About

Welcome, I’m Nadine.

I’ve been incarcerated, abused, broken, judged, and dismissed. I’ve also raised four sons, earned several degrees, published research, and fought every day to hold onto faith when the world gave me every reason not to. Nothing about my life has been easy or neat. I built my second chance from the ruins, after I burned every bridge and tossed the matches into the flames.

Before I ever worked as an investigator, I survived being trafficked as a young girl. Not many people knew. That was the point. I stayed in the shadows because that felt safer than being seen. When I finally went to prison, I lost everything I thought defined me.

But I was reacquainted with God in that place. Not through “prison religion” or some performative conversion… but in the gut-wrenching, soul-aching kind of surrender. The kind where you cry out because you have nothing left.

He saw me when I couldn’t see myself. That’s where I started sharing my truth. That’s where my freedom began. I don’t excuse my past. I own what I’ve done and take responsibility for my actions that led me to this point. God clearly didn’t rescue me because I was innocent…He rescued me because I was ready.

Much of the words I’ve penned have been from a place of survival. When I could barely lift my head from shame, I wrote just enough to keep exhaling through the night. Today, I boldly write from victory. This blog is for people who’ve buried their past and still built a future. I write about trauma, faith, parenting, tech, structural violence, public health, injustice, healing, and what it means to live in a body that’s been through it.

Some of my writing is scholarly. Some of it is deeply personal. All of it is real.

I’m still healing. Still learning. Still falling short. But I know who I am now—and I know Who carried me here.

I’m grateful you’re here.