But like any family, we had our own hurts behind closed doors, and those hurts that came into my world as a little girl formed the rest of my days. I won’t get into the ugly details here, but as years went on, I started to realize I was always noticed for my outward appearance; my hair, my legs, my eyes, my smile (and my tush!). NEVER for my sense of humor or my quick wit or my creativity. I started looking for acceptance from the boys more intensely when I was about 8 years old. When I was a freshman in high school with my first serious boyfriend (I was a cheerleader, he played football), I became pregnant and was forced to terminate the pregnancy by both of our parents. On the premise, we would be ruining our lives if we had a baby then. Thus leading to the rest of my story.

For the rest of my high school days, I dated a little here and there and had one other serious relationship. I believed this boy would one day choose to marry me. After high school, he went away to the Air Force, and needless to say, we did not marry.

Over the next couple of years, I became extremely promiscuous, believing the lie that I was “in control” and “empowered”. I was in full-throttle nightlife: Sex, drugs, and techno….VIP, champagne, and cocaine.  When I turned 21, my girlfriend and I decided to “hit the (strip club) circuit” in East St. Louis to get jobs as cocktail waitresses. Another moment that formed the next few days of my life.

I stood at the bar filling out an application when a man I thought was a patron approached me. He had jet black hair, gold chains, a white T-shirt, American flag printed “jammie pants”, and… an ankle bracelet. He was not a patron, but the owner. He was on “House arrest” for tax evasion and still operating the club. He asked me what I was doing. I stopped filling out the application and looked him in his eyes, then at the application and back in his eyes, and said, “I’m filling out…. an application” (duh?!? I said that part quietly).

He asked, “For what?”

“A cocktail waitress,” I said confidently.

He stepped back, looked at me, and declared, “You’re not a waitress. You’re a DANCER!”

“I AM NOT a dancer”, I immediately responded and laughed.

“You want to make a bet?” he challenged.

OH! He’s asking this 21-year-old “empowered girl”, " Do I want to BET?”!

Yes!... Yes, I do want to bet.

He flatly said, “Come back tonight at 7:00. Dance one set and tell me you’re not a Dancer.”

BET! (……WHAT?!?!)

I flew home to my townhouse, grabbed my club clothes and a bottle of vodka, and my girlfriend and I headed back to the club.

I danced ONE SET… money fell at my feet…. And just like that…I was a Dancer!

Fast forward just a bit: while I was in the nightlife scene as a dancer, I did end up meeting my future husband, the father of my son. I thought it best to step down from dancing if we were going to get serious. Our life was still very much in the “lifestyle” I jokingly would say, “Ever heard of dancing with the devil… we hosted his parties!” We eventually moved to Florida, and that forever changed the many days that followed.

We lived a very hedonistic lifestyle that eventually ended in divorce after thirteen years together. He left me with a drained bank account, a house with a pile of bills, and an unreliable vehicle. I was in the darkest, most broken & vulnerable point of my life with a now 5-year-old son. We were often times one financial “uh-oh” from being homeless. I lost a management position in hospitality and couldn’t find work to save my life. So, to keep us in our home, I walked myself back into the commercial sex industry. What a super slippery slope! Within months, I fell deeper and deeper into a realm that was out of my control and found myself being sold online, out of hotel rooms, through a large trafficking operation in Broward County, Florida. I didn’t know that was what was happening at the time. I just thought that was my life, I didn’t know it had a name…. Human sex trafficking.

Now, I am skipping MANY of the ugly details of how and why that was by far the scariest time of my life… but to get back to the initial point of why I am an on fire, sold out believer in Jesus Christ. Simply put… He SAVED MY LIFE – over and over again! After some hard-pressed prayers, I was able to leave “the Life” in 2011. I gave my life to Him in 2013 and started Tigerlili Resources (by His complete direction) in August 2014.

Initially, I started serving “Suddenly Single Moms” like me. I knew if I was in such a broken and hurting place, there were thousands of other moms who were too. I wanted to do all I could to help keep even ONE woman from thinking that was her “lot in life”. In July 2015, the LORD called me back home to the St. Louis area to do “what He needed me to do”. I trusted Him, so I went, and I brought Tigerlili with me.

In March of 2017, He revealed to me what human trafficking was and that I was a survivor. That hit me like a freight train, and my emotions were wrecked. He has since healed me from the hurts and traumas my life carried, and I again gave Him my “yes” to shift our ministry focus to serve survivors of human trafficking in America. In December 2024, we again expanded our mission to fill a huge need in our country of serving child survivors of sex trafficking.

It is my honor and privilege to serve these precious ones, and God willing, I will be doing this all the days of my life…. Or until He ENDS child trafficking!