Upon further reflection, I believe that Mr. Jones's allegations refer to my involvement with the AA program during my late teens. Similar to many teenagers, I drank alcohol with my friends in a social setting and came to realize that this sort of behavior was not healthy for me or for my family. I realized I needed to become a responsible and productive member of society and therefore, in 1989, at the age of nineteen, I attended Alcoholics Anonymous on my free will. The primary reason I went into the program was to determine whether I did have an alcoholic problem. At the meeting, I realized that my drinking habits were minimal compared to other members who had multiple encounters with the law. Knowing that this sort of behavior if left unchecked could become problematic, I decided to attend these meetings anyways and did so for three years with great success.
After completion of the program, alcohol has not been an issue in my life. I therefore entered into my next phase of life…creating a family. I met my husband, Mark Sheping and together we had our wonderful children, Theo and Alia Sheping. Theo was born in 1993 and then Alia…22 months later. With growing family, my husband and I became Christians and became actively involved in our church. I got a divorce 1996 and began raising my children on my own. I have had sole physical custody of my children and never had an issue with alcohol. Mr. Jones claims in his "declaration" that I attended AA meetings in the past five years. This is not correct. He has clearly taken what I have said out of context to undermine my credibility. If Mr. Jones was to search for the truth, he would have found out that I went to AA in 1989 and not five years ago.
