Road To Redemption
Road To Redemption
Kimberly Coleman - Rock Bottom To Renewal
A truck ride to a thrift store, a body shaking from withdrawal, and a heart convinced it was too late—that’s where Kim’s turnaround begins. What unfolds is a raw, hope-filled journey through addiction, relapse, faith, and a reunion a decade in the making. We go past the highlight reel to the slow work: how self-medication starts with one prescription, how shame isolates, why conviction is different from condemnation, and what it takes to rebuild a life one honest step at a time.
Kim grew up in a stable home, but loss, divorce, and depression opened the door to pills, then to heroin when prescriptions stopped. At 58, she believed absence might be her greatest gift to her son. Instead, community and a long-term program gave her a scaffold to stand on. She shares the moment Scripture came alive, the power of hearing “come back” after a kratom slip, and the hard choice to reenter recovery when pride screamed no. We unpack practical tools for any season: choosing a program length that fits, finding sponsors and mentors, using simple routines to outlast cravings, and replacing guilt with action.
There’s no neat arc here—just perseverance, daily obedience, and a faith that offers dignity before results arrive. The story lands with a quiet miracle: a family reunion, a “Happy Thanksgiving, Mama” text, and the steady joy of paid bills, honest work, and real friends. If you’ve felt too old, too far gone, or too ashamed to try again, this conversation offers a clear path forward and a gentle push to take the next step. Press play, share with someone who needs courage, and if this moved you, subscribe, rate, and leave a review so more people can find their road to redemption.
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Welcome. I'm so excited to be here today with my friends, my new friend Kim Kimberly Coleman.
SPEAKER_01:Hello, John.
SPEAKER_02:Of course, our our co-host, Valerie Peterson. How is everybody today?
SPEAKER_00:I'm great.
SPEAKER_02:Well, uh, we'll start off a little bit. Kim, give us a little bit of background on you.
SPEAKER_01:I came down here. I'd like to say that I came down here because I was ready to turn my life around and just do the right thing. However, that wasn't the case. I really ended up down here at 58 years old out of desperation. Um, I had run out of all options, uh, hit so many rock bottoms, and uh, I really had nowhere to go. And I had a very dear friend in Atlanta that had actually picked me up on Side of the Road like 11 years ago. And for whatever reason, her and her husband, um, well, I know it's the love of Jesus, but they never would give up on me. And they tried to help me for many years, and I think she finally just realized that they didn't know what to do for me or how to help me. And um, someone had told her about Pathagrace. And so she came to me and she said that her and her husband Jody had prayed about it, and that she was willing to uh pick me up Monday morning and bring me to Destin. And so that morning she came and uh I literally just slivered into that truck, and uh she came, she drove me straight down here. Um, and she didn't give me much time to change my mind. She kind of dropped me at the thrift store and was gone, and we still laugh about that today because I think she was scared I was gonna change my mind and jump back in the truck. But that was that was probably the uh best thing that ever happened to me.
