Woman turns addiction into ministry

According to the Joplin Globe Juliet (Hardee) Rose was born into an addiction from a heavily-drinking mother and a drug-addicted father. As a troubled 16 year old, she took off for Las Vegas and survived as a prostitute. The article goes on to say she was a "functioning addict", had three failed marriages and had her two children taken away. She hit her all time low when she was arrested for the ninth time on 11 felony charges. Since then she has turned her life around and has started a ministry where she can use what she has been thru help other people in the same situation.
When I read this story I was brought to tears. This woman, after everything she had been through, had the courage to pick herself back up and use her failures, as a witness to other people that were hurting in the same way. What a remarkable story.
This lady had been brought up in a home where drinking and drugs were acceptable and obviously had no stability. When she ran away to Las Vegas at the age of 16 that could have been the end of her. How scared and alone she must have felt. Having failed marriages and  her kids taken away must have been so painful for her. It is ironic that her father, who had been an bad influence in earlier years, had turned his life around and  came and posted her bail. For nothing short of a miracle, all charges were dropped and she kept good on her promise to GOD that she was going to serve him wherever she might be. What I think is awesome is that she began Guiding Light Ministries who helps women wanting to turn their lives back around. According to the article "They want to see these women learn to love themselves and, in the process, become responsible and reproductive members of the community" Rose has her sons back and is going to college and is setting a good example in so many ways.
This article reminds me of the first paper we wrote in this class. I do not know Rose but I am so proud of her accomplishments and I know that she will succeed in whatever she puts her mind to. I know I try to learn from my mistakes but the thing is you always have to keep pushing forward. We can ALL do whatever it is we want to succeed at. Maybe we screw it up the first time or it doesn't turn out exactly as we had anticipated but we can turn something bad into good. we can all learn from our past mistakes.