Success Stories
Lives Transformed by Grace
These are not recovery statistics. These are real women — with real histories, real pain, and real futures. Their stories belong to them. We share them with gratitude.
What Recovery Actually Looks Like
Recovery is not a straight line. It is hard and exhausting and, as one of our graduates put it, 'most days slightly annoying.' But it is also the most important work a woman will ever do — and no one here has to do it alone.
Graduate & Director
Courtney
"This is His house. I just get to serve in it."
In 2023, Courtney arrived at The Gift House straight from incarceration — broken, she says, but ready for something different. One of her first memories is hugging her mother for the first time in years. She was finally sober.
Through the program she found healing, community, and a relationship with Jesus that she describes as the foundation of everything that followed. Graduating was a milestone she felt genuinely proud of. But, as she puts it, the real work had only just begun.
In February 2025, Courtney stepped into the role of Director of The Gift House. She is quick to say it has not been easy — there have been sleepless nights, hard lessons, and heartaches. Ministry, she will tell you, is rarely a feel-good moment. More often it is messy and raw: breaking down trauma, rebuilding trust, learning to live free.
But through all of it, she says, God has shown her what grace really looks like. She does not see herself as the boss or the one running the show. 'This is His house,' she says. 'I just get to serve in it — leading with love, grace, and compassion.' It is only because of God, she believes, that she gets to walk beside other women as they find freedom too.
Graduate
Laura
"God gave me tools that I was willing to use, and I did it through His strength."
Four years ago, Laura was picked up from the penitentiary and brought to The Gift House to begin a new life. She came carrying 37 years of trauma, two decades of addiction, and what she describes as the deep grooves of institutionalization — patterns of thinking and surviving that prison carves into a person over time.
She will be the first to tell you it was hard. It was exhausting. And yes, most days slightly annoying. But through the program and a 12-step community, God began to transform her into the woman she believes He always intended her to be.
Today Laura is far from perfect — she says so herself, with a kind of hard-won peace about it. She still has trauma responses. Years of incarceration left their mark. But those imperfections, she says, keep her humble. They give her a platform to help others. Last night, she brought another woman home to The Gift House. Earlier that day, she spent her time fundraising for the ministry that saved her life.
Graduate
Brittney
"Just over a year ago I walked in with nothing but the clothes on my back."
Just over a year ago, Brittney walked through the doors of The Gift House with nothing but the clothes on her back. Today she is employed, reunited with her daughter, driving her own car, and has more than a year of sobriety behind her.
What made the difference, she says, was being allowed to be herself. She has been in other programs — places that cared more about what a piece of paper said than about the person holding it. The Gift House was different. "I've gotten more recovery here than anywhere else I have been," she says, "because I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not to progress."
The program taught her that she is not alone in any part of her life. It helped her grow a real relationship with God and to hold herself and others accountable — not out of obligation, but out of love. The relationships she found here, she says, go far deeper than surface level. This is not a revolving door. It is a home.
Graduate & Board President
Beth
"This experience saved my family and my life."
When Beth thinks of what The Gift House means to her, she thinks of a light at the end of a dark tunnel. A place with so much love you cannot help but feel it — and feel it fuel you to give it to others.
The program taught her what it means to foster healthy relationships, so she could begin rebuilding the ones her addiction had destroyed. But most importantly, it led her to her Savior, Jesus Christ. The Gift House helped her build a solid foundation, then gave her the tools to rebuild her life on top of it.
Beth is grateful for God's grace and mercy — and most of all for His plans, which led her to The Gift House. She says simply: this experience saved her family and her life. Today, Beth gives back by serving as President on The Gift House Board of Directors.
"I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not to progress."
— A current resident of The Gift House
Every Story Starts With an Open Door
If you or someone you love is ready to take the first step, we are here. If you want to be part of what makes these stories possible, we need you too.