Road To Redemption
Road To Redemption
Jodi Corelli’s Journey Through Addiction, Faith, And Family Restoration
Pain can teach you to run—or it can teach you to surrender. Valerie Peterson sits down with Jodi Corelli to trace a life that began in the shadow of the crack epidemic and grew through neglect, abuse, and the survival habit of fleeing. What followed is a raw, hope-filled journey through foster care, unexpected kindness, motherhood amid the rise of heroin, a terrifying descent into psychosis, and the prayer that changed the plot: take my life or take it and change it.
Jodi walks us through the honest mechanics of redemption. She shares how a simple church van ride planted seeds of faith, how a barefoot foster mom modeled unconditional welcome, and why Scripture became her daily anchor when recovery felt fragile. We explore the switch from opiates to heroin in New York, the impossible task of hiding addiction while parenting, and a surprising moment of repentance with her father that reframed resentment into understanding. Most importantly, we talk about surrender—not as a one-time event, but as a daily posture that partners with structure, counseling, and community.
Today, Jodi serves at Path of Grace in Florida, helping women break free from substance abuse and trauma. She explains how accountability, small groups, and a Bible-believing church form the scaffolding for a new life. And she shares the outcome many thought was impossible: patient, peaceful restoration with her sons after years apart. If you or someone you love is wrestling with addiction, shame, or despair, this conversation offers practical hope, clear next steps, and a reminder that you are never too far gone to be made new.
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Well, welcome. This is Road to Redemption, and I'm Valerie Peterson. I'm the host for today, and I'm thrilled to be here in the radio studio with a lovely lady by the name of Jodi Corelli. John Martin and I have been psyched about getting her on the show, and here she is, and she has a tremendous, tremendous story of her road to redemption that she's going to be sharing with us today. Welcome, Jodi. Thank you so much, Miss Phoul.
SPEAKER_00:It's an honor to be here.
SPEAKER_01:We're just thrilled that you're here with us today. You know, I think I want to start by asking you, what do you do for a living? What are you doing in Dustin, Florida?
SPEAKER_00:So I am blessed to serve at Path of Grace. Um, I'm an administrative manager there, and I'm able to serve women overcoming substance abuse from drug and alcohol. Um, and then also the things that kind of go along with that, like trauma and you know, uh family separation and things like that.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Um what I would love for you to do is just start by sharing your testimony. Starting when you were a little girl, and we both have something in common. We're both from New York State, and we love to chat about that. Can you talk about your upbringing and your road to redemption?
SPEAKER_00:For sure. So I was born in uh 1987. I was in um a home birth. It was not intentional, but I was born at home, which is a nice fun fact about me, I feel. Yeah. And um at the time my parents were actually in the middle of a separation. So shortly after that, me and my siblings moved with my mom to um an area, a low-income area um in Syracuse. And um, as a single mom, she was trying to do the best that she could and raise us. Um, but in the in the middle of uh raising us kids, um, there was an epidemic happening in Syracuse, and it was um the crack cocaine epidemic, which not long after us moving there, sh she kind of ended up falling into that. So um growing up as a young small child, uh my first memories are memories of um people in and out of the house using drugs, um just chaos in in the household, my mom not there a lot, um babysitters kind of being abusive and inappropriate, and just a lot of um things happening that children really shouldn't be exposed to. Yeah. But for me, it was um the normal environment. So um when you have nothing to compare it to, it's kind you can be misled by what uh a household should be like. And so growing up, that was my expectation of life. Um just kind of chaotic, a lot of in and out, a lot of turbulence. From early on, I was exposed to not only drugs and alcohol and um just danger in the home, but also sexual abuse and um things like that. So um my mom ended up um being arrested one night. She was out um prostituting, actually, and she was caught by the police. And the police came to our house, it was just us kids in the home, and they contacted my father, and he came to get me myself and uh my three other siblings, and um, we started to live with him all of a sudden, and um he was not prepared to be a father. I I've I learned later on in life it was just not an area that he really uh thrived in. So right away he started to try to find a wife, find somebody that would nurture us and take care of us. And at the time there was um a means of connecting through newspaper, and there would be these classified ads of looking for a partner, and he found um my stepmother in those classified ads, and they shortly after got married. Wow, and she had children of her own, so we blended families. So, how many in all? How many kids? So, in-house she had two children, they were twins. We had a neighborhood Baptist church. Uh, we moved to a small town called Parish, New York, and there was a little small Baptist church that would drive around and pick people up in their van. And somehow my family um got contacted and offered for us to go to church. So I began going to this church. I got baptized, and it was the first time I had ever heard about the Lord. My escape was school. I did really well in school. Um, I had great grades. Um, I really enjoyed school a lot, and my teachers have I I became very close to them, and that was the way that I kind of um escaped from traumas at home.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. School was a place where I was acknowledged, even um, my teachers cared for me. I I had one teacher in particular that would she would minister to me in a way, not really talking about the Lord, but she would just she would give me a hug, she would braid my hair, she would she wrote this big long um um word in my yearbook, um, and it just made me feel special for those those moments, you know. Wow. Um, but I think that I I was just acknowledged a little bit, I think, for my grades, but also I was a very happy kid. I always tried to be happy.