SPEAKER_00:Talk about just um a little bit about your history, about just addiction, mental health, your family.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. So I grew up in a home. It wasn't a perfect home, but it was a good home. It was a stable home. We never moved around, all four of us went to the same schools. We all um mom and dad loved us. Uh so very young though, I uh started getting into relationships. And uh in these relationships, it was not a big deal to use recreational drugs. It was just wasn't a big deal. So I think that I just really wasn't scared of that, you know, because it was just common. And uh so anyway, that um I ended up being in that type of, you know, atmospheres and relationships and had a son when I was 18, Scott. And uh, but as the years went on, I went through uh a couple of divorces. I was pretty devastated from it, went into a really deep, deep depression. Um I remember going to the doctor and uh the first time they ever prescribed me some Xanax. It was just supposed to help me calm down at night, and so my mind wouldn't race, and you know, and uh, but from there it took it was one pill and a glass of wine, and then it was two and three and four. And so this went on, and uh it wasn't it wasn't recreational use, it wasn't use for medical purposes. It was uh I was self-medicating. And not only was I self-medicating with what the doctors were prescribing, but I was using straight drugs. And so this all happened in my early 30s, and it just progressed over years that uh finally I had to allow my son to go to his father's because I wasn't even capable of, you know, helping him with schoolwork. I wasn't, you know, I was just I was really just went into uh a lot of self-pity, a lot of uh, you know, it was just all about Kim and how Kim was feeling, and Kim was heartbroken and Kim was, you know. So uh, but and and my son did. He he went and and it seemed like I remember thinking one day, because my son went from, you know, struggling in school till he was on the avian row, he was playing varsity football, he was, and I can remember thinking, well, even my son's better off without me. You know, so that just dove me deeper and deeper and deeper. So I hit so many rock bottoms, I uh started committing crimes to support my habit. I mean, I just I was very unstable. But I found myself at 58 through all of this. I had been through a terrible car wreck, had a traumatic brain injury, which added, you know, fuel because then I could justify, because doctors were giving me this medicine and I could justify because I was I had a brain injury. I couldn't work, I couldn't, you know. They had convinced me I would never be able to work again or or or just they told me I would never do anything more than take tickets, you know, like a ticket taker. Um so I had uh, so at 58, um the doctors, you know, there was an opiate epidemic. Uh so the doctors were being shut down. And so my doctor wasn't able to write for me anymore. So so in Atlanta, heroin's a big thing. So um, as you know, opiates are like a physical addiction as well. So I was suffering. I was dope sick, I was hurting, um, I wasn't thinking clearly, and uh so I started, you know, taking heroin and and from there it just dove. And so when I arrived here, um I was dope sick. I was all those things. Uh, you know, when I look back on it, I always believed in God. I I never denied that there was a God, but I never had a relationship, I never really opened a Bible and read it. I always had a Bible for looks, you know, on the table, but never opened them up and read it. But after I uh got down here, after a while of acceptance that, hey, Kim, you know, at the time it was you have somewhere to live, you have food to eat, you have clothes to put on, and and somehow or another you're just putting one foot in front of the other. That's when I realized God had entered. I remember opening the Bible up and the first thing that really well there was a lot that was a revelation, but the woman at the well, um, I felt like that woman. And for once in so many years, 25, 30 years, um, I felt it his presence and him telling me I already know all these bad decisions, I already know what, you know, but I still love you, and I think you're just the apple of my eye. And that gave me so much hope for once in all those years, like I felt hope, you know, and I that's when I knew God was in the story. But I'm still pretty stubborn. So I uh I went through the program for 22 months, and um, you know, God was pouring, you know, pouring into me. I was um felt like I had it, you know, this this was probably the best two years of my life in 30 years, you know. So I I did graduate the program, went into transitional living, and but about four months in, you know, my mind convinced me that uh there was just stuff at the convenience store called Kratom. And I was tired one day, and so you know, it was legal, it was at a convenience store, and so I tried it. And it wasn't that it really done anything to me, but I think that addictive personality kicked right back in, and I was just chugging it. And it should it showed on my face, it showed on me very quickly, and Eddie and them became very concerned, and I just didn't feel good all the time, just didn't feel good. And uh so you know that's against the rules of living and transitional as well. And uh so I had to, you know, they wanted to test me, and so I just came forward and said, this is what I'm doing. But, you know, in that moment it tore me up. It just tore me up. It tore me up to see Eddie's face for one thing, because he does genuinely care about each woman there. And uh I just fell apart. Um, but I knew that was when the Holy Spirit dwelt in me because I could not get past that. I could not get past that. And uh I called Daddy, I said, I don't know what to do. I can't, you know, I don't and he said, Well, Kim, just come on back because we love you, we're family. And you know, I look back on that, and you know, it had took those 22 months to just prepare me to step back in there and to allow God to work with, you know, work with me, through me. Um, but it wasn't easy. It was not an easy task walking back through those doors.
SPEAKER_00:But how I look at it is listening to you today is the setback, that was a huge setback. You know, kind of like a stick shift car, the setback is you go backwards before you really go forward. Listening to you today, it was like you you got a greater understanding, healing from from willing your willingness to to come back. And I think there may be a listener today that that may be back into active use, and I bet you would say to them what? Take a step forward.
