I was raised in East Stockton and I was raised very poorly. I was the 6th of six kids and I started using drugs at a very early age started smoking weed at the age of 13. I smoked and smoked and smoked until I found a new drug and I loved the feeling of being out of my mind I started taking pills, I loved the feeling that drugs done to me as I was growing in my teenage years. 

I became a kleptomaniac and I would steal anything I could to get my hands on, including cars and bikes or anything else. I was robbing houses and stores taking whatever I could to supply my habit. After I turned 14 I got arrested and locked up for a while then came home and tried some meth it was a new kind of high that took me to a new state of mind and I didn't care about anything or anybody all I wanted was more, more, and more. I started shooting Meth at the age of 15 and I continued to shoot dope for 20 years it's like I went to a party when I was 15 and I didn't get home till I was 35. I treated my body like a garbage can I went to jail multiple times. 

I went to prison and I went to drug program after program I just couldn't get it together until I was totally broken, then I lost my dad and my whole life fell apart. At this point in my life, something changed and I knew I no longer had the feeling I had when I got loaded, the high wasn't the same so I made the decision to stay clean and started going to recovery meetings on my own. I found a new high of being clean and sober, it didn't take too long and soon I had six months of sobriety under my belt for the first time in my life. 

I felt good about myself after being sober and clean for a few months and I started going to church and I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ and soon after I joined SOTC. My faith in God has gotten stronger and stronger and today I live a life that is full of Christ, I am not all well and wonderful but I know as long as I surrender to my savior that my life and others around me will be better. 

John 10:10 says the Devil comes to steal kill and destroy and he robbed me of 20 years of my life. Today I am grateful to be a proud member of Soldiers Of The Cross and bloodborne child of God. He has made me a good dad, husband, brother and son and I thank Jesus for all this!