Emerging from the Darkness: From Helping Others to Needing Help
For a long time, Jessica didn’t have a space of her own. She had been living with her parents, sharing rooms with her children and doing her best to make things work as a single parent. But recently, everything changed.
Jessica and her partner got married and were able to move into a four-bedroom house. But this was more than just a move. For the first time, each child had a bed and a room of their own. That was something Jessica had prayed for: a space where each child could feel safe, secure and at peace.
Both Jessica and her husband work for nonprofits, so money has always been tight. Thanks to the generosity of a couple connected to her workplace, the family found affordable rent. And thanks to Furnish Hope, they were able to turn their empty house into a real home.
Jessica works as a case manager at Shepherd’s House Ministries, where she walks alongside women rebuilding their lives after addiction, mental health struggles and homelessness. She’s also 9½ years sober herself. She knows firsthand what it means to fight for healing and how transformative it can be to simply feel safe.
But in this season, she found herself on the other side of the equation.
“It was incredibly humbling to look at my life and say, you know, I’m struggling right now, and I need to reach out for help. But now that I have my own space, I feel a lot more peace. I feel stability. I feel relief, hope and joy.”
“We say it all the time - housing, furniture, food…these are basic needs. When those aren’t met, everything else suffers. But having a safe place to land is life-changing.”
It’s nearly impossible to parent, work or serve others when you're in survival mode. Thanks to Furnish Hope, Jessica and her family now have the stability they need to keep moving forward.