This is Baxter, he is owned by a prostitution rehab clinic and particularly loved by a former prostitute named Gracie.
I did a documentary on Gracie recently and sat down and heard her whole life story. In an attempt to make her comfortable with being interviewed I asked her about Baxter, in which she started crying because of how much the dog has meant to her and her recovery.
Gracie is one of my heroes. When she was 9 her mother injected her with heroin to sell her into a life of prostitution, drugs and anything else you can imagine. I was fortunate enough to not only get to hear her story but capture it on film. and last year, she graduated from a year of rehabilitation.
In attempts to escape her pimp, she walked up to a cop and said “it’s a lovely day for a blow job” and he said “you either are crazy or you need help, can I pray for you?” in the shock she said “but you’re a cop” and he responded “yea, but I’m a child of God first”.
In the interview that I did with her, she told me about her attempt at aborting her daughter with a coat hanger and crack. Transcribed (some parts may be graphic):
“I woke up I was tied to the bed and he [my pimp] was giving me an abortion because you know you can’t be a prostitute if your pregnant. But the sick part was I was ok with it. I think as that’s the sick part because I wanted drugs I thought I needed drugs and I knew I wanted them. I told him to untie me that he could finish what he was doing just let me get high or just go ahead put a piece on the pipe you know so I can get high. But you see once again God had his hand on me because the child that I’m talking about is 24 today. She is 24 years old she just turned 24 last month on the first, September the first. All the digging and plunging that we did, she wouldn’t come out. I did not even spot bleed and you could say he got bored I got bored form trying to kill my own kid. We went to get high and when I start to get high I start throwing up. I couldn’t inhale the smoke. Once again God had his hand on me but he also he carried her, Caroline is, that’s my daughters name, she is a miracle baby, because he tried to kill her, then I did cause after a while I felt her growing it just like God said ‘no this is my baby no matter what Satan leads you to believe your not gonna get rid of her’. I couldn’t get high no more, I start throwing up, it was like all of a sudden I’d be wide awake and when I think about drugs somebody would knock me out, I would just go sound to sleep and sleep so good. It was all kinds of mess going around me, now that I have a relationship with Jesus I know that wasn’t nobody but God, how he protected that baby…
…And when [Caroline] was little she knew something was wrong with me she just didn’t know what was wrong with me. A lot of times she pulled my shoes off, I can remember her covering me up. I can remember one time being so sick from some dope, I didn’t have no money and she told me, she’s just a little bitty thing, she said, ‘well if you don’t go out and let the men do that, ill give you some money’, that’s what my kid told me, and I was sick. And I was like ok, she went and took up the vents, she’d been taking change and been putting them down the vents so we could have money. She had a sock full of pennies and stuff she had gathered from where ever and she brought me that sack of pennies and all of her change. And I went and got me some dope…
…I didn’t raise none of my children and sometimes I still feel guilty about that, but I don’t go get high. I remember my Bluetooth with Jesus, I get on my Bluetooth and I talk to him about how I’m feeling, because he’s the only reason I don’t get high, he’s still got that hand over me you know.”
Honestly, that is just a blip from a two hour long story. But she changed my prayer life. The simple idea of just talking to Jesus and telling him how you’re feeling was so well put, simple and freeing.
I was able to watch her graduate from rehab. She is an honor to know
She is living proof that wherever you’re at in life, you can be forgiven and redeemed.