Dress the Part--A Success Story from House of Hope (my home away from home)

Studio 5 Segment

My House of Hope friend, Jenn, received a makeover and 

new "digs" from Utah Woolen Mills, recently.

She received the red carpet treatment.  

She even had her own professional stylist!  

Meth.  Heroine. Crack cocaine and living in a Flying J parking lot with her husband and kids.

For Jenn, those days, six years ago, seem like a lifetime ago.  It's a far cry from the woman, I know today, who now spearheads a weekly Coffee and Recovery group, to help women recovering heroine addiction. She also volunteers at House of Hope, where she received a new start, six years ago, and returns often to help other like herself to stay in treatment an get sober.

A couple of weeks ago, Jenn received a makeover, from a friend of mine, and new "digs" from Utah Woolen Mills and Studio 5.  It's the perfect celebration for her recent admission to the U of U.  

For 13 years, I have taught motivational classes at House of Hope, a drug treatment center in Salt Lake, and I've seen thousands of women, like Jenn, work to overcome their challenges of addiction and create a new life for themselves and their children.

Succcess.  Hope.  And new beginnings.

It inspires me every time I see a woman shatter the stereotypes of addiction that plague those trying to walk out of their past.  I've witnessed transformations.  And it's awe-inspiring.

MIRACLES really.  The kind God uses when he awakens a woman to her true potential and identity.

The House of Hope philosophy is if you save a mother, you save the children.  

This is why I teach at House of Hope.

These women are not strangers to me.

They are my students.

But more than that, they are my FRIENDS.

They are my HEROES.

I tell them that I've never walked in their shoes.  Never tasted beer, had a cigarette or done drugs. Yet, I ask them to love and accept me for who I am.  Because I, too, have weaknesses.  In return, I do the same for them.

We learn and laugh together.

Cry, craft, and cook together.

We also celebrate. We celebrate milestones: when a woman graduates from residential to day treatment, earns a sobriety coin, or lands a job.  When children are released back into their care, we hug.
We talk about good parenting.  Prioritizing what matters most.  Improving self-esteem in healthy ways.
We talk of hope and trust in better days of ahead, while appreciating the here and now.  We learn to savor the moment.  It feels good to be sober.  

Thousands of women have attended my classes at House of Hope.  And I have loved every single one of them.  Even those no longer here on this earth.

Me with some of my beautiful House of Hope ladies.
Jenn is on my left and Studio 5 Producer Jane Thomas is on my right.

All the women in this photo, above, are talented, beautiful, courageous, and amazing!  It just so happens Jenn was the one chosen to be highlighted by Utah Woolen Mills to help her in her new adventure as a student at the U.  She has two beautiful children (one in heaven) and a husband, who bravely found a new life in treatment, also.  Sober for 6 years, together they make a lovely little family, because they chose a better way.  A life of sobriety.  Now their children will live in a world far away from the addictions that once robbed their future of hope.  Jenn is an excellent listener, a positive role model, an energetic, kind and insightful soul, and loving, caring, and wonderful mother!  Her dynamic personality has left a mark on my heart.  I am grateful to her for her example.

Thanks to Heavenly Father for placing me at House of Hope.  What an amazing journey it has been.

To see Jenn's STUDIO 5 feature, click here:  Studio 5

Denise giving Jenn a makeover.

My beautiful and talented friend, Denise, gave her makeover for the shoot.  Thanks, Denise!  You're beautiful inside and out.  :))  To the producer, Jane Thomas, you portrayed the women with such grace and dignity, and I thank you for that, because they deserve to be treated like the queens that they are.

To all my ladies at House of Hope, both past and present, STAY HOPEFUL.  You can dress the part of a sober and clean woman, and not only dress like that woman...but BE THAT WOMAN...one day...one step at a time. :))

A Life-Lesson on Trust: To be trusted you have to be willing to trust

My kids and I tried to rescue some stray kittens hiding behind the bushes near the Arctic Circle. Catch them so we could help them. That's all we wanted to do. Sadly, even opened cans of cat food failed to lure the kittens to a quick capture and rescue. Time and time again, these darling fur balls would timidly creep out from behind the bushes, swallow a chunk of cat food, and, before we could snatch them up, they would dart behind the thick bushes hopelessly out of sight. After an hour of trying, we left empty handed feeling horribly defeated because those kittens would remain orphans. All because they didn't trust us.


