Lisa Moreno can't shake the memory of being homeless or living in a bug-infested canal trench with her five children.

“;Every time I walk past the Institute of Human Services, I remember what it was like to be there (homeless),”; said Moreno, a former drug addict and victim of domestic violence. “;When I get to my job, I know I have to strive, that I have to make things better. Living on the street is something I never want to go back to.”;

The Community Clearinghouse offers an Adopt-A-Family program every Christmas to help families like Moreno's who are traveling a rough road. The Star-Bulletin is aiding the effort through its annual Good Neighbor Fund.

Several years ago, Moreno and her family lost their home because Moreno was addicted to ice (crystal methamphetamine).

“;I was literally in a black tunnel,”; she said. “;My brain wasn't there.”;

They lived on the beach and in their van. They spent two years camping out in the canal, using the bushes as their toilet. Moreno's kids - the youngest was 11 at the time - each had to fill jugs at a nearby park and carry them back to their tent every night to take a shower.

Also every night, they had to clear their tent of the scorpions, centipedes, roaches and “;cane spiders as big as your hand”; before they could go to sleep, she said. Quite often, “;we'd have to try and sleep staring at the (guts) of the spider they just squashed sticking to the tent,”; Moreno said.

The family verged on starvation, each of them having only “;one sandwich a day for the whole day, with maybe some chips, and we'd share a soda,”; she said. When someone remarked that her children looked so small and undernourished, it finally struck Moreno: “;Oh my God, what have I done?”;

That encounter finally made Moreno call the state Child Protective Services agency for help. She gave up her children to a friend and checked herself into a recovery program for a year. The family was reunited when they moved into Onemalu Transitional Shelter in 2007.

“;Now that we are here at Onemalu, we are so very happy and grateful,”; and she is thrilled be working at Kmart in a permanent, full-time job since 2006 - “;My first job ever!”; she said.

“;I'm doing good and my kids are proud of me. It's what makes me keep going,”; she said. In spite of the deprivation they suffered, her kids “;watched over me; they never left my side,”; Moreno added.

“;I'm not ashamed of it (what she was) now. That was someone else before. ... My whole thinking, my feelings, my emotions have changed. But it still doesn't excuse what I put my kids through,”; she said.

“;I'm surviving by the skin of my teeth. ... But we're moving forward. And we never forget where we came from,”; she said.

The family is sleeping on pillows that are very old, and they don't have any blankets. They also could use some bed linen and, as always, food.