A grateful alcoholic is a sober alcoholic

Hi I have a personal story for a daily message: 

 
Four of my Best Months
 
I'm a happy and grateful thirty-four year old alcoholic and drug addict from the Southwest United States. God willing, I will have five sober months on November 3. I spent a year and a half sober in Alcoholics Anonymous between mid 2014 til 2016, and that was the happiest period of my entire life. Having found an excellent sponsor who took me through the Twelve Steps, I had a spiritual Awakening and began sharing the message of recovery with other alcoholics and addicts. I used to take meetings into the very same treatment center I graduated from; sponsored men; and went to numerous conventions, retreats and sober events in Arizona. But something changed.
 
What was it that could take me down? It's a story as old as time itself. I stopped going to as many meetings. I stopped contacting my sponsor. I started letting resentments into my life by not working Step Ten every hour of every day. I stopped seeking my God through prayer and meditation. I stopped remembering my primary purpose: staying sober and helping others. The results caught up with me quicker than I could have ever expected and, in my estimation. No fewer than one or two months after my disengagement with the program I began drinking and using drugs--quite as everyone said would happen.
 
On June 2nd, 2018 I left my exceedingly toxic marriage and got sober again, going into treatment for a second time. Remembering what worked the last time around, I began attending meetings as soon as I was permitted, got a sponsor and began once again working the steps. The obsession to consume substances has been removed and I am once again a happy, employed and productive member of society. It has not all been unicorns and flowers, though. At three months of sobriety my beautiful four year old daughter was taken into DCS foster care due to my and my ex-wife's inability to care for her. My ex, being in the midst of untreated addiction, left her at her elderly parents home for a month and because of my being in treatment and unable to provide for her, foster care was the only solution for the time being. When I found out, I was naturally devastated, but a very odd thing happened. Instead of thinking about getting loaded, the first thing I thought of was to talk to the treatment center's people, pick up that phone, call my sponsor and a few other sober AA members, and admit to them that because of my illness I am indeed in no position to have custody. I admitted my faults to DCS and am working on a case plan with them and will be reunited with my daughter in less than a year, giving me plenty of time to save money, get us a nice home and a vehicle, and progress further along in the AA program of recovery.
 
When I was in my active disease losing my daughter to DCS was my biggest fear, but thanks to the simple spiritual toolkit that AA gives me, I am able to stay sober and face my troubles head on and not even think about getting loaded. I have many things to be grateful for, especially that my beloved daughter is happy and safe, living in a caring, drug free environment. 


To-do:

Today I will remember to be grateful and humble. 

 

Check: https://www.amazon.com/One-Minute-Serenity-Revised-Strategies/dp/B0BNVF9Q44