I'm sure I will get into more details in future blogs, but let me give you a little bit of my story. As I am writing this, my husband is sitting on the couch next to me watching a movie. Praise God! He was released from prison just two years ago. I now have a burden for those that are in the midst of dealing with a loved one in prison.
My husband served 4.5 years in Florida state prisons for violating his probation. He was sentenced in January of 2002 and released in February 2006. My daughter was 18 months old at the time of his arrest. There are lots of little details leading up to this point, but I will save those for future posts.
I spent those 4.5 years living out of food pantries, working two jobs and living with roommates that were complete strangers. Those years were the toughest years of my life, but I can honestly say that God had a plan. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God used this time in our lives to bring us to a place of complete repentance and dependency on HIM.
My husband and our now eight year-old daughter are living a life submitted to the Lord, committed to serving HIM and helping others. We both work full-time at our church Calvary Chapel St. Petersburg (http://www.ccstpete.com/) and my husband is the director of a ministry called The Most Excellent way (http://www.mew.ccstpete.com/) that ministers to those strugglig with life dominating sin. God is working in our lives!
Those years were abundant with trials and hardship. I spent many hours driving the state of Florida every weekend in order to make it to visitation. I was determined to keep my relationship with my husband alive, as well as my daughter's daddy a part of her life. I dealt with disgruntled guards, unjust punishments, ridiculous canteen prices, outrageous phone bills and an overwhelming loneliness. God saw us through and is continuing to show us his plan for our lives.
If you are reading this now, and have a loved one in prison, know that you are not alone. Please share you story with me and the others that need to know that they are not alone.
As we share our stories with one another, we find strength to carry on.
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3 comments:
I started to tear up while at work reading your blog. Thank you so much for sharing, my boyfriend who has also been my friend for about 16 years is in prison finishing up a 5 year bit. I thank god everyday that he only has months to go. I also go see him every other weekend. Miss him like crazy but our visits are great. Thank you so much for sharing. Jen
Hey Jen...sorry it took me so long to comment back. I'm still getting back into the grind of things since our vacation.
When does your boyfriend get out? Are you in Florida? How far do you have to drive for visitation? Do you have any children?
I still look back on those almost five years and it is amazing to me how I ever made it. I also remeber those last few months just dragging. I'm not sure if this is happening to you, but my husband and I started to argue with one another more as his release date got closer. Tension was high and of course so were expectations.
We would not have made it through that first year he was home without the Lord in our lives.
Thanks for commenting and I hope to hear back from you!
God Bless You! Crystal
I too am tearing up as I read these posts. In my case it is my son who is in there. I can barely use the terms. As terrifying as it is for me on a daily basis, his friends constantly assure me that he will be ok because of his good nature. How can I find out about parole, probation, etc. I don't have any knowledge of these things.
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