SPEAKER_01:If you just have to put one foot in front of the other, because I had to do that a lot of days. And there was days I was like, I can't, you know, but I would just tell myself, I'll just see how I feel tomorrow. And then tomorrow I would say, I'll see how I feel tomorrow. And, you know, because I just couldn't, you know, I had I had found this freedom and this peace, and I wasn't willing to give it up just quite that easy. But at the same time, it was it was very difficult if that makes any sense. But so I understand the freedom and peace was It was from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And so going back out.
SPEAKER_01:So going back out You gave it up. And I but I I think all those years before I never really knew what I was giving up because I didn't know him.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't know the Lord. Yeah. You know, I knew of him, but I didn't know him. And I think once he dwells in you, and uh um once you understand, I used to think that it was some level I had to come to in Christianity to have the Holy Spirit. And I learned through the program as well that that's just a conviction in my heart.
SPEAKER_00:You know, so um And I love in in Romans 8 where it says, There's no condemnation in Christ Jesus, but there is conviction.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And conviction is a gift from God. And if someone is feeling conviction today as they're listening in, take a step forward, right, Kim?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, most definitely. Um I do have to say it's not an easy step. Um, and it is a hard step, and it's scary. It's so scary. Um I wish I could tell you, I mean, the only thing I persevere, you know, like I've had to, but in in all aspects of my life, even since I've left the program now, and even in my job and my everyday life, I have to persevere. I have to, I have to push through. If that's that's one gift I've really received is how to, you know, because used to I would look for an excuse to give up, or I'd look for an excuse to justify my actions, or um, you know, going back to that type of lifestyle. You know, today I don't even feel like that person. Like it just amazes me. Uh like I'm like, was that me? Like, was did I really walk through those things? Did I really, you know, but I I just want to say, like, at 58, I just thought I had done so much. And, you know, and that's just not true. Like, even at now I'm 63. And I tell you, I am excited about my life today.
SPEAKER_02:Amen. You know just getting started.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I like I really feel that way. I really feel that way now because it's a it's a different life, it's a new life, you know.
SPEAKER_02:I think to a lot of what too um the enemy um wants to get people that are in the fallenness. It could be addiction, it could be all kinds of things. Everybody has things, you know. Uh, but he wants to get us in guilt and shame. Especially like, you know, when we have a repeated pattern, or or you go maybe go back to using after not using, and and get us in so much guilt and shame that we just we don't, you know, he doesn't want us, you know, to know that we can go to our Father, turn to him and say, I'm sorry. Yes, I repent. And I want to take that step. I mean, I uh you know, because Jesus forgives us for our sins, we're washed clean, he doesn't remember any of it. And that's what's so great, what I think you've experienced, but also you know, so that guilt and shame. I think a lot of people I think feel that.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and I did for a long time, like it held me back. And definitely with the age too, it was a big thing. Like I've just gone too old to change my life.
SPEAKER_00:And I hope you're speaking to someone today that may be older and maybe say I'm too old to to get help. Never too old is what I'm hearing you say.
SPEAKER_01:Right, not for me.
SPEAKER_00:You know, as you were as you were talking. I love when when you know you do it just reminded me of the verse, wherever it is, we're a new creation in Christ. The old is gone isn't and the new is here. And I look at you kind of mentioned that you just took it a day at a time. You know, Matthew 6, where it says, Don't look at tomorrow, stay in today. Sometimes, Kim, from my perspective, it's hard to even go a full day. I sometimes, when you know, there's situational stress is I have to go hour by hour. I don't know if you ever felt that way when you came back. And said, Okay, father, I can get back, I can get through the morning or I can get through the next hour with your help.