Trust is a tricky thing. One definition I found says: "Trust means making an exchange with someone when you do not have full knowledge about them, their intent and things they are offering to you." Think about it. God sends a baby to a twenty-something mom and dad who have never been parents, who know nothing about late night feedings, 102 degree fevers, and sharp corners on coffee tables. Now that's trust. Talk to me about trust in two years, when my daughter asks me to take the car for the first time all by herself. Yikes!


Ten years ago, when I showed up to teach my first class at a substance abuse treatment center, I learned how important trust was. I knew nothing, absolutely nothing about addiction. Just like those timid kittens, the women in my first class didn't trust me. They had no reason to. If they could have, they would have run behind the bushes. Instead of cans of cat food, I could have lured them in with Hershey bars. But that wouldn't have lasted long. With my son on my hip and my two little girls following close behind me, I entered the room. Forty pair of eyes can make a girl feel intimated. And I was.


"Hi, ladies. My name is, Jodi. How is everyone today?" Then without thinking I handed off my 6 month-old son to a woman sitting to my left.


"Hold him just a moment would ya? I need to get my notes." I shuffled through my diaper bag and found what I needed to start my class.


Looking back I'm sure a few of those women were thinking, "Who is this chick with her craft buckets and kids in color coordinated outfits?"


Throughout my class, I glanced at the young twenty-something woman bouncing my baby boy up and down on her lap. She did a fine job of keeping him occupied. At some point, I asked her if she had kids. She gave a longing look. Come to find out she didn't have custody of her son. He lived with his grandparents. She missed him.


"Oh, I'm sorry." Pause. "I hope you'll see him soon."


I'd never met this woman before but I wanted to hug her, console her and tell her to be strong. I couldn't imagine not being with my baby. It was after I'd been teaching at House of Hope for a few weeks that I realized what a welcome site my kids were to many of the women in treatment. Some had lost custody of their children permanently. Others were waiting to regain custody. Some women had scheduled supervised visits on weekends. These women missed their kids and being with my children consoled their aching arms.

That was ten years ago. Last month, I sat at the House of Hope Alumni Tea, an honorary celebration for women still in recovery. Wendy, a woman who graduated from treatment nine years previous sat at my table. We talked about that first class. And you know what she said?


"You know how I knew you were the real thing, Jodi? When you let me hold your son."
I had forgotten. Tears welled up in my eyes. Wendy was the girl with the dark streaks in her golden blonde hair who bounced my son up and down on her lap in my first class. It was one of those flash moments, when you get it. Really get it. It was all about trust and someone had to go first. And that someone was me.


Over the last ten years, all four of my kids have been hugged, high-fived, and patted on the back by hundreds of women fighting for their sobriety. They have allowed me and my family to be a small part of their lives during their stay at House of Hope. And it has been life-changing.


It's been almost a decade since Wendy and I decided to trust each other. And today, we have a beautiful friendship. Our children have attended the same school for the past five years. We've been on a fieldtrip together, sat next to each other at the Christmas concerts, and ate lunch together. Wendy's even taught classes with me at House of Hope. She's a successful business woman and a loving mother to her two sons. And she's sober. Her life is good. Wendy is one of my heroes.

So back to that definition of trust. "Trust means making an exchange with someone when you do not have full knowledge about them, their intent and things they are offering to you." When I handed my son to Wendy, I showed her I could be trusted to love, not judge. Silly me, I thought that gaining trust was going to come from something marvelously inspiring I had to say. Turns out that it wasn't what I said that was important. It was what I did. If you want to be trusted, you have to show what that looks like. We don't always do it the right way the first time. Sometimes it takes a few do-overs. But being trustworthy is worth any amount of do-overs.


As for the kittens, well, I'm looking for resources on-line for teaching felines how to trust. I just can't stop thinking about how hungry and thirsty they are. I hate to leave those little fur balls out in the cold when I know they need some love and tender care.


Matthew 25:26 "Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me."

House of Hope women, you are my heroes. You're my teachers. You're my inspiration. I never knew the fullness of God's power until I met a drug addict and saw the miracles in the lives of the women who live to have hope! Ladies, thanks for trusting me with who you are and allowing me to believe in who you can become.

Twelve Steps to Recovery--A Mighty Miracle that Changes Lives

"I believe that people are good if you give them half a chance and that good is more powerful than evil."  Lois Wilson—birth mother of AL-ANON

Sitting on the window ledge in my kitchen is a geode. It was given to me by my friends at House of Hope, a drug recovery treatment center in downtown Salt Lake. For ten years, I've spent most of my Friday's teaching motivational and life skills classes to women trying to overcome substance abuse.  When someone new shows up in my class, her insecurities, despair, and hopelessness are not hard to miss.  Her countenance is dark.  She is clearly unsure of House of Hope and most certainly is unsure of me.  She questions if she's even going to make it.

