Good morning
I have some time this am before we are off to EPCOT
and I just feel led to tell my dear friends how my life has been touched. Our youngest of 5 is a recovering crack addict. She was so cute and sweet and adorable, just like all of the dear little girls on this board. We live in PA Dutch country and even have a horse and buggy parking area at our waldemart. Drugs was the last thing I ever worried about in our little middle class lives.
To make a long story short
after 2 years of trying everything, we finally resorted to tough love..but the drugs meant more to DD than anything and she just walked out
for a while we knew she was with a 50 year old drug dealer (she was 20 by then) but then I lost touch with her. I did everything I could to try to find her, and discovered she was in North Phila, left there by him, and selling herself for drugs a horror a mother and father cant imagine
I just remember being hysterical at the time. DH would drive 100 miles to N Phila and walk the streets Fri and Sat nights looking for her or for clues
it was a war zone..helicopters, guns, knives, drugs, prostitutes, murders
everyone knew her..she was one of the few persons of noncolor in the area
but no one would talk
the police had picked her up twice for prostitution but wouldnt hold her
so we lost her
she was in shelters..crack houses
and even the city detectives told us that white prostitutes were being beheaded and we should check the morgues. I cried myself to sleep everynight
and the only thing that kept DH and I from losing our minds and our lives was the birth of Makayla. I would hear my DH sobbing softly as he rocked her to sleep, remembering how he always rocked DD to sleep
we spent every minute we could with Makayla as it was our only joy in life
she is truly my angel
the last straw for me was going into a little shack of a barbeque place in N Phila and asked a man working there if he knew DD and he said yes, he fed her a few times because she was hungry. I died
thinking that my beautiful DD was begging for food when all she had to do was pick up the phone and call me
that night I went to my oldest DDs church in the suburbs and we prayed in a communal prayer session for 3 hours, and I asked God (as I always did) just to keep her safe, thats all, just be with her
and for all the other young girls and boys who are addicts..there were so many parents at this church praying for their teens and young adult children addicted to drugs that it was an eye opener. I really couldnt take it anymore and I was going to go home in the am
at 5:45am DD left a tearful message on my cell phone while I slept that she was ok and wanted to come home
praise God. He kept DD safe
long story short she is clean for 18 mo, went to rehab, halfway house, married the man who saved her from the streets, and has a 6 month old baby boy. DD knows it was God who saved her and her faith in Jesus that kept her from dying numerous times..she is neg for HIV, hepatitis and all STDs a true miracle.
And to this day, our little Makayla has been our gift from God who kept us going when we thought we couldnt cry one more tear or take one more breath from the pain of all DD was going through
.
So please excuse my posting so much of DGD. And God bless each of you and your wonderful little miracles
Susan
I have sewed the sides of the top layer together, I have sewed the sides of the middle layer together, and I have sewn the top part of the middle layer so I can pull and gather it to fit into the top part.....(thanks Heathersue for the links for sewing tips). Now I have to pin the top two pieces together and sew them. 
I want to take my time cause the one thing that I don't have yet (that I thought I did) is a seam ripper, and I don't want to have to run out and get one yet.......lol
) to go with the skirt I am doing today, but I really don't want to mess it up, maybe I could just do that??? 
