Meet our residents: Nicole

Nicole graduated from Reset in December. She works at Highland Heights Frisch’s where she has been for over a year. She goes to all her son’s basketball games, spends many weekends with him and is teaching him how to drive. Nicole attends Bible study with the Reset Alumni group. After Reset, she moved into a small house which she says is all that she needs. Her son recently stayed overnight with her for the first time. Nicole’s life is full and happy.

Five years earlier Nicole’s life was a very different story. She became involved with a person who used drugs. Although that had never been part of her life, she too began to use drugs and became an addict.  Nicole says, “It caused me to lose my family and my son, especially my son.”

After three years of trying to get sober and relapsing, Nicole had reached her limit with addiction and wanted to escape.  The first step on her escape route began when her then 14-year-old son gave her a Bible. “I pray for you every night,” he said, “and I hope this will help.” Nicole hardly knew what to do with a Bible; she’d never owned one, nor had her family ever shown any interest in the Bible. Several times she opened it, then closed it, uncertain of how it could help. Now she’s the first to tell you it did.

Near her Bible was a list of possible places to go for rehab. She started down the list, calling and leaving messages. Finally she got a return call from Karen’s Place in Louisa, Kentucky, and her mother drove her there.

Nicole loves butterflies. Before they left, her mother gave her a butterfly pin to put on her jacket. When she arrived, she discovered the logo of the facility was a butterfly, and on the nightstand in her room was a solar pot with a butterfly—the only one in the dorm room. She saw these as signs she that she was on the right track. 

 Nicole discovered that Karen’s Place was a faith-based facility, and she wondered what she’d gotten herself into. As it turned out, she realized it was God who had brought her here. She began to learn about Jesus and God’s love and salvation and was baptized during her two and one half month stay. 

After her stay at Karen’s Place, Nicole looked for a place to go where she could grow in her faith and continue her recovery. She said, “I knew it had to be a faith-based program because I was such a new Christian, just a newborn.” She heard about Reset, applied and was accepted.  She welcomed the regular Bible studies, biblical counseling, finding a church home, and the close and loving community of support she had there. At first, she went to both AA and NA. She got a job and walked 35 minutes to work and back every day for months until she was able to get a job on the bus line.   

Now, Nicole says her life is blessed, especially by the relationship she has made with her 15-year-old son who lives with her aunt and uncle in Bracken County. She contributes to his financial support and spends a lot of time with him, but Nicole says, “His life is stable there and that is the most important thing during the teenage years. He is loved and cared for.”

Nicole sees the butterfly as a metaphor for her life. She went into a chrysalis and emerged a different person. She openly says that 2 Corinthians 5:17 explains her life:  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”