Beautifully Unbroken

Book excerpt: FAITH, REDEMPTION, AND A LOVE STORY "Suddenly, the back door was thrown off its hinges as the SWAT team swarmed our house in a chaotic frenzy, rifles drawn. I sat in the front room with my baby, as I looked down the hallway at Billy already on the floor, and knew they were coming for me." What do you expect from life? A warm bed and food to eat? A safe space free from harm? For Jodie Ballenger, those expectations were never a given. Raised in abuse and neglect by her mother, who had been a prostitute, and a father who chose his new wife over her, Jodie learned quickly that her body was a vessel for others to use. Suffering mental, physical, and sexual abuse; abandonment; and neglect; she knew at a young age that she would need to learn to survive on her own. Jodie grew tough as nails, learning to fight with her fists and mouth. She started taking pills, smoking pot, and partying hard at the tender age of nine. She spent her young life running the streets - she moved along like a feather in the wind, with no anchor, while her mom looked the other way. When she met Billy in reform school, he was another boy in a string of boys she'd turned to for sex and comfort. But what she didn't know was how he would change her life. SWAT raid, pregnancies, running from the law, drive-by shootings, the death of her first true love, and a prison sentence... Could she find her way out and find happiness and most of all freedom? Join Jodie through her thrilling and heartbreaking story of agony and redemption and where a road that seems hopeless can lead to all you ever need. Meet the people along the way that gave them a hand up. And finally, rejoice with them when they arrived at their destinies founding the organization, Break the Grey, inspiring over 330,000 students across the United States and Canada to live and not die, helping them discover their personal value and worth. Who will this book help? This book will help people of all ages who deal with addiction (Jodie started smoking pot and popping pills at 9 years old and meth by 14). This book is for friends and loved ones of those dealing with addiction, those who believe they can't change their lives because of the horrific circumstances they may be trapped in. Issues like criminal families, substance abuse addictions, prostitution, gangs, violence, jail and prison, sexual and domestic abuse, sex trafficking, depression, suicidal thoughts, poverty and shame. This book will show the light in a very dark tunnel, give a solution to escape to the other side of that tunnel and find your destinies. It will change lives forever, inspiring them to find hope, change, and restoration. This book may save your life or the lives of people you love and others. It's the lifeline you and your loved ones are looking for. Includes a quick start guide to help you heal.