Shea's Way Back
When Mila was born, all Shea could see were the walls closing in. Her parents had kicked her out, her fiancée had recently passed away, and her life revolved around when she could use next. And now she had a newborn baby to care for.
The first few months of Baby Mila’s life were a blur. When asked about them, all Shea recalled was the constant screaming. When Mila was 5 months old, she was brought to the hospital with symptoms of craving and withdrawal. Shea had been using throughout her pregnancy. With this discovery, social services were called. Mila was removed from Shea’s arms just as quickly as she had been placed in them. Shea felt suffocated.
Mila had been placed in the care of her grandparents, who were also sick with worry about their daughter, Shea. Despite having been estranged for the past eight years, when Mila was placed in their care, Shea’s parents welcomed her back with open arms. The court had ordered Shea to live separately from Mila, so to comply, her parents created a separate suite for her to live in. But even with their support, Shea was struggling with using, her past trauma and the guilt she felt around her daughter’s separation. Desperate to find help, they encouraged Shea to enter a treatment-focused court program in Jefferson County. This is where their journey with Savio began.
The Savio therapist began visiting the home weekly to meet with Shea, Mila, Grandma, and Grandpa. While Grandma and Grandpa were enthusiastic about learning new ways to communicate as a family and support their daughter and granddaughter, Shea was much more reluctant to open up, often silent and disengaged throughout sessions and unwilling to interact with Mila and her parents. Yet, her therapist kept trying, showing up week after week with energy and enthusiasm, reiterating the same goal; returning Mila to Shea’s custody.
After a few weeks, Shea realized that her therapist wasn’t going anywhere. Slowly, she began letting people back in. But her grief and shame were still overwhelming. One day while waiting with her for their scheduled family time with Mila, she broke down crying. “I don’t deserve to be Mila’s mother”, she cried.
Soon after, Shea and her therapist explored Shea’s postpartum depression, and the trauma she carried from losing her daughter’s father. Her therapist assured her that she did deserve to be Mila’s mother, and her worst moments did not define the type of mother she could become.
As Shea began making progress in FIT court, her confidence as a mom continued to grow. Her relationship with her parents was healing and for the first time in eight years they were able to communicate openly, addressing all that they had been through in Shea’s journey with substance misuse. Shea started taking classes at a local community college and never missed a family session with her daughter. She even enrolled in Savio’s SafeCare program to educate herself on healthy parenting skills, child health and safety and parent-infant bonding.
And after months of hard work, her dreams had come true. Shea and Mila were reunited. As their last session ended, Shea, Mila and their therapist lingered on their front porch. “I feel like I have my life back, I have my family back, and I’m finally feeling like me again”, Shea whispered to her therapist in their final embrace. “Thank you”. And for one final time, her therapist reminded her that this had been in her all along; she just needed help realizing that.