Katie’s Story

I have always been very firm in my faith. I was adopted at birth and have the most amazing family. They are strong spiritual leaders and helped me to have a strong foundation, so that when I went to college and “went a little astray” I didn’t stray far.

I am thankful for how I was able to witness different cultures and poverty from a young age, through serving meals at Beautiful Feet Mission in Fort Worth, and many youth mission trips I got to tag along on.  While attending Grapevine Faith, I was able to visit India and stay at Veer & Blessy’s orphanage. Seeing the passion and joy from these children was such a blessing, and has stayed with me throughout life.

Donny and I met about a month after I started attending UNT.  He passed me a note in class to be his friend on MySpace and the rest is history. During college, I allowed myself to believe that he drank a lot, because that’s just what people do in college.  He started telling me that things would change: when we graduated college, when get married, get a new job, have our own house, start a family, and on and on and on…

In 2017 I joined a women’s small group through Gateway Church. This was at a time where things were very rocky in our marriage. We had a one year old son and were working on baby number two. This small group is where I was able to find healing, even while knowing that the hurt would continue. God gave me clarity about assigning a purpose to our pain.

Pain without purpose is just torture.

I compared it to childbirth— I opted for unmedicated birth, knowing God would help me get through the pain because a sweet baby was at the finish line.  Harrison’s birth was more complicated (and interrupted with an emergency in the ER that pulled my Dr away and put me on pause!), but I was able to have the birth I envisioned with Brady.

Anyway, If I could find a way to honor God and encourage others struggling with a spouses addiction issues, then God would give me the strength to persevere.

Around this same time, we were attending Cross Timbers Church in Argyle. They have “The Healing Place” which is a counseling ministry they offer. Meeting with someone there regularly helped propel me forward in understanding my purpose. I even went through a class/study reading “Healing Care, Healing Prayer” by Terry Wardle in order to become a Care Coach myself. This study was so helpful for learning how to invite the Holy Spirit in to bring inner healing.

I remember one Sunday morning in 2020, Donny woke up and told me that we needed to call my parents over.  He had come to the realization that he didn’t want to continue drinking, but he needed help.  Thanks to someone else we knew from Grapevine Faith, we found La Hacienda Treatment Center in Hunt, TX.

I remember driving him down there with so much hope and uncertainty.  Praying that this was the solution that would work. He was there for one month, and has not had any desire for alcohol since.

Now, I can’t say everything is always roses around here.  We are still both stubborn and can butt heads, but there isn’t the pressure of alcohol hanging over us.  The constant dread I would feel; wondering how long I would have to stay up with him, what arguments would start, and hoping he would just pass out.

I have seen his passion for life return, through his love for music and audio equipment, building computers, briefly diving into crypto, and the support to finish remodeling our home.  It’s such a blessing to see how he engages with our boys and loves teaching them about technology.

When he had the idea for a nonprofit, I immediately knew of some organizations I would want to work with, and it’s exciting to discover the new ones and see the difference they are making.