From Broken to Believer: Ashlie Morgan Graduates from Heather’s Hope Housing

The room had been prepared for her. Balloons framed a backdrop that read “HHH Graduate.” Fresh flowers sat on the table with a glittering “Happy Soberversary” sign popping out. Food lining the entrance. A welcome prepared by people so overjoyed by the enormity of the celebration that they donated their Sunday getting things in order, fighting illness.  This wasn’t something we were going to let quietly pass by.

Then the room started filling up. A professional cameraman was waiting to capture every moment as her guests walked through the doors.  Board members, the Director, the Heather’s Hope team, friends, family, former employees and people from the community came to celebrate her. Some hadn’t seen each other in brief moments, others it had been years. Still others had only been acquainted through social media until that afternoon.

They all had one thing in common: they were there for Ashlie.

A year of hard work had brought her to this room, and the people who had watched her fight for a different life wanted to be there when she crossed this particular finish line.

Ashlie’s answer was no. She wasn’t sure about attending a place called “Christian Helping Hands”. She wasn’t sure that would be a good fit for her. Her mom asked her to give it some time and think about it. Eventually, Ashlie agreed. Her mother picked her up and brought her to Oklahoma.

Coming to Heather’s Hope Housing didn’t suddenly make life easy. Shortly after arriving, Ashlie lost her aunt, who was also her best friend. She was grieving, pregnant and trying to rebuild a life that had come apart, but she stayed.

She began letting people in. She worked through the program. She learned to set boundaries and started rebuilding relationships. She worked toward becoming the mother and woman she wanted to be.  Somewhere in the middle of all of that, the woman who came to Heather’s Hope Housing saying she didn’t know about a place with God, began building a relationship with Him.

Today, she’ll tell you plainly, “He’s number one.”

During the graduation, the people who had walked alongside Ashlie over the past year took turns speaking. They talked about her hustle and perseverance. Her willingness to surrender. The way she worked through the program without holding back. They had watched her grow as a mother, establish healthy boundaries and deepen her faith. There were plenty of tears, but there was plenty of laughter, too.

Again and again, the encouragement came back to the same thing: keep going. Keep doing the next right thing. Keep your eyes on God. Keep showing up. Keep telling your testimony. One woman reminded her that God didn’t bring her this far just to bring her this far.

Some of those people for Ashlie were the women who became her Stand in the Gap support. These women aren’t there as caseworkers. They become mentors and friends. They share meals and coffee and talk about real life.

It’s an important part of process, “share one another’s burdens” – for each woman going through the program to understand that no matter what someone’s background is, there are real struggles experienced too. There’s a difference between feeling like someone’s project and realizing the woman sitting across the table from you has needed grace in her own life, also.

Ashlie thanked the women who stood in that gap for her. Others encouraged Heather’s Hope graduates to keep coming back and doing the same for the women coming behind them. That is part of what we hope happens here. Someone walks beside you when you need it.

There are women who came through Heather’s Hope Housing before Ashlie who are still part of this Comanche community today. Women whose lives were changed, too. They have jobs, homes, families and responsibilities. They don’t simply blend back into the community. More often than not, you’ll find them serving, encouraging and leading in it. Ashlie has joined those ranks.

Her and Elijah’s story with Heather’s Hope didn’t end when she received her certificate. She still shows up for Heather’s Hope Housing events. She gives a great hug, and Elijah, affectionately known around here as “Papi,” is usually good for a high five. They are still part of this place and the people in it.

There will still be hard days. There will still be bills to pay, children to raise, boundaries to keep and choices to make. Recovery doesn’t become easy because someone hands you a certificate, but Ashlie isn’t the same woman who arrived here four-and-a-half months pregnant.

She spoke that afternoon about having her own vehicle, paying her bills, providing for her children and becoming independent. But one thing she said carried more weight than any accomplishment we could list: she has built a character within herself that she actually likes. She can look in the mirror and love the woman looking back at her.

Before everyone left that Monday, Pam Dobbins prayed over Ashlie and the road ahead. It was a fitting close to the graduation of a woman who came to Heather’s Hope Housing wanting nothing to do with God and stood there a year later telling everyone in the room that He is number one.

Ashlie came to Oklahoma fighting not to lose another child. Somewhere along the way, that fight became so much more. She became a mother to Elijah while rebuilding her life. She learned to let people in and when to draw a boundary. She learned to keep doing the next right thing. She found a community willing to stand in the gap when she couldn’t stand there alone. She found a woman in the mirror she could love.

Most importantly, she found the One she now knows was there through all of it.

Ashlie’s graduation was worth filling a room for.