SPEAKER_01:Most definitely. And you know, Miss Val, I uh I dealt with a lot of loss because along the way I lost my mom and dad. Uh my siblings were just finished. Like they were, they I had one who is definitely my biggest supporter today, my brother Mark, that didn't even want to hear my name before, you know. And then my son, by choice, not by family and children's services or anything else, by choice, decided that he could not tolerate that anymore. He could not, he didn't want my granddaughter to see that behavior in me. He didn't want to see it. It made him, you know, and he chose to walk away. You know, and so the first time I went through the I actually went through the program twice, a total of 42 months, with just a very few months uh that I was gone between those two. Um but I seen a lot of the the women who work very hard uh be reunited with their children that they were told would never have their children in their life again. Never, you know, by family and children's services or or whoever. Um and now they are living and and they have their children with them and it's a beautiful thing. And so, you know, of course, as a mother I wanted that, uh, but it just didn't happen for me. It didn't happen for me the first time I went to the program, it didn't happen for me the second time. Um but that's when I knew that I was, you know, even though those that desire in my heart had not come to pass, I knew that Kim had to be okay. And for whenever that day was, that Kim had to be at her best version, you know, if that day was to ever come. And what I've learned through it all is also, and I try to explain this to a lot of people, but we have to, I I believe because I persevered, I kept moving forward, and I walk I'm not a perfect person, I have to repent every night. But I try to walk in obedience every day. And I try to do the best I try to make the best decisions that I'm able to make today. And um so after 42 months in the program, after me going back to transitional, getting a uh a job here in Seaside, I'm very excited about, um a family reunion came to be. My son came. It was November the third.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, praise God.
SPEAKER_01:Um after ten, over ten years. I can't imagine special. I mean, it's still just I'm still just in awe because I didn't deserve that. I had done nothing to earn that, you know, you can't earn that. Um and and it was so wonderful that day because he was so inviting and he was so sweet. And uh I was worried, you know, even if he did and and it's so funny because when I got there, my brother had told him, Your mom. Mom's gonna be there. And he still chose to come, but um and in the past he chose not to come to situations where I was there. And uh I remember that day because we had already said the blessing, and I'd fixed me a plate of food, and I went and sat down and I thought, okay, you gotta you know, I was excited to see everybody else, some siblings, my oldest brother I'd not seen in nine years, so I was excited about seeing them, but at the same time, my heart kind of dropped, you know. And I took one bite of food and looked up and there he was, and I couldn't eat anymore. And you know, we're having I'm taking baby steps, you know, like I got a text Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, Mama. I hope you're having a good day. You know, so I'm having to take baby steps and uh but it just shows that, you know, things, I mean, six, six years ago I was on the streets of Atlanta, strung out on heroin. My mom and dad's gone, my siblings don't want to even hear my name. My son doesn't want, you know, no part of me. And so you can't tell me there's not a God in heaven, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Amen.
SPEAKER_01:You can't tell me that because like today, like I I don't have a whole lot of stuff, but I have the food I want to eat, I my bills are paid, I have decent clothes, I'm I can walk with a little bit of dignity today.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and Kim, it's it's so much too about, yes, you're you're off drugs and alcohol and all that, but you have more than that. You have true freedom and joy in your life, you know, and and and reconciliation. And that's what's so amazing, you know, about your story is you know, in your mind you're probably just thinking, okay, I just want to get free of the drugs, but you've been completely set free. I I was thinking as you were talking our show Road to Redemption, your story is is just is a road to redemption, isn't it? I mean, with your your whole life, your family, I mean, it just gives gives me so much encouragement. And I know there's people listening, they're encouraged.
SPEAKER_00:And I have to say, as you were talking of that, just kept coming to mind the verse in Joel 2, I'll restore the years the locusts is eaten. Look at you, and the restoration is just it's just amazing and how cool, like you're saying, this this show, The Road to Redemption. You are such an example of God's goodness.
SPEAKER_02:I I wanted to say something about I I feel like the people that are in these situations of addictions, they want to take this step, but a lot of it is they hear, you know, the these successful programs are also, you know, 22 months, and and a lot of people are like, I don't want to go do 22 months. You know, I I've heard it from friends of mine that you know, I'll go for one month or two months somewhere. Can you talk a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_01:I wouldn't even go do a 30-day program. Now, if my parole officer or my probation officer told me I had to go somewhere, I might do 30. But I knew what I was gonna do when I walked out that door. I was just doing it to get past that point to the next, you know. Um, so I it it it's an unexplainable, supernatural strength that the Lord, only the Lord could do that for me. You know, because it does, it takes a lot of willingness to walk through those doors. You give up your phone, you give up everything, and you just say, Here I am. I don't even know how to explain that.
