About us
Updated: Jan 13, 2021
My journey that led me to you
My husband and I got married in 2012. We were like a Taylor swift song. Small town girl meets army boy, fall in love, and get married. I moved to Texas after the wedding to FINALLY be with him after a long deployment. I was working at a local hospital night shift and loved it. We had friends, had weekend trips around Texas, and were living our dream. July 24, 2012 I came home from work around 330 am and my husband left for work at 530. It was still dark and someone broke into our home and I was sexually assaulted. I literally lived an out of body experience. I remember looking at the cross on the wall in our room and praying "God please don't let me die."
Police came (not the best experience with law enforcement but thats a different story), questioned me, took evidence, and I was loaded onto a stretcher. As I was in the ambulance going to the hospital I just left, I called my mom and told her what happened. I am sure she was just as shocked as I was. I was unable to get ahold of my husband for about an hr after. I have never been more embarrassed in all my life as I was rolling through the ER where I worked, on a stretcher, after being raped. I was thinking, "what the hell is happening, is this real life."
I had been an ER nurse and taking care of sexual assault patients and honestly they were intimidating. It was a black cloud. Now I was that black cloud. I went through the story with the attending physician, my nurse, and the SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner). Felt like I told my story 50,000 times that day. Couldn't make it through without crying.
I never went back into that house. I didn't even feel safe in the area anymore. I came back home to Kentucky and stayed with my parents. I had never felt so hopeless in all my life. I truly felt my heart break. Leaving my husband because of this awful traumatic event and making that 17 hour drive home with my mom left me empty.
I went back to work at the hospital where I started my nursing career. I was changed. I didn't view patients the same. All my co-workers asked why I was home, why people collected money for me, and when I was going back to Texas. I made up excuses and reasons for all of them. No one knew the truth and I was ok with that. Rumors had spread that were devastating to me. I wanted nothing more than to go back to be with my husband.
Years past and God was working in a BIG way. He opened my eyes to the lack of services for survivors in Kentucky. He gave me a voice and opened the doors for me to go through. I started the process of starting Still Waters Center. I want survivors in our community to have a different experience than what I had. I want our survivors to know you are a child of God, you are loved, and we are in your corner every step of the way. I will fight for you.
My goal, God's goal, is to make a BIG difference in Kentucky to improve sexual assault services.