Delivering hope; women working through addiction while learning to be moms again

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Along a winding country road in Vonore, Tennessee sits a ranch-style home with a play set in front.

From just the road, one would mistake the home for another red brick building in rural east Tennessee. However, the work taking place in the home is helping mothers get clean, reconnect them with God, and bringing families back together again.

”It seemed like a dream come true it’s a huge blessing I never would have thought I’d get back. God has restored relationships I never thought I would get back, I didn’t deserve to get back. It’s a really big blessing to have things restored to me and build on my foundation here,” said Hannah Brawner, a mother of three who just graduated from the program.

The women in this home are fighting their way out of addiction.

Many of them, have found their children taken away, and have few other places to turn, except Restoration House.

“Find a discipleship program that can help you get on your feet again and help you be a good mother and find God and be able to raise your kids with God, you know what I mean, in the right path,” said Haleigh Cox.

Cox is in the middle of her time in the True Purpose Ministries program.

She was addicted to meth and marijuana and lost custody of her children. Living with her boyfriend, now husband, and their children at her mother’s house, she knew she had to find help.

Cox spent 28 days in rehab in Nashville but found it wasn’t working. Eventually volunteering to join Restoration House, and working through the program.

“I mean my faith in God before I got here was very much rocky, like I had lost my faith obviously I was in addiction, and coming here I am closer with God now. I am a better mother because of it, I’ve done parenting classes here also. They just help you all around with everything with becoming a mother again, a sober mother to where you can actually think straight when you’re doing it,” said Cox.

In March, the 18th baby was born in the program.

“It’s amazing for me to look through social media and my mothers contact me and I see them doing things I never thought they could do. They’re working full-time jobs they have their own apartments, their driver’s license they can take their children on vacations. That is beautiful to see that they have hope, they know they have a future they’re making plans again which is something they’ve lost before. Some are talking about going to school furthering their education and doing some things they never thought they could do, and you see the light coming back in their eyes,” said Paige Holtzclaw the program director for True Purpose Ministries.

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