Some women come in fighting, full of anger at the "world" for doing "this" to them that, at first, they are hard to reach. But then something miraculous happens.  They spend time in the program and they begin to soften. They begin to, as their counselors call it, "trust the process." In group and in one-on-ones, these women begin to learn tools and coping skills that help them deal with life's stresses.  They slowly uncover the reasons for using drugs and drinking alcohol and then a new acceptance emergers as they admit they need help and surrender to their higher power. I've seen it happen over and over and over. Women who have been to jail. Women who have lost custody of their kids. Women who have experienced domestic violence, done drug deals, prostituted themselves.  Anything and everything that comes with drug life, they've seen and done it; and I've watched them shed their skin and transform into beautiful, confident, radiant souls anxious to tackle the world clean and sober.  It happens. And it happens every day at House of Hope.

So, back to my geode. Lisa presented it to me at the Alumni Tea, a yearly celebration for all those women in recovery. Almost two hundred were in attendeance this year.  Lisa placed the broken rock full of crystals in my hands.  She said, "Jodi, this is how you see the women of House of Hope. When the world sees the rough, rock exterior. You see the crystals inside." And I do.  Thank you, Lisa.  I will treasure that rock and every time I look at it sitting on my kitchen ledge I'll say a quick prayer for a woman still living in her addiction.

"I never thought I was good enough," one woman told me. "I didn't deserve to be happy," another shared. Oh, the tragedies of living at a time when the Adversary wreaks havoc on the self-esteems of young women and women.  As we journey towards becoming better people, let us understand as C.S. Lewis did:

"(The Christian) does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us." — C.S. Lewis

 Beautifully said.

If any of you watched the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV Movie on April 25th, Sunday night, it was fabulous.  The Lois Wilson Story reveals the dedication and devotion one woman had in her quest to help her husband overcome addiction, a courageous journey that gave birth to Al-ANON.  So, in honor of AA founder Bill Wilson...and his angel wife, Lois Wilson, who stood by her husband to witness the making of a new man, today I post the Twelve Steps.  

Thank you, Bill Wilson. Because you chose to turn your addiction into a miracle of change, millions upon millions live free of their addictions. And thank you, Lois, for bringing millions of women support and help through your brainchild, AL-ANON. 

You don't need to be a recovering-anything to recognize we are all in need of reaching out to our higher power and surrendering our will. Let the steps inspire you as they have me.  And to my friends at House of Hope...NEVER give up! 

THE TWELVE STEPS OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

 1. We admitted we were powerless...that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to [others], and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

 Copyright _ A.A. World Services, Inc.

Resources for Hard Topics--Drug Addiction and Pornography

Drug Addiction and Pornography—Books that can help

 My cell phone rang at 6:14 p.m. last night. It was a friend I hadn't heard from in a while. Her voice was tense.  "My nephew. He's addicted to prescription drugs. What can I do to help?"

 A few months ago, it was another friend whose brother is addicted to heroin. "What can we do as a family to help him get better? We don't want him to die."

 Don't be fooled. In both cases these are strong, religious families. Addiction has no boundaries. It affects families from all walks of life—religious and non-religious, rich and poor, functional and dysfunctional.  Addiction affects the whole family—not just the addict.  Over the years, I have received many of these same kinds of calls asking, "How can I help a loved one who is addicted?" I'm not a licensed therapist or professional counselor. I'm a resource of information for friends, families, church members, who need to know where to turn to get help for a loved one caught in the treacherous cycle of addiction. Teaching motivational classes at a drug treatment center for the last nine years has taught me a lot about addiction. Some of my best friends are recovering addicts who are willing teachers who dedicate their lives helping others find hope. They are god-sends to many who struggle.

The good news is there is help for anyone caught in addiction. YOU can help a loved one overcome their addiction! And in the mean time, you can become a better a person a long the way. Addiction, to most people who don't understand it, is scary. But knowledge is power. Knowledge brings peace. The more you learn about addiction, the more you understand the healing power of the Atonement and the closer you come to Christ.
For any individual or family affected by addiction, there is hope. There is always hope. For this post, I'm simply going to highlight a few resources that no family should be without.

