 months old at the time—were fleeing from an environment that was abusive and dangerous. She didn’t know of anywhere safe they could go, only that they couldn’t stay there.

In mid-December, Melissa packed everything she could into her car, buckled her sons in, and drove them away from their home.

Not knowing of any overnight shelters that were nearby, she and her boys would find somewhere to park and try to sleep in the cramped car. Even though they were in Florida, temperatures still dropped to freezing.

Night after night, Melissa asked herself the same question: Do we stay here, in an area we know but where we have to keep sleeping in the car, or do we risk driving somewhere else and hope to find something better?

Trusting better opportunities awaited her family, she chose to move on and leave the state entirely.

“We slept in my car for four nights before we decided to come to Georgia to find somewhere safe to be,” Melissa shares.

She and her family drove to McDonough, where they had been accepted into a domestic violence shelter. The shelter gave them a safe place to stay each night, something Melissa was grateful for. But unfortunately, the location only served families on a temporary, short-term basis. It met their current needs, but they had to keep exploring choices for when their time there ran out.

The shelter and Melissa worked together to find the best option for her family and make sure they were taken care of. The shelter even extended how long she and her sons could stay.

Fortunately, they got in touch with GBCH&FM and worked with our Family Care program to submit Melissa’s application to come to the Meansville campus. As she sat with our team for an exploratory interview, Melissa remembered feeling like she and her situation were just too much for anyone to work with.

“I had so many things going against me,” Melissa says. Being a survivor of abuse, she had a number of health concerns that, in her mind, made her case feel so overwhelming that no one would try to help.

“I wasn’t functioning right. I was in so much pain, and I couldn’t see out of one eye, and I had a lot of other mental and emotional problems.”

Even so, she and her sons were accepted into our Family Care program in February.

Our team immediately started to get Melissa the services she needed. Melissa had doctor’s appointments and therapy sessions to address her needs. When she was too anxious to go alone, staff members came alongside her to attend appointments and be with her through it all.

One of the more significant challenges was Melissa’s inability to see out of her left eye, a terrible reminder of the past she so desperately wanted to leave behind.

While the physical limitations Melissa experienced from her lack of vision were difficult, her blindness also affected her mentally and emotionally. “I was very insecure and it bothered me in so many ways,” she shares. “I just felt like, ‘What can I be good at? I’m not good at anything that I used to be good at without my eyesight.’”

Melissa’s blindness was determined to be the result of a detached retina, an issue that could possibly be solved through surgery. But, her doctors admitted there was a very low chance the procedure would be successful in restoring her sight. Furthermore, even if the operation was a success, it would take months of recovery and healing for her vision to be restored.

Melissa weighed her options, scared of going through a surgery that may not help her, but also wanting to see again. What if she couldn’t do anything for months? Could she afford to sacrifice so much time that could be spent helping ensure her family doesn’t end up homeless again? What if the recovery took longer than a few months?

After prayerfully thinking through her scenarios, Melissa chose to move forward and have the procedure.

In early June, she was taken in for surgery, where her doctors and medical teams were able to successfully reconnect her retina. Now it was time to wait and see if her sight would return.

During this period, Melissa remembered how staff members and the other families in our Family Care program stepped up as a community to serve her family. “Everyone here, they prayed for me, they supported me, and they were really here for me and my boys through all of it,” she says.

After four months of slow recovery, the surgery was found to have been a success. Melissa could see out of both eyes again.

“I am full of joy,” Melissa says. Not just because she regained her vision, but because of everything that’s been done for her and her sons.

“I’ve never had this much support in my whole life. It makes a big difference.”

With the guidance and care from our team as well as the other families in the program, Melissa’s life has completely turned around. In addition to the trauma and medical concerns she first arrived with being addressed, she’s also been able to get a job and grow closer to Christ.

“My strength and everything that I’ve been through is because of my faith,” she says. “God has brought me through everything and He’s not even done bringing me through more.”

Ultimately, Melissa’s goal is to go back to school and pursue a career in the healthcare industry so she can help others. But for now, she’s celebrating the significant progress that she’s already made, and continuing to get the help she needs.

Melissa affirms how her journey has allowed her and her family to start over. “It’s like we got a new chance to have a new family. A whole new life,” she says.

“I’m just really blessed to be here.”

Your support makes stories like Melissa’s possible. Thank you for giving children and families a place to call home. You can learn more about our Family Care program at www.GeorgiaChildren.org/Family-Care.