I hadn’t slept in a bed of my own since 2018

“The moment I walked into my new room at Joshua Station I cried, just seeing the bed. I hadn’t slept in a bed of my own since 2018. At best I would be in my car for naps or hiding on a workplace floor, going weeks hardly sleeping at all.”

In the past year since that moment, Jenny Padilla says she is doing “phenomenal.” Working together with her Joshua Station Family Advocate Lauren Ruth, she has:

• Maintained her sobriety “I’d never go back to that life!”
• Made personal strides in therapy “It’s an amazing resource for us residents”
• Landed a good job at Mountain States Toyota and advocated for a raise “They’re happy with the work I do”
• Saved money and worked to regain her driver’s license “For more opportunities”
• Enrolled in college “I’m very determined and absolutely confident I’ll go all the way to my master’s degree in psychology”
• Become a healthy and loving mom “My kids give me a reason to live every day”

“I have such a beautiful relationship with Lauren,” says Jenny. “Before Joshua Station, I never had good relationships with anyone. I can tell Lauren anything, and she doesn’t judge. She makes me feel special; not alone. She constantly encourages me to do better. It’s helped me open up to other friendships, too.”

Other than her two daughters—a teenager and a toddler—Jenny has “never had  family.” From her first childhood memories, she felt disconnected and alone.

“When my mother died ten years ago,” Jenny says, “I was simply done. It tipped me over into letting my life go. I had been high [on drugs] since I was ten years old. I was prescribed Percocet as a child and then became addicted. I would buy it on the street, and then started on Fentanyl.” Especially after watching her mother’s last breaths, more and more Fentanyl was Jenny’s only relief from the overwhelming pain. “My day didn’t start until I got ‘my foil.’ I craved it and despised it, and I hated my life.”

After years of spiral, Jenny finally found the courage to enter addiction treatment for a year. It was her gateway to life, and a stepping stone to Joshua Station—which in turn is another gateway. “Instead of feeling alienated from people, I’ve built real friendships. I love to encourage my neighbors at Joshua Station, making them laugh, listening, helping with a simple task like the trash. I help people find resources.”

Jenny’s desire to help others has found a focus in her plans to become a licensed addiction counselor. Her pain story is transforming into a story of hope.

“This is the first time I’ve ever been truly happy, Jenny exclaims. “I walked yesterday in the park through green grass. Green grass! I never, ever noticed the green grass. It was so bright and amazing—I just looked and looked.”

“I see everything differently now.”