Amelia’s Story
My name is Amelia Charles. I’m from Phoenix, Arizona and I’m 18 years old. I was born in Phoenix, Arizona. My dad took me away from my mom when I was 2 and he raised me and everything was perfect I guess you could say. I was daddy’s little girl, but you know I was always missing the feminine side. I was a tomboy and I got into a lot of fights at school – my dad encouraged me so I grew up a fighter, you know. So that’s how it was – life was good.
Though you know my dad got married when I turned 15 and everything went down the drain. He turned to alcohol and became abusive physically, mentally, emotionally… you name it, he did it when I was 17, I would tell him I was going to work and of course I was going to work but I would go to Jaguars the strip club and I’d fight in these strip club boxing rings as a teenager.
At nighttime I’d come home at 3:00 a.m. with a black eye – whatever he didn’t know though, he didn’t care enough to ask. So, it was terrible – I can’t even believe that. I look back on it now and I can’t even believe that I put myself in that position, I saw the girls that were in Human Trafficking and I was basically one of them because I was being paid to show off what I could do at a strip club and that’s not right. So yeah I didn’t like the environment at all but I did it because I loved to fight and I got money for it so that’s why I did it.
Coming into Life Recovery here at the Dream Center, at first – you know, the lifestyle that I came from, it was really hard for me to submit to authority but I worked through it and I’ve changed a lot since I’ve been here. I don’t have as much anger and hostility towards everybody it’s really changed my life and I’ve accepted the Lord into my life for the first time so that’s changed me a lot.
So being here has more than helped me and my baby. At first I couldn’t believe it but now I’m excited and I just want it to be here already so I can start my life because it’s gonna be completely different than how I planned it two years ago. It’s completely different and I’m actually excited.
If it’s a girl, her name’s gonna be Riley Morgan and then if it’s a boy it’s gonna be Caleb Peter after my dad.
So for my life I would really like to get my Education and become a lawyer and I’d really actually like to come back to the Dream Center and be a part of the Community Outreach, because I know that there’s a lot of pregnant women out there that were in the same situation that I was and worse, like Human Trafficking and they need help. I know that I want to come back and help definitely. I definitely want to pursue my dream of becoming a lawyer. But my baby is my number one goal as soon as I get out of here.
I was the worst – I couldn’t even believe that I’ve made it this far because of how I was. I had so much anger and hostility towards everybody. I thought I was gonna get kicked out, I thought I was gonna walk out but you have to be strong for yourself if you really want to change. Then you’ll stick around. That’s what you should do because it will help you and you will succeed.