A client who has been with us for over three years came to me yesterday with tears in his eyes. He told me, that after six years, he’d reunited with his 25 year old son. When the client went to prison six years earlier they’d lost contact.

He was grateful. He discovered that he now had two additional grandchildren. Gratitude was in his eyes, along with a few tears. His story reminds me of so many others we've heard since we started TLC.

Perhaps one of the most gratifying aspects of my job, indeed my life, is when parents are reunited with their children after a period of sobriety. While I'm careful to not take too much credit, it’s gratifying and rewarding to see client’s lives improve.

I often tell our managers of our impact, not only on our clients, but upon their families, friends, and, most importantly, their children. I can't count how many times clients have reunited with their families. Or else they regained a job that they lost because of their disease. Or they’ve been released from probation and parole. We've had clients go to college and graduate. Others have joined the military and served in the Mideast. The message is that once an addict or alcoholic gets sober they can live as God intended for them to live.

The other part of the equation is that when clients are with us as long as this man has been they give back. This man has done much to help other addicts and alcoholics change their lives. He is a key supervisor of one of our most important areas – our construction projects. He's trained more than a dozen men, teaching them the skills required to become a successful construction worker. These men have learned to put in flooring, sheet rock, roofs and tile.

The job skills that he has given these men will serve them for the rest of their lives. So will the lessons of sobriety he has shared with them.