When I got here I was pretty broken. The staff, the environment, just this place:  there’s something about this place. It’s magical. Coming here today also: I’m filled with emotion because it just gave me something that just rocked me to the core of my being.

The thing that I really loved the most is the room where I stayed.  It was upstairs and it felt like I was in a home. I wasn’t in an institution; I wasn’t in a hospital. I liked smelling the food cooking in the morning and just knowing that someone is downstairs below me. It gave me comfort knowing that the people around me are suffering from the same disease and we’re all here for each other.

The staff knew exactly what was going on with me. They worked around the clock with me. There was always somebody in the office. Being that the staff has come from a place where most of us have been: I appreciated their knowledge and their compassion for us.

The benefit for my family was the understanding of my disease. They understood that they weren’t responsible for me, my actions, or my disease. They took care of themselves around me and my disease of addiction. Also they learned a lot about codependency from coming here on family days in the groups.

It’s helped mend the relationship between me and my mother immensely. My daughter and I have a relationship that is just unbelievable. I’m able to be her mother and a grandmother to my grandchildren. I’m able to be the daughter that my mother deserves to have. For my brother: I’m the sister that he’s always wanted to have in his life. My family members are just grateful.

Words that can’t explain how they feel and there’s much gratitude towards Mountain Vista Farm. Trust: that’s what it was. I really gained back the trust from  my family members.

My mother you know answers the phone now saying, “Hi honey!” And not, “Oh what do you want now?”

My daughter just heard me repeating things like “I’m gonna change, I’m gonna change…” and you know I’ve shown her that I’ve taken action.  I’ve taken the action and taken the steps to being trustworthy and being able to win their trust back.

I’ve had a long battle with it: Getting clean, getting sober, relapsing, and getting clean, getting sober, and relapsing. Then I finally took the right steps to get professional help I knew I needed. I couldn’t stay home and try to do it. I needed to come to a place where people knew what was going on with me. I had to be around people that were going through the same thing as me to get the support and the love and the compassion to do this.

So, I have a message of hope. We can get out, we can beat this. I’m here to tell you that the lie is dead, we do recover. If you also need help, seek help as soon as you can.