♡ From Ashes to Eternity ♡

Our Story

A testimony of recovery, faith, marriage restoration, and the grace of Jesus Christ.

A testimony told with honesty and hope

This is the story behind From Ashes to Eternity: addiction, loss, recovery, marriage restoration, and the God who kept reaching for us even when we turned our back on Him.

“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.”

Joel 2:25

Chapter 1

Before the Ashes

I spent my entire twenties chasing a high that was slowly killing me. Then God had other plans.

My name is Heather. If you are reading this, I want you to know that whatever you are carrying right now, and whatever rock bottom looks like for you, there is a way out. I know because I lived it.

My story does not start with a back alley, a bad crowd, or some mysterious drug from a shady dealer. It started with a wedding, a horse, and a prescription.

I was 22, freshly married, and on top of the world. My husband Jake and I had just had what felt like a mystical, magical wedding in Vegas. We were newlyweds, still deep in the honeymoon phase, when a car accident shattered the life we thought we were building. Jake was prescribed pain pills for chronic pain and serious back injuries. Months later, I was bucked off a horse and prescribed the same type of opiate medication for my own back injury, just at a lower dose.

That is how it started. Two people in love. Two legitimate prescriptions. Absolutely no idea what was coming.

I remember the first time I took a pain pill and actually felt it. If you have ever struggled with feeling like you do not belong anywhere, like there is a quiet ache inside you that nothing touches, you may understand what I mean. For the first time in my life, I felt whole. Confident. Like I fit. Like the noise inside my head finally went quiet.

It was a lie. A beautiful, devastating lie.

What I did not know then was that I had been searching for that feeling most of my life. I had tried other substances in high school and college, but nothing ever felt like “it.” Then came the opiates, and I thought I had found what I was looking for. Except “it” was a trap with no visible door.

Chapter 2

The Breaking Point

What followed was nine years of opiate addiction, or what I often call hell on earth.

Percocet. Morphine. Fentanyl. Eventually pills bought off the street because the prescriptions were not enough anymore. For years, we woke up every morning with one mission before anything else: find the little pill that would make the pain go away.

Before work. Before appointments. Before family. Before anything that day could begin, we had to find it. We could not feel better until we found a dealer who had it. We could not work. We could not function. We could not show up for our lives.

Eventually, we were not even getting high anymore. We were taking pills just to feel normal. That was our life for about nine years. Every single day.

We tried rehab at RiverSource and left after ten days because we were not ready. During that time, my mother-in-law called and said she was going to put our beloved service dog in the pound if we did not come get her. After everything we had already lost, there was no way we were going to lose our fur baby too.

The truth is, I did not want to go to rehab in the first place. I went mostly out of fear, because I was told I might lose Jake if I did not go. And when you are not ready to get sober, you do not get sober. That is not how it works.

After rehab, we thought we were ready to conquer the world. We broke our lease and moved from Phoenix to Flagstaff, believing a new city would fix us. It did not. Addiction came with us. Wherever we went, there it was.

We lost jobs, money, trust, and hope. We drained our savings, filed for bankruptcy, lost a car, and lost a home. We tried detox and relapsed the same day we walked out. We tried camping in the middle of nowhere with no access to drugs and lasted half a day.

We let our family down more times than I can count. We broke promises. We missed birthdays. I can barely remember most of my twenties, and that is not a metaphor. Addiction steals your memory the same way it steals everything else.

At our lowest, we were homeless, living out of our only vehicle and taking showers at the gym because a gym membership was one of the only things we still had. Everything else was gone. And we still continued to use...

Chapter 3

The Border, the Prayer, and the Promise

There was one moment that changed everything. Not immediately, but permanently.

We had gotten involved with dangerous people. We crossed into Mexico and came back carrying something we should not have had. On the way back through the border, they flagged our car, put a cone on top of it, and walked us into a separate room.

I watched a German Shepherd inspecting the other cars and felt my entire body go cold. Our vehicle was next.

I have never prayed so hard in my life.

I laid my head on Jake's lap while he ran his fingers through my hair, trying to keep me calm even though he was terrified too. In that room, I made God a promise: “If You get us out of this, I will spend the rest of my life getting sober. I promise.”

I visualized the officer handing back our IDs and saying, “You are good to go.” I must have pictured it a hundred times.

Then the officer walked in, handed us our IDs, and said, “You are good to go.” Just like I had imagined.