1. The Utah Department of Human Services: Division of Substance Abuse. http://www.dsamh.utah.gov
   This website is a free service that can answer basic questions and gives you a phone number to call to ask questions. It's a start. If you're not in Utah, your state should have a number as well. Call and talk with the hotline. Ask questions. Get help.

2. One book I'm going to refer you to is the LDS Family Services Addiction Recovery Program. It's only about $5.00. Every household should have a copy. You can order it on-line through Deseret Book or the Church Distribution Center. The book is based on the 12 Step Program. It's easy to read and easy to understand. Whether you're LDS or not, this book is an excellent resource. It's beautifully written. It's inspiring. Really, every adult should read it. There are other books out there as well, but this is a good start. Book
3. Of course, there are AA meetings and Al-Anon meetings. They take place every day all around the city. There is no shame in attending. These resources are here to help. And help, they do. Don't put off getting help, if you or a family member need it. This is the first day of the rest of your life. How are you going to spend it?

Getting Help with Pornography Addiction

Many families suffer from the affects of a pornography addiction. Sadly, many who are affected choose to suffer in silence. We should be able to talk about this; we have to talk about this. The good news here is there is also hope and healing. Just talk with author, Diony George, author of the book Torn Apart, and you'll find a Christian woman who has rebuilt her family after the devastating effects of pornography destroyed her first marriage. Diony's book is "an honest and riveting true story about how pornography addiction can devastate and destroy the very threads of a marriage and family." Diony is a friend of mine. When you first meet her, you love her instantly for her warm and friendly demeanor. But then, you love her for her honesty and bravery in telling her story in hopes it will help others. "Unbeknownst to [Diony]-she marries a man right after her 18th birthday and discovers a few years and two children later that he is addicted to pornography." Torn Apart is her story. Diony also offers help to families on her website and blog. http://www.tornapartbyporn.com/

 Here are two excellent resources that can help educate families about pornography.

1. 
   
   Clean Hands, Pure Heart: Overcoming Addiction to Pornography Through the Redeeming Power of Jesus Christ. Book
2. 
   
   When I was a Relief Society President, I was introduced to a book called Confronting Pornography. This book is comprehensive and provides insight about why pornography is so addiction and offers resources and help to overcome addiction to pornography. It's help for the addict and non-addict. Book

Remember…nothing…NOTHING is out of reach of forgiveness. God's hand is outstretched still. (2 Ne 19:12)

To all my wonderful ladies at House of Hope in Salt Lake City--YOU ARE MY HEROS.  You teach me how to be a better person.  You've changed me for the better.  And I love you.  ALL OF YOU. 

Our Temporary Home

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were snowmobiling in Paris Canyon in the Cache National Forest on the Utah-Idaho border. It was a chilly 16 degrees. Clouds hung low and it was about to snow. With all my winter gear on, I was warm. My hands were even a tad sweaty after being wrapped around the handle warmers of my snowmobile as we raced up the narrow, snow-covered path leading into what I call the “tundra.” After about 20 minutes, we dropped down off the trail into a valley surrounded by snow-covered mountains. From there, all we could see was a blanket of fresh powder. The scene was pristinely beautiful. 

Just as we turned off our sleds, the sun peeked out from behind a cloud and snowflakes started to fall. My husband and I pulled out some beef jerkey and a bottle of Gatorade and began mapping out our course. For miles and miles, it was just the two of us and some tall evergreens draped in white. It was below freezing so the snowflakes that fell on my black snow pants stayed for while, so I got out my camera to take a few pictures. I don’t have a high-tech camera, but I did my best to shoot a few pictures. This is as close I could get.

Rarely, have I had a chance to see snowflakes up close. They melt too fast. They’re just too temporary.  But on that day it was too cold for them to melt, so I could watch them fall and, against the backdrop of my black pants, I could study the intricacies of each snow crystal. As I looked at them individually, I remembered what I had recently read about snowflakes:

“Snow crystals are crystals that have formed around tiny bits of dirt

that have been carried up into the atmosphere by the wind. So snow crystals are really soil particles that have been dressed up in ice.”

So, isn’t that interesting? Snow crystals are bits of dirt dressed up in ice. I would have never guessed that something so beautiful could come from dirt. As the wind picked up a bit, it was harder to watch these tiny crystals up close. It turns out that snowflake watching, even in freezing temperatures, is only temporary.

Temporary means momentary, passing, or short-term.
Life itself is temporary. This life that we live, here and now, is short-term, not long term. Just like those snowflakes’ brief fall to earth, mortality is a brief dance through eternity. So, what does this mean? How should that affect how we live our life?