SPEAKER_01:Keep going. Where and and I know there was a point, right, that you did run away? Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So at 11 years old, um, it ended up I ended up sharing with my stepsister that I was being molested. Police got involved. The they were 16 at the time, my twin brothers. So the pastor of that Baptist church actually actually came to my house and took them in. And um just temporarily, I did an interview with the police and sat with my dad. He was sitting next to me, and I I shared all of these horrible things that were happening, and it was a terrible experience. Um, and then that was it. Uh, I didn't hear anything else. My brothers moved back in, and it was just like nothing ever happened. But to me, because I had shared it and it it made me feel dirty, and it made me feel exposed um and faulty, like it was my fault. Um, and then not to receive like any type of protection from my father.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:At that point, I realized well, my mother is not available. My father is not available, he's not going to protect me. So now my life is in my hands. Um, and I was so new to the Lord, it was very like very beginning. I just kind of um grabbed a hold of that, but it was so fresh that I I didn't know at the time to turn to him. And I was a child. Right. Um, so I began to really fantasize about running away, really planning it and thinking how I would do it, what I would take from my cupboard, when I would do it, you know, all of these things. It became the thing that would consume me. And eventually, um, my father and my stepmom divorced. Um and we moved to a smaller or another town, and I was at that point just kind of um rebellious. Uh, I began to smoke marijuana at that time. I ended up leaving my my dad's house and running away.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:My friend actually didn't want me to go by myself, so she came with me. And she she got homesick after about two weeks, I think. And so I returned her because she didn't have a reason really to leave. I did. So um when I did when I did that, when I came back, um DCF wa became involved, and um I was placed in a foster home. And that foster home was very like facility kind of. It was um, you know, there were places in the home that they did not allow the foster kids to go into, only the the blood relatives would be allowed in there, and so I was immediately like, I'm leaving this place. And um, so I did. I ran away from the fo that foster home. And um I ended up staying on the run per se for a couple months, and it I actually went right back to the where my friends uh who ran away with me, their house, which was directly across from a police station, and they were neighbors to where I was living, so I stayed um I stayed there under wraps for a few months, you know, and I was a teenager, so I just thought I thought highly of that, you know. I thought, you know, look at me go, you know, deceiving, right? Yeah. I thought, you know, at that point, like I had control over my own fate. Yeah, you know. And even though I didn't really have a plan, I didn't know how it was gonna be, and I wasn't afraid. I felt for the first time safe, you know, in that situation. Um because I knew that I could at least watch out and I had that intention was to to care for myself.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:What what can you remind me? Did you graduate from high school? I did graduate from high school. Okay. So after I ran away from that first foster home, I was gone for a few months, and the police caught on that I was staying there. So they came to the front door. I took an escape ladder because I was on the second floor. I took the escape ladder and I was climbing out the back window, and they were on the ground waiting for me. So I was busted. Oh no. They ended up bringing me back to court and they wanted to take me back to the foster home that I originally went to, but I refused, and they found another one for me. So I went there with the intention I was going to leave there. And when I got there, um my my foster mom was on the porch. It was a farm. She was on the porch with no shoes on, dirty feet. She had her dress tucked up underneath, roll like rolled up underneath her underwear, like on the outside, you know. And she just had the biggest smile and the biggest hug and was greeting me like I was her own. And it just threw me off. It was strange, and it was like, maybe I could stay here for a while. Maybe I'll give it a a chance, you know. And so I stayed there from the age 15 at this point to 18.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So some time has passed. Yeah. Are you still in touch with them or her? She just actually passed away. Okay. So she's with the Lord now. She believed in the Lord. She we prayed every night. Um, I she had me teaching fifth grade Bible studies, and I had no idea what I was doing. But she exposed me to the Lord um in a way that I I didn't know um him before. So um I'm blessed for that. From 15 to 18, I lived with her. At age 18, I moved to Texas. My uncle reached out to me and he said, I'll be in that area, and if you want to come to Houston, you can come. So I decided why not? I graduated high school with honors, I did very well. Um, and I went to Texas to start over, start fresh. And when I got there, my aunt um used drugs, and so I didn't know that. And I found myself again kind of being in a position where I've I could see my mother in her a little bit, and all of us, uh all of us children just hated my mom. I couldn't couldn't understand how she could do that to her children. You know, how could you choose drugs over your children?
