The Family Afterward
Graduate Achievement Award Winner
Laurie grew up in Hunterdon County, NJ, in a middle class neighborhood, the child of a single mother. At age 12 she started to "taste" the leftovers from one of her mother’s parties. They did not taste good, but Laurie liked the way they made her feel. Soon she was sneaking drinks from the family liquor cabinet, getting a high as often as she could. Before long she moved on to marijuana, then by the age of 14 the drug of choice was ecstasy. In order to support this habit, the next step was shoplifting and stealing.
On the outside, Laurie was an athletic teenager, involved in basketball, softball, horseback riding and even dirt biking, typical activities for a young girl in the country. She got good grades in school – no one knew what was going on when she was outside the public eye. Following a sports injury, she became hooked on prescription pain killers. She attended a local community college, earned grades that allowed her to make Dean’s List and secure a good job – as a pharmacy technician. Of course this made for easy access to the drugs she craved.
Laurie came down fast. She turned to the streets, living out of a car with her boyfriend. Stealing became a way of life in order to support her habit. She had lost all hope. A point came when she found out she was pregnant. Then she lost custody of her baby when the child was only 12 days old.
Although angry and resentful, Laurie went to rehab. The baby was placed with her mother and she was allowed to have supervised visits. After her stay in the half-way house, she had to find a way to gain full custody of her baby and live in the outside world successfully. During a meeting with DYFS someone mentioned The Family Afterward program. Laurie realized this was her last chance to prove that she was ready to be recognized as a mother and not a drug addict.
The day that she was accepted into The Family Afterward program, was "the happiest day of my life." Laurie recalls, "They made me feel good for who I was today, not to regret who I was yesterday. For the first time as an adult, I knew what hope felt like." The Family Afterward helped Laurie learn to live in recovery, get her driver’s license back, purchase a car, as well as close outstanding DYFS cases and find a full time job, but most importantly, make Laurie a mom again.
This past February, Laurie celebrated two years clean and sober. "It was an amazing journey. Today, I smile constantly, laugh often and live every day with no regrets. I have my own apartment. I work full time and I HAVE MY DAUGHTER BACK."