“I was about 7 years old… He was supposed to come get us. He called and said he wasn’t coming… I was crushed.”
That was the last time Adam heard from his father.
The void Adam’s father left was one his mother couldn’t fill. She worked rotating shifts at a glass factory to make ends meet. Adam and his sister were often left unsupervised.
Without a male role model, Adam turned to older boys and men in his neighborhood.
“I remember at 10 years old doing a lot of stuff that nobody, even grown men, should do. I was already stealing cars and busting out windows of shops to rob them.”
By age 18, Adam was serving a 6-year prison sentence and had fathered two children.
When Adam walked through our doors he had been through a series of jobs. Something about his drinking and anxiety always moved him along. He fathered another child, and wanted to do better for her than his father did for him.
But the pain of his past haunted him—he ended up living out of his car. He so desperately wanted to do right by his new daughter, Emma—but he had no direction.
At the Mission, he entered the New Life Recover Program. Here, he started his journey back to wholeness.
Today, Adam is thriving. He’s taking part in Climb out of Homelessness—training to climb Mt. Rainier with a team from the Mission. He is sober, going back to school, and repairing relationships with his children. All because of people like you.
“I’m 32 years old, I live at the Tacoma Rescue Mission, but I feel like I’m free. I feel peace throughout my day—I’ve never felt that before. I have goals and things set out that I’m going to accomplish. I have people at this Mission that are going to stand behind me through all that.”
August 6th Adam will be in Paradise.
Paradise at Mt. Rainier National Park! A long way from prison and his old life, thanks to you.
You can follow Adam on his journey, as well as others on the climb team, via the Mission’s Facebook page.
