Abi’s Place – Part I

In 2017, we had a Love Flash Mob with an audacious goal:  To raise enough money to create the first recovery-centered transitional home in New Hampshire where a mother recovering from opioid addiction could live with her baby while they get well.  

 

Our team had been to the state and met with the women, and seen how because of a lack of services, mothers were forced to decide whether to access recovery-centered support to stay clean, or decide to keep their babies. There was simply no place they could do both.

 

We connected with an incredible organization called Hope on Haven Hill, founded by a warrior nurse Kerry Norton, who knew intimately the toll of the opioid crisis on families. Kerry and HHH were focused on intensive programs to help addicted women through pregnancy and childbirth. 

 

Remember Ari? She and her baby are in this video. Ari’s mom and brother were addicts – it was the only life she knew and when she became addicted she couldn’t even dream of a better life for herself. Yet, when she was pregnant with her third child, Ari found HHH and became their first resident. Kerry was in the room when Ari gave birth to her precious baby. Yet when Ari and others like her graduated from the intensive program, there was no safe place to live with their babies. 

 

So, that December day in 2017, we dreamed of giving them a safe place.  And you showed up to make that ridiculous dream possible. Your donations of $5, $15, and $25 raised $175,000  -- what Kerry and HHH needed to buy the home! They named it Abi’s Place, after a beloved sister who they lost to opioid addiction.  

 

Because you opened your hearts, this summer Abi’s Place opened its doors to the first recovery-centered transitional home for mothers and babies in New Hampshire! This space will be a haven to sixteen precious mamas and their children who will live there, with vital breathing space and support to continue their recovery and build a life – and a new future and legacy -- for themselves and their babies.

 

THANK YOU, PEOPLE OF THE IMPOSSIBLE. FOR ALWAYS DOING IT. 

Love,

TR

P.S. Stay tuned for another update on Abi’s Place later this week!