Victoria opens by saying, “My mom was a heroin addict. I didn’t know what heroin was at the time but I would come home and all our spoons were bent.

We didn’t have much food in the house and I didn’t have any clean clothes to wear so I washed my clothes in a bucket. I was 11 years old. I broke into a house not because I was rebellious but I was hungry and we didn’t have much food, so I stole peanut butter and things to eat.

Sometimes I would go to the hospital to get suckers and that’s what I would eat.

Sometimes I was hungry and I would go to the store and steal stuff or maybe my friend’s mom would give us a little bit of money so we could get a little something to eat.

My father passed away when I was three years old.

Ever since that time my life was like a spiral.

We moved around to various places because my Mom was in an abusive relationship.

When I was 13 my rebellion increased.

I wanted to be good, I wanted structure, I wanted something to look forward to.

I wanted someone to love me. I wanted to be accepted.

I wanted to be in a family that would care for me and would provide for me and show me that they would be there and be reliable. I’ve always had issues.

When I wanted to smoke pot I could do it or I could smoke cigarettes if I wanted to. I didn’t realize that the decisions I made as a teenager would affect me when I became an adult.

I begged my Mom to enroll me in school. We kept going back and forth from place to place.

We didn’t live anyplace more than a year so there’s a lot of gap between school, different places and different people all the time.

I didn’t realize I was acting different. I didn’t realize I became a different person. I didn’t realize what my actions were doing. I spiraled downhill – got a new boyfriend who used also. I ended up getting kidnapped and locked in a motel.

I was so high at the time I didn’t care, but my boyfriend at the time got punched by them. We weren’t threatened but they stole some more stuff but I didn’t care.

I was like God if you are real and you’re here, do something to guide me or do something. I know he did because before that prayer, I ended up going to church with my aunt and watched their Christmas play.

There was a player who said if you haven’t given your life to Christ you can at the end if you want to.

I didn’t know if I really believed in God. I had enough respect that I was going to bow my head and pray when they prayed because if there was a higher power, I was going to respect it.

I took it very seriously. I didn’t realize that God saved me when I prayed that prayer at the church.

I thought I was pregnant so I thought what am I going to do. I ended up trying to go back to school, but that didn’t work out.

Because I was pregnant, I decided to call the crisis pregnancy program at the Phoenix Dream Center.

I know God wasn’t done with me because he heard my prayer.

They’ve helped me with my education here. There are GED classes I can take so I am going to school. They’ll help me try to get housing after I take parenting classes because I don’t know how to be a Mom.

It’s my first child and I don’t know what to do.

They pray with me; they encourage me; help me find housing and a job, and things that I need to do to learn how to live life because I never learned how to live.

I didn’t know how to go to school, and how to be structured. I didn’t know how important it was to have God in my life.

I am 20 years old and learning I need more time to heal. One of the things that I need to learn more is the old me is gone.

When I was baptized and came to Christ that was the new me. I am victorious. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and I will accomplish what needs to be done with God’s help.

I am not the weak person I once was. I can look in the mirror and don’t even recognize myself. There’s been times when I couldn’t look at myself without being disgusted.

Now I can look in the mirror and if I feel bad about myself, I’ll say ‘no, that’s the old person saying that you’re not good enough or feel insecure but the person looking back knows you’re beautiful.’ I know I am loved because Christ loves me.

I’m a work in progress but I’m happy that I’m at the point that I am right now in my life. One step at a time with God. Just one step at a time.