I’m blessed to have a strong belief that there is more to this temporary existence. I believe life here on earth is part of something far greater and, just like the snowflakes, we, as human beings, are pieces of dirt, or dust, you could say, on a temporary journey, not meant to last forever. I know we’re just passing through this life going to a better place where God lives, where forever goes on and on.

Recently, I was sitting in a Wal-mart parking lot waiting for my daughter to come out. It was a cloudy day. The rain hadn’t, yet, turned to snow. As I looked out my window, I watched people pushing their shoping carts full of groceries through the automatic doors.  A song called "Temporary Home" by Carrie Underwood came on the radio. The song painted the picture of a young boy in foster care getting a new mommy and daddy and a new home, but he wasn’t afraid because he knew it was just a temporary place with windows and rooms that he was passing through.

The next verse told of a young, single mom with a baby girl, living in a shelter. And the same thing. She wasn’t afraid because she knew it was only temporary and something better would come along. The last verse told of an old man dying ready to pass on to next life.  He told his loved ones it was okay because he was going on to something better.  Here’s the chorus:

This is my temporary home

It’s not where I belong

Windows and rooms that I’m passing through

This is just a stop on the way to where I’m going

I’m not afraid because I know

This is my temporary home.

That song sung truth. Every human being on this earth is in a temporary home. We don’t belong here. We're spiritual beings passing through this mortal existence on our way to live in eternity with God. But how easily we forget that.

For eight years, I have volunteered teaching life-skills and motivational classes to women who are recovering drug addicts. This past Friday, a woman came up to me and said, “Jodi, you have a big heart wanting to do this for people like us.” I immediately corrected the woman and looked her straight in the eye.

"You and I?"  I said pointing to her and then to me, "We’re the same.” I’ve said it hundreds of times before to the women who have passed through the doors of House of Hope; women who have been in my classes; women who are just passing through on their journey to sobriety. Yes, our choices may be different, but our journey is the same. We’re all here temporarily working out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12). At times, some of us get sidetracked on some really bumpy roads. But we’re all here learning, growing and trying to get somewhere better than we were the day before.

When something is temporary, sometimes we don’t take it as seriously as we should. We don’t savor it as we should. We don’t treasure it as we ought to. Sometimes we place too much importance on quick fixes.

Ezra Taft Benson said that because of this temporary existence, “our affections are often too highly placed upon paltry, perishable objects. Material treasures of earth are merely to provide us, as it were, room and board while we are here at school. [We must learn to] place gold, silver, houses, stocks, lands, cattle, and other earthly possessions in their proper place. This is but a place of temporary duration…We live on and on after earth life, even though we ofttimes lose sight of that great basic truth.” 
In the past two weeks, we’ve seen live video of crumbled buildings in the earthquake stricken nation of Haiti. Men, women, and children camped on out on streets. Throngs of hungry people grabbing for any morsel of food they can get from relief workers. Nameless individuals lying on stretchers waiting to receive medical attention for cuts and broken bones. In one newscast, I was broken hearted to see an innocent, little, dark-eyed boy, about 4-years-old--about the same age as my youngest daughter--sitting next to a reporter. His parents were killed in the earthquake the week before. In this world, there is devastation. Heartache. And suffering. What do you say to all of this? What do you tell your children? How do you answer the unanswerable?

How do you find peace in the unjustifiable? Take yesterday, for example. After my son’s basketball game, I stood in the parking lot talking to a young mother, newly divorced. We stopped to chat. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her children get in the car with her ex-husband and his new girlfriend.

“I get the day to myself,” she said behind a quivering voice and held-back tears. She hid it well. I was ready to fall apart, at first, but then she shared her faith with me. She was okay. She was going to be fine because her strength was in her higher power. She wasn’t afraid. She was going to pass through this trial because in her words, “I know this is only temporary.”

No, I don’t have answers to the tragedies of this temporary existence we call our earthly home. But may I offer a “temporary” answer that, for me, brings permanent peace. When I remember that this place; this existence we call mortality is just a temporary home filled with windows and rooms, and that we’re merely passing through on our way to something greater; when I remember that this is just a stop on the way to where God lives, and although sometimes we’re afraid, and sometimes life isn’t what we expect it to be; when I remember this...that there is a plan, an eternal plan of happiness...I feel peace.