SPEAKER_02:But it flies by, I feel like.
SPEAKER_01:It does, and let me, and I tell the girls um all the time, because I I sponsor three women there now, and I tell them all the time, and this is the truth, the deeper you dig in and build that relationship with the Lord, and the more, the longer you stay and continue walking in obedience, the bigger the blessings. And it's not just about well, it is about the blessings, but it's not all about the blessings, but like I am surrounded by people in my life now that are friends. They're my friends. And like these people would have well that I just wouldn't have been able to be friends. You know, I I wasn't a trustworthy, I wasn't a uh respected person, you know, I didn't show respect, I didn't have it, you know, and today all that's so different. It's like I've never, it's like God has truly just erased my whole background. Um being from the program too, uh in this area, uh employers just turn their head to your background, your background. If you put in the work and and and and you show your dedication and your willingness, and it does take a lot of willingness, it does, because I see them talking to girls on the phone. And uh I think had I called on the phone, I probably it was Paula that brought me. I didn't know what to expect when I got here. And I think maybe that was a blessing. Because if I'd have sat on the phone and heard all that, I probably wouldn't have gotten a try that day. So just do it. Just if you don't do anything else, just do it. And and it if you don't know the Lord, like I had to grab a a verse. I remember walking around with verses in my pocket, and I just have to pull them verses out throughout the day just to keep going, to keep putting that one foot in front of the other when it literally felt just that way.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I do feel called to say for those listeners that um I think there's so many good programs that this one may not be for everyone. And there's so many good programs. True. Just step out. Yeah, and and you know, I've seen some tremendous success as a a therapist in private practice with three-month programs. They're they're they're there can they not everyone needs a two-year program. And so I I do want I feel called to say that, but it's a start to step out, yes, talk to somebody that you trust, and get help.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yes. And you know, um, I think back on it and I think there's seeds, you know. I've I've seen, and I don't encourage anybody to leave the program or anything like that, but I have seen women that that even though they might not have had the willingness right then, some seeds were planted and they've gone on and now they're success stories.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01:And uh so yes, please, please step out, even at my age, even it don't matter how old you are. God, you know, and this was a big revelation to me, and it sounds so simple, but it's really not. I never realized there was a purpose for my life. Nobody told me that. Nobody ever told me there was a purpose for my life, and that was just huge. And there's a purpose for everybody's life. Yes, I love it, every single person. So true.
SPEAKER_02:But God wants you to take that step, and I think the the greatest thing we can tell our listeners is to cry out to God right now in in prayer. Because if you'll cry out to him, he'll open doors.
SPEAKER_01:You know, he's right there.
SPEAKER_02:Well, let's I just want to pray right now for that, Lord. Lord, Father God, we just uh we thank you for Kim for coming on and sharing, being vulnerable and sharing her testimony. And Father, we just ask that any anyone listening now that's going through any addiction or just any struggle, Lord, um we pray for them. We lift them up right now. You you know their name, you know everything about them. And Father, we just ask that you come and meet them right now. Let them hear you, let them feel your presence, and and Father, just open a door for them, open a door for them to get help, and and and give them the strength to take that step, to make the call to do whatever it is today to get the help that you have for them. And I we just pray that you encourage them, that you have their back, you have them in the palm of your hand, and you're gonna take them through it and bless them and bring them freedom, the kind of freedom that Kimberly has today. Amen.
unknown:Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_02:I just think before we go, I just think there's no coincidence that my Bible is open to Matthew. Um Matthew 14, verse 27, and it says that uh, but Jesus immediately said to them, Take courage, don't be afraid. And then he said, Come. So I just think that's there's no coincidence in that, that that's what I just look down to. So, folks, just take courage, take that step, and um we know God's gonna bless you.