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And we all had that attitude, and we were just we were just done. Yeah. You know, there was a few times where she would find herself in recovery and we would go on visits and then it it was back to jail, and it just this repeated thing. Yeah. And so I had such great resentment against both my parents at this time. And now here my aunt is also using. And so I was so used to moving around at this point, you know, running away, it's just taking off. And so I that was what I was gonna do again. It was just became like a normal thing for me. No plans, just take off, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Kind of like we talk about in our lives, you know, when there's pain buttons pushed, we have different coping behaviors. Yours was to flee.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I would be eject from any situation. Yes, so much so that I would be in a car, and if somebody was driving erratic, I would see a stop sign, I would unbuckle my seatbelt and plan without even saying anything, I would just get out of the car and go. And yeah, it was my comfort. That was the way that I protected myself.
SPEAKER_01:Talk about your children. When did they come into the picture?
SPEAKER_00:So how old are they right now? So my oldest is 17, my youngest is 13. Okay. And when I was 20 years old, I found myself pregnant. Um and um this is a a unique situation because I I shared it with my sister and I said, Jess, don't tell dad. And she said, No, I won't. And Jess, sh my she's my oldest sister, and she was kind of the matriarch of the family. She held us together. Um, she took care of us while we were kids as a kid. So while my mom was doing drugs and prostituting and and things like that, she was in the house young taking care of us. So all of us have been exposed to wild things, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:But immediately after our phone call ended, she called my dad and told him that I was pregnant. And so he called me and he asked if I had news to share. And once I told him, it opened up a conversation that I had never had before, and it was a conversation of um repentance in a way. You know, my dad acknowledged that he made some errors in raising me and handling situations that came, and he shared with me that he was just ill-prepared and didn't know how to handle the situation, and I was just so grateful to have that. Yes, and I and I accepted that apology, and I and it gave me some understanding about my parents that I never had before, but it also taught me how to understand the whys of my life because when I fell into drug and alcohol and um behavioral things that I didn't want, but I found myself in, I could understand um how my parents could end up in that situation too.
SPEAKER_01:Amazing. It kind of takes being an adult, doesn't it? To recognize our parents did the best they could with what they had, right? Talk about so you had two children. I want I I mean, I just think you are such a miracle. I want people to hear about your recovery process. Like, how did you get here to Florida at the Path of Grace?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So my oldest son was born, um, and shortly after his birth, I found out that his father was using heroin. We would use um uh we would use opiates together. Um, and then when I got pregnant, I stopped doing that. And then at in the in the middle of my pregnancy was when a new epidemic came to New York, and that was the heroin epidemic. It replaced opiates because they the um um there were a lot more stricter laws about the the distribution of narcotics at that time, and at the same time, drug dealers started to create this pitch that heroin was the same thing as opiates, um, but cheaper and uh a little less clean, but that was it. Um you wouldn't need much and it was affordable. So with that, the uh heroin epidemic came and it um actually the the day my son was born was the day that my um son's father tried it for the first time. And so uh a few months after I found out, I ended up doing it too because the same sales tactic that got him, he shared with me, and I said, Okay, that sounds okay. And it wasn't uh that scary, you know, they show you on videos as a scary dark corner using heroin. It wasn't um it wasn't revealed to me like that. And I trusted my my kid's father in every kind of way, he was home for me, you know. And so we started using that together, and um my youngest son was born um four years later, and at that time I was just um going back and forth with trying to get sober and having a harder time. I was able to not be using um heroin while he was born, um thankfully. Um but shortly after he was born I began using it again. So my addictions really started to spiral at that point. It doesn't take long for heroin to consume everything of yours. Um, and so I was trying to be a good mom and hide it, but it was it's impossible. And so I was also trying to carry all of the things from my past, all of the hurts and all of the the questions unanswered, and um I was just as much as I wanted to have a good life for my children, I didn't really know how to to arrive there.
