Gina grew up in a good home, but temptation doesn’t discriminate. In college, she drifted from her family and her faith, chasing thrills that left her empty. Parties. Sleeping around. Pot. One day, she sold to an undercover officer. The arrest didn’t come until two years later—when life had shifted in ways she couldn’t have imagined.
By then, she was pregnant and planning her wedding. The week she and her fiancé picked up their invitations, police showed up with the old warrant. It was an election year, and the judge wanted to prove he was tough on crime. Gina was sentenced to five years’ probation, including four months in a prison drug treatment program.
Those four months were just the beginning. Her addictions—and her struggle with God—would last another ten years. Detours became dead ends. But grace has a way of showing up for the lost.
The Turning Point
Eventually, Gina remarried. Together, she and her husband founded Beauty for Ashes, a ministry that walks with women out of prison and away from the habits that chained them. They don’t just welcome them at the gate—they stay in their lives long after release, helping them rebuild.
In Gina’s mind, the work is personal. She knows what it’s like to stand barefoot in a riverbed of mistakes, picking up one smooth stone at a time, trying to build something whole again.
Today, she’s steady. Rooted. Living proof that time—if you use it—can uncover the person you were always meant to be.
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