Crystal’s Christmas Joy— Thanks to You!
As a child, Crystal remembers Christmases being about presents—and only presents. “Christmas wasn’t fun,” she recalls. “There was no love, no hugs, no special feelings, and no joy.”
Almost from the beginning, she faced a rough childhood. When she was 6, she found her dad dead on the floor from a heart condition. To cope, she disconnected from all her emotions. She refused to deal with the trauma in her life—even when she was abused as a teenager.
“I was so disconnected, I didn’t know who I was. I needed someone to show me,” she says. “No one ever did.”
You have given Crystal and her family peace and hope this Christmas!
At 18, Crystal moved in with her boyfriend and started a family. But after they married, he abused her emotionally and physically. After her second child was born, she started using meth with her husband. Before long, it was all she cared about anymore. Her marriage gradually grew worse. So did her addiction.
When her fourth child was born, she knew she needed help. She escaped her marriage, went to rehab, and she got clean and sober. But she hungered for more, so in 2020, she came to Hope Gardens.
“I needed God, and I needed direction,” she explains. “Hope Gardens gave me the chance to be still and quiet, with myself and God. I spent three years there, and they showed me what a real community looked like… what support looks like. Through the classes and programming, they spoke life into me and showed me who I really am—a beautiful mother of four, a child of God, and a very resilient and compassionate person.”
Today, Crystal has been sober for four years. She earned her GED at Hope Gardens and started working at URM. Now, she’s in college, studying sociology to become a social worker, and she is living independently with her four children in Glendale.
Christmas also has a new meaning for her. “It’s not about gifts,” she says. “It’s about love and kindness. It’s about family and togetherness like I found at Hope Gardens. It’s celebrating Jesus and being one with Him.”
“I never felt joy at Christmas before,” she adds. “Now I do. It’s indescribable. It’s security. It’s knowing I have hope and a future for myself and my kids. That’s why I’m so grateful for the donors, and I’ll be forever grateful. This Christmas, I pray that God blesses them, just like they blessed me.”
