Last July found Amber Isom with a mighty long prayer list.

At the top of that list was a plea that her elder daughter would be cured of the leukemia that had stricken her a few months earlier.

And Amber sought help with maintaining the hard-won sobriety she had earned during her treatment at the local Women’s Addiction Recovery Manor (WARM).

She also needed a job, with an understanding, compassionate employer who would recognize her determination to try and correct the mistakes in her past.

Those mistakes had cost her custody of her two daughters, Whitney and Heather, estranged her from her parents, brought her a heart-load of misery, and seen her living in her car for two months before she entered the WARM facility for a 10-month stay.

With her resume in hand on a fateful day last July, she stepped into the reception area of Paw Prints Grooming Salon here and asked owner Belinda Steinwachs-Dicus if she possibly had an opening for an experienced dog groomer.

Amber no doubt had uncertainties about some things, but she was confident of her ability to successfully groom canines of all breeds, sizes and shapes. She’d been doing that since 1996.

Belinda, who had opened the Hoffman Drive business in January, 2006, definitely needed some help. Her clientele has grown and she was staying so busy she sometimes had to send out an SOS to her daughter for assistance.

She put Amber to the test: Grooming a Bichon Frise, which has a 3-4 inch coarse and curly outer coat and a soft dense undercoat.

“Amber put the dog on the table and wasn’t intimidated at all,” says Belinda, who is a wife, mom of two, and grandmother of five. “She was the answer to my prayers.”

The two women have a firm friendship as well as a terrific working relationship. “I can talk to her about anything,” says Amber, 34. “She’s more like a best friend than an employer.”

When Amber needed to be away from the job in order to be with Whitney, who underwent chemotherapy for nine months at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Belinda accommodated her. “Amber has become family,” she says.

Happily, Whitney, 16, recently had a bone marrow test and the leukemia “was non-detectable.”

Amber, who is divorced, living her addiction recovery one day at a time, “working my steps and going to meetings,” and sponsoring several other women at WARM, is amazed at the developments that have occurred since she completed the supervised phase of her treatment.

This summer, Heather, 13, will be coming to live with her, and Amber gets to spend every other weekend with Whitney, who was born during Amber’s first marriage. Heather was born during her second marriage.

In spite of addictions that made Amber hit rock bottom, she has a good relationship with her daughters.

“You want to see them?” she asks. “I’ve got pictures.”

She’s also got a message from Whitney, who knew Amber was going to be interviewed by The Gleaner and said, “Tell the lady that you are the best mom in the world. Words can’t express how proud I am of you, and how much I love you and that you have been there for me through everything I went through.”

Amber’s eyes are glazed with tears when she talks about how close she came to losing everything good in her life.

She had begun her addictions with marijuana, not for nothing known as a “gateway drug” that can lead to stronger substances.

There was a period of time when she was having extreme headaches, and became addicted to prescription painkillers. There were other substances too.

Amber, who expects to celebrate her two-year anniversary of sobriety in September, says she had been in a number of rehab programs but wasn’t really dedicated to staying clean and would relapse within two or three months.

By the time she came to WARM from her hometown, Paducah, she was sincerely wanting to change. “If people don’t want to quit, there’s not much you can do to help them,” she says. It took about a decade for her to really reach out for help.

“WARM gave me the tools I need,” she says.

Amber, who is mending relationship fences with her parents, knows that recovery is never a guaranteed thing, but she has all the reasons she needs to stay clean.

“I’ve never been as happy as I am today,” she says. “God put me in this spot I need to be in and with the people I need to be with.

“I don’t want a big, extravagant life. I just want home and family, and it’s all starting to come together.”