I was stunned. I could not fully understand what had just happened. I made God a promise that day. We did not get sober overnight, because addiction does not work that way, but something shifted in me. That promise never left me. God was watching over us that day, and I knew there might not be a next time.

Chapter 4

The Long Road Back

My brother came to visit us from Illinois. Little did I know this would be the last time I would see him.

He was also addicted to pretty much the same thing as us, just with a different name: heroin. I remember getting in a huge fight with my brother because he accused my husband of stealing his drugs, and I told him that Jake would never do that. After that ridiculous fight, my brother and I made each other a promise that the next time we met up, whether I went to visit him in Illinois or he came back to Arizona to visit me, we would both be sober next time. Sadly, he did not make it to that day. My father told me that he found him lifeless at home in Illinois, and that when they did the drug screen, they had found fentanyl in his system.

I carry that memory with me every single day. But I also carry it as fuel, because now I have to keep that promise for both of us.

There were also moments of grace in the middle of the wreckage. Even though we left RiverSource too early, I felt something there that I can only describe as the arms of Jesus wrapping around me. I was completely empty inside. That confident, whole feeling from the pills was long gone, and what remained was a hollow, depressed shell of a person.

But in that moment, I felt peace. I felt like He was telling me, “You will get there. Not today. But you will get there.”

He was right.

Chapter 5

Healing and Grace

We tried everything before Methadone. Rehab. Detox. Camping far from home. Willpower. A change of scenery. None of it worked for us.

I know there is a major stigma around Methadone and Medication-Assisted Treatment. I am here to say this clearly: the MAT clinic helped save our lives. God was the true lifesaver, but He used that clinic as a tool. And even six years later, it still helps us.

If you are struggling and nothing has worked, please do not let pride or stigma keep you from trying something that might actually help. God can use many kinds of tools to save a life. He used Methadone to help save ours.

We never gave up on each other. Even when we thought God had given up on us because we had given up on Him, He was there the whole time. Watching over us. Protecting us. Helping us.

We were just too high to see it at the time.

That is the beauty of the Lord. He is always there, waiting for us to open our hearts to Him. God will never force us into a relationship with Him, but He will always be waiting.

Chapter 6

Marriage Restoration

Jake and I have been married 15 years. We celebrated our anniversary on New Year's Eve 2025. Same holiday. A whole new life.

We have been sober for six years, and we have rebuilt more than I once thought possible. We now own a luxury transportation business, Get You There Luxury Rideshare, with five-star reviews and clients who have been with us for years. We have savings. Investments. A peaceful two-bedroom apartment we have lived in for five years, the longest we have ever lived anywhere in our relationship.

We have four rescue animals, two cats and two service dogs. We laugh constantly. Our home is full of peace. I do not take any day for granted because I know God gave us a second chance, and He never gave up on us.

Jake and I have the same tattoo except on opposite wrists so that when we hold hands the tattoo comes together. It is Genesis 2:23-24:

“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”

He really did leave and cleave. Through addiction, bankruptcy, homelessness, and loss, he chose me. And I chose him. That verse is us.

Chapter 7

Why From Ashes to Eternity Exists

About two weeks before this was written, I was walking my dogs, which is when I do my best thinking, and I had an epiphany that stopped me in my tracks.

My YouTube channel was called From Addict to Entrepreneur.

F. A. T. E.

FATE.

It had been my channel name for years, and I had never seen it that way before. In that moment, I knew this was not an accident. Not the addiction. Not the nine years. Not the loss. Not the survival. God had been leading me somewhere.

From Ashes to Eternity was born from that realization.

FATE is a Christian product store and community for people who know their mess was not the end of the story. It is for recovering addicts. For Christian husbands and wives who want to rebuild. For families and friends walking alongside someone in addiction. For women rebuilding faith, home, marriage, and peace after hard seasons. For anyone who has ever felt too far gone.

You are not too far gone.

Your mess can become a message of hope for someone else, just like ours did.

And we are just getting started...

Chapter 8

For the Woman Starting Again

Here you will find Christian planners, workbooks, prayer pages, and peaceful home resources created to help you show up intentionally for your faith, your marriage, your home, and your life.

You will also find honest encouragement for the woman rebuilding after addiction, grief, chaos, shame, or a season she never thought she would survive.

If that is you, I want you to know this: God can still make something beautiful from your story.

Your past is not too broken for Him. Your home is not too far gone. Your marriage is not beyond His reach. Your life is not over.

My mess became the message.

Maybe yours will too.

Heather Stewart, Co-Founder of From Ashes to Eternity with Jake Stewart