Many of you know the struggle that my dad has gone through, and continues to go through. But today I feel the need to share it with the rest of you. To start with, my dad has SERIOUS medical problems. He has had is back fused together, he has shoulder, and leg, and stomach, heart, lung, and numerous other problems. So for all the pain, he was prescribed Oxycontin years ago. Well, he sunk into serious drug abuse with the Oxycontin with a Dr. who would freely prescribe it to him in any strength my dad felt he "needed". At one point last year I decided I could "save" him or make him go into a drug rehab program. I took his pills away from him and would make a trip to his house every night to give him a certain number of pills and each week I would go down on the number I would bring him. It was quite the sacrifice to make those trips to his house each night with 4 little kids and their various activities. Well, when I was bringing him his pills, he started to cry and told me he couldn't do this to me anymore. He had gotten another prescription from that wonderful doctor and was taking whatever he wanted of those pills plus the ones I was bringing over. He told me I was wasting my time and he was sorry. Well at that point, I gave up on my dad. I was so angry at him because what I was doing didn't work. What I didn't realize at the time was that you can't fix a drug addict, I thought I could force him into getting better but I couldn't. Only that person can fix themselves and I was trying to force him to do something he didn't want to do. So for the last year or so I have been mad at him. I have watched him slip deeper and deeper into a deep dark hole and he was a person I didn't know or like. Holidays were awful, he couldn't stay awake and he remembered nothing of what was going on around him. The only thing he cared about was his pills and I almost pretended he wasn't there when I was around him.
Well today is a different day. At the beginning of the month he went into a drug detox program for a week. He got completely off the oxycontin. He is not taking any pain medication at all. He is awake and you can see in his eyes the man I knew as my dad. He has a long journey ahead of him, but he is awake and wants to get better. He can't believe how big my kids are. He cries a lot, and feels really bad for a lot of things. He is praying, reading his scriptures, and participating in the church's recovery program. The gospel is a wonderful thing, and our church can and will bless everyone's life if we allow it to. He showed me his book from his class he goes to at the church and said "read the first paragraph". It said "that is me" and I'm not alone. The first paragraph included a quote from James E. Faust. How blessed are we to be a part of a church that knows we all have trials and takes us by the hand and helps us through those trials!
Anyway, long story but I want my dad to know that I am so proud of him. I can't even imagine that battle his fighting, and I am proud of him for do it. I have learned a lot from this over the last year, but most importantly I have learned that prayer works, and Christ is there for us waiting with His arms outstretched to encircle us in His love. He will never give up on us, and He know what we are capable of. I love my dad