President Benson wrote: “As we travel through this topsy-turvy...world filled with temptations and problems, we are humbled....Sadness comes to all of us….But there [should be] gratitude also—gratitude for the assurance...that life is eternal....'I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live....'  We are eternal beings. We lived as intelligent spirits before this mortal life. We are now living part of eternity.” (John 11:25–26.)” (Ezra Taft Benson, “Life Is Eternal,” Ensign, Aug 1991, 2)

Just like those snowflakes, falling in Paris Canyon, we’re dust dressed up as ice just passing through. And as scripture tells us: ‘For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return’ (Gen. 3:19).” “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25–26).

Everything in this life is temporary except for the ordinances, covenants, and gospel principles that bind us together as eternal beings and families. Knowing that living here is only temporary isn’t a curse. It’s a blessing. I know without a shadow of doubt that there is something beyond, not of this world.

This is my temporary home

It’s not where I belong

Windows and rooms that I’m passing through

This is just a stop on the way to where I’m going

I’m not afraid because I know

This is my temporary home.

--Song by Carrie Underwood, “Temporary Home”

Dear friends...may you find joy in the journey and peace in the temporary.

With love and friendship,


Jodi


QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Have you been feeling a little sidetracked with life? Have you been caught up in temporary fixes for temporary happiness? How are you filling your temporary home? What are you doing in your temporary life to prepare for your eternal journey? How are you filling up your days?

A Halloween Celebration at a Drug Treatment Center

Two Fridays a month are my House of Hope days. It's been that way for eight years. My kids know that on Fridays that's where I go from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.. They'll even say over breakfast, "Oh, yea, mom. It's Friday. House of Hope day." When my kids were really young, they all came with me to House of Hope (a drug treatment center for women in recovery). We'd wake up early and off we'd drive, in our wood-paneled jeep, down I-15 to the sixth south exit and into the heart of downtown Salt Lake City. We'd be greeted by 40 women, who would eagerly help me carry in my craft buckets and excitedly ask, "Jodi, what have you got for us today?"



"Today we decoupage!" I announce.



The crowd rumbles, "Yea!"


By trade, I am not a crafter, but I became one because I wanted to spend time with these wonderful women. I wanted to offer hope and healing to women recovering from addiction. Crafting and lifeskills classes gave me a reason to be there with them, to learn from them, and love them. It was the "something to do" so we could talk and share our life stories.

We talk about raising children, being wives and mothers, saving money, relationships. You name it. We discuss it. And the best part is there are no pretentions or worries about putting on a show about who we are and where we come from. They know I'm a Christian woman, a stay-at-home mom, who drives a mini-van, who has never had a cigarette and never tasted beer. And they accept me anyways. There isn't a "who does she think is" sort of attitude. They just love me for who I am and who I am trying to become.

I, too, know why the women at House of Hope are there--they are addicts.  Many have served time in jail. Many have been drug dealers. Some are in the process of getting their kids back and some have lost all rights to their kids. They come from all walks of life, religions, and economics. So, what do we have in common? Perhaps the most important thing; we are all trying to better ourselves and our lives. Just like they are trying to be better, I am trying to be a better. I'm trying to forgive more fully, love more deeply, and give more freely. They help me do this.

This past Friday was our Halloween party. Two good friends, came with me. Rootbeer floats, chocolate-frosted pumpkin cookies, games, and storytelling. It was all good, clean, fun. Even a little silly at times. There was lots of laughter. Lots of smiles.

I am blessed to know the faces and names of addiciton. I am blessed to hold their babies. To give them hugs. And to encourage their fighting spirits to continue fighting. I have learned more about hope, faith, overcoming fear, and living an open and honest life from the most unlikely teachers--drug addicts. It's been an incredible journey. These women teach me more than I could ever teach them. And the truth of the matter is; we are so much more the same than we are different. So, when they thank me for showing them how to make a flower arrangment out of a carved-out pumpkin, I readily admit the playing field is unequal because their gifts to me are priceless.

I often tell them that I wish when they graduate form the program how I would love then to come live in my neighborhood so I could protect them. Because I know that not everyone is going to look at a recovering drug addicts like I do. Life is about consequences and accepting responsibility for our own actions. But life is also about second chances. And don't we all deserve a second chance? I'm certainly not perfect. In fact, I'm due for a second chance right now. By the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, I know I can receive one. And that's a beautiful thought.

"The cookies are delicious."

"Thanks for coming today."

"I had so much fun. I can't wait to do this with my kids."

Thanks House of Hope ladies for letting me and my friends be part of your lives. You are some of life's most beautiful blessings. 

For this week, let's concentrate on second chances. Let's give second chances to those who need them. Because, when all is said and done, we all do.

Sincerely,

Jodi