SPEAKER_01:And we tend to move towards what we saw until what? Until we have some healing in our own lives, right? Right. So how did it come?
SPEAKER_00:Talk about how that came. So the turmoil continued, and uh I got to a place. Of um making a decision. At that time me and my kid's father was not together anymore. He um uh ended up rema he remarried and he um we were still close and co-parenting and they were a part of my decision in leaving New York State because I couldn't get traction in my recovery and things were getting serious. I had somebody attempt my life and um I was in a lot of trouble with legally and it was just spiraling and it continuing to go worse and worse. Yeah. And so they agreed that it would be wise for me to leave New York and um I did. I went back to Houston because I have family there and that was short-lived. Um I ended up in Florida from Houston because my kids left New York and came to Crestview, Florida. And at the time they weren't allowing me really communication with my boys as promised originally. And um there was a lot of fighting and arguing and I just was so um like authoritative about they are my children. You can't take them from me, you know. Even though I was not uh able to mother them at the time, you know. It was just um it I just didn't want to abandon my kids the way I felt abandoned. You know, I still had these feelings about my parents and um things like that, but I still had this separation like I'm different. Yeah. And I wasn't, yeah. I was no different than my mom. Is that when you got to Path of Grace? So when I moved to Florida, I was here temporarily. Uh I was here about eight months before I made it to Path of Grace, and within that time um of arriving here, they moved back to to New York. I couldn't chase them down anymore because I had warrants in New York, I had no driver's license, I was stuck here. And I ended up homeless. I ended up between the using of drugs and just traumatic events, like losing them, it was just the breaking point, and I started to experience psychosis and like full full-run psychosis. So I was somebody that was walking down the street and talking to what I thought was other people, but it was myself, you know, and these these my reality had been distorted, extremely distorted. And I recognized that there was something wrong, but I it was just so real.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, that I just couldn't figure out what was going on. Yeah. And I it made me afraid, it made me hopeless, it made me feel like I was stuck that way. Yes. And so I became suicidal from it. Um, and I I wasn't bold enough to fall through, praise the Lord. Um, but that's where my road to redemption really began because I called out to him and I said, Either you take my life and end it, or you take it and change it, do something with it, because I'm I'm done. I at that point I relinquished all control. And so the door opened at the epicructure? The door opened pretty quickly. He started to line me up with people that knew and loved him. Um, I ended up in a homeless shelter, and she knew um Eddie Mansfield. And when I told her that I was doing well at the the shelter, but I knew I it wasn't going to last long, and I knew I needed something more, and I knew I needed to go where the Lord was. I mean, I had I had negotiated this with the Lord and I meant it. Yes. And so when she said you'll find the Lord at the Path of Grace, I talked to Eddie on a Friday and on Sunday, May 23rd, 2021, I arrived at Path of Grace. Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Talk, you know, I I know there's listeners that need to hear that healing is a process, not an event. Where you were and where you are today is nothing short of a miracle. Can you give people hope out there that it will come? But what do they need to do?
SPEAKER_00:It will come. So surrendering to the Lord is so vital and important. So the word is is living, and it's it's set. Um the Bible is set for us to for our learning, but also for our hope. And finding scripture that speaks directly to your situation, um, because there is scripture there. And for me, I had to learn who God was, and I had to learn what faith was, not by um what other people's faith was. I had to know it for myself. Yes, and I challenged myself to do that no matter how silly it seemed, or no matter how difficult. Um I just pushed through and persevered. I found scripture like Matthew 17, 20, that just held me and it encouraged me. And I I didn't have to understand how and and when I just had to believe that that the Lord would do what he says he was going to do and trust. And in doing that, it took so much pressure off me. Um you know, even still, God does most of the work for me, but he does want me to participate. And so what I would say is to be an active participant in that change, be willing to surrender everything, surrender at all. Um don't hold on to anything because his plans are greater than ours and his ways are higher. And so he when he when he picks us up out of the mire and sets us on a firm foundation, we are cleaned up, we're made new, and um that we're we just have so much access to to things that we would never imagine for ourselves. My imagination was so small.
