After Abuse: Becoming Whole Again
By Barbara Comito Union Gospel mission
At first glance, Tiffany King appears very young, delicate...
fragile even. But her appearance belies a core of inner strength. In
reality, Tiffany, 26, has faced the worst life has to offer and been
galvanized by it.
On Christmas Day 2012, Tiffany rushed her two-month-old daughter,
Ellie, to the emergency room because she was having seizures. Tests,
scans and x-rays revealed that Ellie had been shaken – on more than
one occasion. The right and back sides of her brain were damaged.
A subsequent investigation by Child Protective Services concluded
Tiffany’s boyfriend had committed the abuse.
“When the doctors tell you your daughter’s not going to be able to
move the left side of her body, she’s not going to be able to see,
she’s not going to be able to think, she’s going to be pretty much a
vegetable…I went into shock. I didn’t know what to do. It was like
nothing matched; nothing made sense. Like how could this happen? Where
did I go wrong? Why didn’t I protect?”
The investigation also revealed that Tiffany’s son, Robbie, who
was three at the time, had been hit and thrown.
CPS removed Robbie and Ellie from Tiffany’s care for a period of
time to ensure that the abuser was out of her life.
In the midst of the chaos, Tiffany asked her CPS caseworker, “What
is the best program you can suggest for somebody like me? What is the
one thing you think would really help me?” The caseworker recommended
Women’s Recovery at Anna Ogden Hall. And Tiffany said, “I’m going
there.”
Surrender
“I prayed that night when I brought my daughter into the ER and
they told me they didn’t know if she was going to survive or not. I
gave my life to God that night. I knew there was nothing I could do,
nothing the doctors could do. It was all up to God.” Ellie did
survive, but the extent to which her brain could recover remained a
giant, haunting question.
Tiffany was accepted into the UGM recovery program a few weeks
after the incident.
“It was scary. I’m not going to lie, but I knew it was where I was
supposed to be. I knew it was the only place I was going to get the
healing I needed.”
And heal Tiffany has. As have Robbie and Ellie.
Ellie, now two, “still has the brain damage, but you can’t tell,
and it’s just a miracle! I love it.” Tiffany’s face lit up as she
talked. “She walks. She talks. She dances to music and holds her
little music teddy bear. She’s amazing! She has no vision problems.
She is so adorable!”
“God hears your heart. He totally cured my daughter.”
Robbie, who was returned to Tiffany 30 days after she moved into
Anna Ogden Hall, remembers the abuse and the separation and still asks
on occasion, “What happened when I was three, Mom? Why did you leave
me?”
Tiffany knows the effects of the abuse have not completely
disappeared for either of her children, but they are overshadowed by
God’s tender care and healing.
“Robbie is learning what safe is and what it’s like to be in a
home. There is a difference between a house and a home and he knows
the difference now. It’s somewhere where you’re comfortable and you
feel loved.”
To learn about “home” in a homeless shelter seems
counterintuitive, but before coming to Anna Ogden Hall, Tiffany had no
idea what it meant to be safe and loved without condition.
She thought abuse was normal.
“My family were drug abusers and alcoholics. There was abuse on
every level. It was…I really don’t remember much of my childhood. I
was a young, young child, but I know it wasn’t an environment for a
child. I mean, it just wasn’t. My mom has a great heart. She tried,
but…”
Tiffany’s relationships with men showed signs of abuse from the
start.
“I didn’t grow up to do drugs. I didn’t grow up to drink and do
what my parents did, but I did grow up thinking abuse was normal.”
God introduced Tiffany to a new normal.
“God came back in my life and it was like, ‘Tiffany, I know what’s
best for you. Just listen to Me.’ He worked through my children and
changed me toward him 100 percent…and He is a master at turning the
bad into good, no matter what the bad is.
“I’m happy. I’m finally happy. He has healed me. I’m finally
finding out who Tiffany is, who I am and who I am in God. I mean, I
didn’t know what my hobbies were. I didn’t know what I liked, what I
didn’t like because I was so controlled growing up, and I didn’t have
the chance to go explore in the right, appropriate way.
“If it wasn’t for Anna Ogden Hall, I would still be carrying my
guilt and my hurt and the pain that I suffered growing up. And my
children would see the same old unhealthy person I was with no
improvement, which probably means, they wouldn’t be healthy. They
would grow up the same way I grew up, and I wouldn’t be breaking a
generational curse.”
Tiffany has finished the first four phases of UGM’s LIFE Recovery.
She has a full-time job with Northwest OB-GYN, a place for herself and
her two children, a supportive church and mentors. Life is anything
but easy as a working single mom, but she is confident that God is by
her side.
“I’m so excited for what’s going to happen in my life. In my
children’s lives. I think it’s going to be beautiful!”
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