Ryan C.'s Path to Sobriety: Embracing the 12 Steps

Every day of my life, because God and Alcoholics Anonymous, I'm no longer a burden to society. I'm a husband. And I've heard so many people and I got to talk about a few men's really quickly. My sister, Julie, um, I borrowed her credit card when I came here on, uh, on that Memorial day weekend and I borrowed 5,800 to some dollars. What that means translated in real Alcoholics Anonymous languages, I came over here with a guy and we stayed drunk all weekend and it was snowing in July. It was Thanksgiving time. She was coming in and I told Jim, I don't know what to do. Thanksgiving time, she was coming in and I told Jim, I don't know what to do. I can't hear her because last time she told me was don't ever speak to her again. I don't have that's only 50. He said, Ryan, she don't want your money. And what I want you to do is when she tells you to get away, you leave that that 50 bill and you and you listen to her and you and you tell her you harmed her this is how you harmed her and you shut up and listen and you ask her how you how that made her feel you shut up and listen and you ask her is there any way you can make this wrong right you shut up and listen and i did that and she did the exact same thing she walked up to me and says i don't want everyone to see get away from me i. I'm so, and the $50 bill came out and she stopped. I take everything in the world from you, my act of alcoholism. I'm never a giver. And it was something different that she seen in me that day. I stole this money from you. And you know what she told me? My autistic nephew, Ross was here that day was here during all that. And she told me what I did to him. And she told me what I did to my parents. She told me how she was sick and my mother happened to raise my kids and how it was just such a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She said, I don't want your money. She took the money, put it in her pocket, walked away. And she didn't speak to me no more. And my sponsor said, good, good. Now, every time you go to work and you get a little money here, you put a $20 bill in a card and you send it to her. You go to a dollar store and buy you a pack of these cards and send it to her and get you a book of stamps. If you can't afford stamps, they bought me my first book of stamps. And each and every time I got money, I'd put it in there and I'd stick it in the mailbox and I'd put the flag up and I'd just send it. And it got to the point where I didn't even think about it. And God now called us anonymous with a man that was unemployable, that had no job. You don't have to send me no more money. You don't have to send me no more money. You don't have to send me no more money. God paid her off. No more closes can be. It's just an amazing thing. The guy that came to my house with a gun, the guy that came to my house with a gun the guy that came to my house got my kids i wasn't my kids weren't there the first time he came and i answered my door with a gun in my front and a bottle of booze and i said buddy either get off my property or whatever i'm not going to get into what i told this guy that was a state of west virginia worker and he started crying. I was sponsoring a guy about a year and a half sober. I said, Greg, can I have a minute of your time? Please, please give me your time. And I told him what I did. And the man started crying. He said, Ron, I don't know what you've done or what's happened to you, but you {