The boots were already wet. Long before the puddle she’s standing in now, Yvonne had been wading through storms—storms born from a twisted childhood and a turbulent second marriage, where mental and physical abuse were as common as the rain.
On her wedding day, she and her groom drank hard before the vows, and harder after.
“We was already pretty lit,” she remembers. “We ended up fighting, and I ended up leaving.”
Fueled by booze, beatings, and bravado, she climbed into her car and sped into the dark.
She woke up in jail.
Her one phone call went to her new husband. His voice was heavy.
“Do you know what you did? Someone’s grandma is on life support. You hit her and left the scene.”
“I got so drunk that I did a hit-and-run,” Yvonne admits.
Miraculously, the woman survived. But the brush with tragedy wasn’t enough to wash away the pain. She still dreamed of saving her broken family, leading them to Christ—but hadn’t yet stepped into her own healing.
Standing in the Flood
Five years later, her husband promised change. “I want to be a better husband.”
Moments later, he collapsed from a massive heart attack.
Guilt rushed in like rising water.
“I drank even more to drown it,” she says. “Maybe I could have called 911 quicker… done CPR better.”
Finding Her Fight
Four months later, she met Mike—a man of God who believed in her before she could believe in herself.
He pushed her toward milestones no one in her family had ever reached: graduating high school, going to college, and finishing it.
His steady reminder stayed with her: “Listen to and obey the Holy Spirit.”
Today, Yvonne and Mike pastor their own church—Urgent Care for the Broken Hearted. Her vision is vast.
“It’s big, and I’m not gonna stop. I don’t care how long it takes me. If it takes ten years, I’m gonna do it.”
She still stands in the water—but not as a victim of the flood.
Now her boots are planted, her voice is steady, and her hands are reaching for the next woman who’s ready to get up and fight another day.
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