Success Stories
Kellie Hand
College Student - Dental Hygienist major
Having grown up in a middle-class Naples home with alcoholic parents, I started doing drugs around age 13. Bad choices resulted in incarceration, all before turning 17. Then the courts ordered me into a treatment center for eight months. Upon release, the drinking and drug use continued. I ended up pregnant and alone with my first son. My second son arrived a few years later, and I fell back into drinking after his birth. At 26, deeper into the hole of addiction, I was selling and using, and basically stopped living. My children were taken by family. I was rock bottom and homeless. At that time, four doctors were prescribing me drugs. I ended up pregnant with my third son. I didn't even want the baby, but couldn't save money to get an abortion. At eight months pregnant, I was admitted to the Naples Community Hospital detox unit for two weeks. At this point I realized my life was a total mess. I went to David Lawrence Center, where I considered giving up the baby for adoption. Upon speaking to an intake person at St. Matthew's House, we moved there. The structure and safety of St. Matthew's House was just what I needed to get back to a normal life. I needed rules and was willing to follow them. I wanted the drug and breathalyzer tests, the curfew, everything. We worked together to get my license, social security card, and take my son William to doctor appointments. I eliminated everyone from my former lifestyle, enrolled in school and started working. I have an apartment now and my older children are back in my life. I also have a rapport with the rest of my family. I have responsibility and a full life. I go to meetings, I pray and I'm busy. Now I'm searching for something more inside, for a connection with God. I know God was there with me in jail, saving my life. I'm learning to rely on God and trust Him. My baby was born perfectly healthy, and that's a miracle unto itself. He is a blessing in my life and I didn't want to have him in the first place. Coming to St. Matthew's House was the best decision I've ever made.