Interim House provides a wonderful safe place for women to recover and find their inner strengths. So many of these women have never had a good connection with other women and haven't learned that we have a special power to share and give to each other. When I go to Interim House I see these women celebrating their strength often for the first time. As a feminist from way back, I forget how so many women never got the connection earlier in their lives. The moms group obviously had discovered the strength of women in helping them to cope with their addict children and sometimes, the addictions they themselves have. It is wonderful to see them sharing this knowledge, experience and strength with the women of Interim House. It is a win-win situation for us all.

In addition to being reassured by the power of women I am humbled by the individual strengths of these women and it gives me hope for own child. Every time I visit I feel more hope and it helps me cope with some of the dark days of my own experiences with addiction. I think that we give the women hope, but they also give us hope.

We are moms, we love our children often more than ourselves. We would do anything we could to save our children but we are unable to walk their paths for them and we are often unable to even help them find the path just because we are their moms. Coming to Interim let us feel like maybe we are helping someone and just maybe someone is doing the same for our children.

Another aspect of our experience is that many of us have seen all of the horrible recovery programs in the country and it is nice to know that there is at least one that gives the love, caring and support that these addicts need. They also give the tools that can lead to success. So many programs provide little to none of this. The women who work at Interim care so much. The fact that so many have been there for years and years is testament to the fact that they believe in what they are doing and they have had enough success to reassure them that they are doing a great job.

Interim House is unique and our moms group visiting is unique too I believe. The combination is good for all of us. We give our time and resources because we care and we can. We take from the women at Interim because we need them. We need to feel their hope and strength so that we can refuel our own hope and strength with this very difficult disease.

There is no such thing as too much love. When we give it we get so much more back. 

I want to thank Interim House for trusting us and letting us into their lives. It has helped so many of us.