Over the past 4 years of dealing with my son's addiction issues there have been several times when I had the feeling that someone was watching over him (perhaps my mother). Today was another one of those days, with a minor miracle just when we needed it. I thought I'd pass it on.

My son has been on methadone for 5 months because of a heroin addiction and he has been doing pretty well. Recently, though, he got the idea to start using Spice (synthetic marijuana) as a way to get high because it doesn't show up on drug tests. He quickly became addicted and all of the old addict behavior came back. My husband is out of town on business and I was left home with my son while he was pawning all of his belongings and running across town to buy Spice every day. He found the extra key to one of the cars and refused to give it back. I had all of the information from his doctor to help him through withdrawal, but as long as he had transportation, he couldn't stop himself from getting in the car to buy more. My husband let me know he would have him removed by the police to the nearest homeless shelter if he hasn't agreed to quit by the time he returns next week. That scared me because then he might have to quit methadone, which would lead him through horrible withdrawals and right back to heaven.

This morning I was debating whether to have someone help me move the car off the property using our other key, risking a major confrontation. The other option was to let it run out of gas, which would happen soon. Meanwhile, though, I'd have to risk letting him drive again, knowing he was getting high. I had to find a way to get that car away from him for everyone's protection and because it's the key to getting him off the Spice. (It's a 35 mile round trip, so he can't walk. We don't have public transportation where we live and he doesn't really have any friends left who would help him get this.)

I picked up the mail and found a letter to my son from the city. He got a DUI ticket two years ago and they said he paid everything except $50. Then I opened a second letter. This one was from the Division of Motor Vehicles. Because of this $50 his driver's license was suspended effective immediately. I showed him the letter. After thinking about it for 10 minutes, he turned over the key to me and agreed to start going through Spice withdrawal today. He took the medicine from the doctor this morning and is well on the way to getting this poison out of his system. Then he'll be back to sobriety.

I just found the original court order. The letter was a mistake. He is paid in full. What an amazing coincidence that someone made this mistake and that we got the letter with his license suspended exactly as I was struggling with how to get the car key away from him. That ticket is more than two years old!

I'm calling it serendipity, but I really have the feeling it's my Mom helping us from heaven. This type of thing has now happened five times. That really makes me feel that everything is going to be OK.