By Karen Boerger:

Caroline – a wife, mother, soccer mom, friend, and more – enjoyed a modest life in a west coast suburb. She worked tirelessly to help with fundraisers for the school. When a friend developed a terminal illness, she and three other friends held a fundraising event for the mounting medical bills, but disaster was looming around the corner.

Being as busy as she was, she sometimes hurried through her life with little notice of the details. One day she reached for her credit card and paid for the new carpeting in her home; however, the credit card she used was for the funds raised for her friend with the terminal illness. The $6,000 didn’t come out of her personal account but from the fundraiser account.

Calamity came when the family found that there was money missing from the account before Caroline. Once it was discovered, Caroline wanted to rectify the oversight immediately; however, the family went to the police. Caroline’s busy life spiraled downward. During the investigation her picture was paraded through the media, her friends shunned her, her children were bullied at school, and Caroline spent 45 days in jail.

Feeling alone and separated from family and friends caused her to think everyone would be better off without her. She began to contemplate suicide. Her mind couldn’t seem to think of anything else. There were times when Caroline felt she was going crazy!

During a visit from her husband and youngest daughter a crack began to open in her frozen heart. Her daughter cried when it was time for visitation to be over and kept yelling, “Mommy, come home. I need you!”

She could feel her heart beginning to warm. That was the beginning of Caroline’s return to the human race. Her daughter needed her; someone found something worthwhile in her.

Putting one foot in front of the other and taking one step at a time, she began to lift her chin and press forward to find hope – one day at a time. Life would be different, to be sure, but her family needed her. They would do it together.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Isaiah 61:1