“I had a horrific upbringing,” Ann admits. “I grew up with six brothers and one sister in a small fishing town.”

When the life of an addict was the only thing she knew, Ann didn’t have context for any other way of living. It led her to anger, resentment, and a life without boundaries. “I was pretty clueless, really just a little girl in my mind,” she shares. And she ended up in jail.

“While I was incarcerated, the church ladies as I called them, came in to minister to us in jail,” Ann remembers. “There was one lady who shared with me about Hoving Home, so I called and did intake.”

“They invited me in,” Ann says.

As so many women experience, Ann remembers the ride to Hoving Home. She will never forget going up the long driveway and the peace that came over her. Then and there she knew she was in the right place.

Of course, when Ann arrived, she carried a lot of pain from her past. “I had a lot to work through,” she shares. But the ladies at Hoving Home were loving. They were caring. There was structure and there were guidelines. In many ways, Ann just had to learn life.

One of the greatest blessings for Ann was the Learning Center. She read and learned about how to tell the truth, how to understand her addiction and sin, and how to turn to Jesus for help and wisdom. “It transformed my life,” Ann expresses.

Now a grandmother, Ann has renewed hope for her life. She is working in full-time ministry and following God with her whole heart. “I always tell people, ‘When I die, and I get cremated, make sure you take me to Hoving Home and put me in the stream at the end of the hill.”

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