SPEAKER_01:And I look at you today, Jody, and you are a generational changer. And I would love our listeners to hear the restoration with your sons. Yeah. Can you talk about that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I went from um being a mama bear, they are my children, and demand making demands that I couldn't even really uh I had no right making to getting sober, trusting and relinquishing them to the Lord. That was they were my heart, and that was my heart's desire, and I trusted that the Lord in his timing would restore that. And I didn't had um any expectation or um barriers around that. I just believed and they were living in New York State. I graduated the program. The day I graduated, I I went up there to visit them. I gave them opportunities to come live with me here, and they opted out twice. Um their father passed away, and I went up there again and and um they again opted out to move here, which it's understandable. They know their environment, and uh there's a lot of unknown to that. But eventually I got a phone call from their stepmom and said, it is time, and it was unexpected, but it was expected because I trusted that the Lord would give me my suddenly with my children. I trusted it, and in the meantime, I was I was preparing for it, so I was completely prepared to take them on, and they came in March of this year, and um they have just blossomed here, they have settled in greatly. It it hasn't been a difficult transition for any of us, praise the Lord. And you know, that's when you really can see the Lord's work because um there's peace added to it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, you are an example of Romans 8.28, that all things doesn't say all things are good, Jody. It says all things work together for good for those that love the Lord. You've seen God weave terrible situations, separation from your children, and now you're together under one roof. Nothing short of God's goodness, right? And you you, like you said, be an active participant, but you've learned to wait well on God's timing, not your timing, right? Right. You've really waited well to close for those that are listening today that may be in active addiction, maybe prescribed drugs, maybe whatever, alcohol to anything, what would you say to them?
SPEAKER_00:I would say it's never too late. Um, you're never too broken. God can change your circumstances completely, and there's hope not only for you, but once God gets you to be on a firm foundation, you have work to do, you are called, you have a purpose, and uh the time is now.
unknown:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:That's so good, Jody. We just so appreciate you being on air, and we do in closing want to remind our listeners just today, think and find a small group or some way to be accountable to others, right? How important that is. We encourage you. John Martin always likes to tell our listeners find a church, a Bible-believing church that there's something about that corporate anointing, you know, coming together with other believers, find a church, find accountability. Small groups are so uh powerful to be accountable in a small group setting. So we just want to encourage our listeners to think on that. I don't know about you, but if you I want to say to our listeners, if uh you uh don't have someone to talk to and you're really struggling today, reach out. Yes, don't don't do this life alone. Reach out and tell somebody that you're really hurting, you're really struggling. It may not be addiction, it may be something else. Don't do it alone. Right. Anything in closing, Jody.
SPEAKER_00:And I I would like to add to that because getting to know this community, there's such great people in this community that genuinely care. And it might not be uh somebody from your family that will understand you. There might be somebody that you come across with at church or when you reach out to recovery um place or a small group that you you you connect with and you're able to share with. And um so just don't give up is what I want to say. Is there there is hope to be found, and and you're never too far gone. Like I said, I I had really lost my mind and and I was afraid that I was too far gone, and that's not true, but being willing to completely surrender to the Lord because He wants to uh show up in our lives and show us His great power, and He already sees everything in the done, so we need to just in the natural see things um that has already happened in the supernatural.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. To close, can you tell our listeners the importance for you of the Word of God? How it's helped you?
SPEAKER_00:It's so important, it it keeps me grounded, it reminds me daily that I am just a fleshly body. Um, but there is a King of King and the Lord of Lords that has full control over everything at all times, and um and there's hope to be fine found in the Bible, there's encouragement, there's wisdom, um, and there's correction. Correction is so important as well. So um it's a daily bread for us.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. Fresh manna every day, right? That's what we need. Thank you so much for coming on. We John and I appreciate you so much.
SPEAKER_00:I'm glad to be here. Thank you.