Help Heather secure her journey for stability & sober living

Hello, my name is Heather Rouse & I'm raising money so I can move into an Oxford House sober living home.

I have been in recovery for 2 years, but it's been a very long, hard road.

My beautiful daughter, Tierney Mercedes, passed away on Oct 15th, 2013. I was devastated, but 3 months after she died, I went back to cosmetology school & completed the program. I graduated, and when I walked the platform, I wore the same dress she wore when she graduated high school.

After I graduated, I realized I wasn't ready to go to work. Sadly, being idle did not help me. Gradually, my life spiraled out of control. I was trying to fill the huge hole in my life with the wrong people & with drugs. I paid for my mistakes with my freedom. I ended up in prison in 2017, a place I never thought I'd go. I was told many times that I didn't belong there, but I was there nonetheless.

I've since successfully completed parole, but I did relapse and found myself in trouble again. This time, I sought real help through the Salvation Army with therapy & IOP classes. I developed lifelong relationships with wonderful people who fought alongside me to stay clean & build a better life for myself.

I completed the ARP 3-month in-patient recovery program & set out on the next big adventure.

3 months after completing the program, I was able to purchase a beautiful new car & I started traveling for work. I am an A/V tech in live event production. And all was well... until 10 months later, I was in an accident & totaled my beautiful car. Thankfully, insurance paid my car off but left me carless & with no money to purchase another one.

After completing ARP, work was going very well, but finding a place to live was not. I moved from one place to another for different reasons: one person died & his family took the house, another sold her house, another got evicted for not paying rent 2 weeks after I moved in (I was not aware he had not paid rent in 3 months). I had wanted to move to Las Vegas for work but also to start fresh somewhere that I'm not haunted by the memories of all my mistakes. That was what I was working for when I wrecked my car.

And if I thought the last 10 months were hard, it was nothing compared to what the last 4-5 months have been trying to work & survive without a vehicle. I've moved 3 or 4 times, finding myself in very unsafe places. You never know someone until you live with them; never a truer statement has been said.

I thought I found a good, safe, drug-free place to live when I moved in with Tierney's biological father, but a week later, his other daughter came over. She's living out of her car & needs her daddy. I TOTALLY get it. The children will always come first. And I'm willing to go, but I have no place to go nor do I even have a car I could live in.

So, a friend on Facebook said he was living in an Oxford House, which is a sober living home. I researched and found that they have female homes & that they accept pets as well. I have 2 precious little chihuahuas I've had since they were born. They've been with my mother for 2 years since I was in the Salvation Army. I just got them back & can't imagine having to give them up again.

But I don't have to!!!

The Oxford House has plenty of vacancies in the Dallas/FTW metroplex & they allow pets! It's a perfect answer to my situation.

Because I haven't been able to work, it's been very slow & not having reliable transportation has made finding work in the A/V industry difficult. I'm barely getting by & truthfully, I feel like I'm drowning in bills. I have worked hard to get my credit score up to 650, but in the last 5 months, it's dropped to below 500. I don't think I could qualify for an apartment even if I could afford one, which obviously I cannot at this time.

I'm just trying to raise enough money to pay the deposit & first 2 weeks' rent & purchase another inexpensive vehicle. Please help support my fight to stay clean & to be able to find drug-free, safe housing where I will be surrounded by amazing people all on the same path of recovery. I don't have a lot of family nor do I have a great support system, but living in a sober living home will be amazing!!! Please help me raise the funds to be able to secure a bed in Oxford House.