Jodi Sampson's Blog

Today is our last day in Chiquimula and we are heading to a school in the mountains for another shoe distribution. We had to leave our van at the bottom of the road, as the road was to steep. We all jumped on the back of another all wheel truck and headed up the mountain. We ducked as tree branches hung low and almost wiped out or heads and sunglasses, hogs and boars crossing the dirt, pothole filled dirt road.. Boy I thought Boston had large potholes! They got nothing on this road! We finally made it to the school and were greeted by Sarita Carson the missionary that runs the school.

The school reminded me of my Grammar School back in the 70’s, the only difference was they had no doors or window. The classrooms had chalkboards, desks with chairs attached, calendars, alphabets and numbers covering the walls. The children were very appreciative and grateful for the new shoes. We had no time to play with the children, as we were notified the roads leading to Antigua our next stop were being closed shortly and we needed to leave right after the distribution. So we jumped back on our all wheel drive truck and made our way back down the mountain.

We did make it out of Chiquimula and began our 4 hour drive to Antigua. We arrived at our last and final shoe distribution at 3:00 a school, Nuestros Ahijados. We distributed about 200 pairs of shoes. The total number of shoes we distributed in 3 days was about 850 pairs! What a great team and great experience!

Our host and hostess Josh and Jessica Byrd were amazing. They left their comfortable home in Alabama and started, Building Believers in Christ Missionary. They are committed to help the people of Chiquimula learn Biblical principles and teach them skills to obtain better jobs and provide for their families. Check out their website:

http://bbichrist.com/

Our last day in Antigua was to enjoy the great city, culture, tour of a jade factory and chocolate factory and shopping!!!!!

We went to the market and bought beautiful hand embroidered blankets, tapestry sneakers, pocketbooks, cigars, rosary beads and jewelry.

We all had a great 5-day journey and developed long lasting friendships.

Soles4Souls did a super job at making us feel comfortable and safe.

As Jordan , Kaitlin and I traveled home we felt very grateful and blessed to be able to help others, and make a difference, even in a small way, to so many children. We landed in Miami and saw the sign US Residents this way. Jordan said “so happy to live in the USA” we all agreed and ran toward the sign…….  A Great ending to a great trip

Our 1st day in Guatemala was very exciting. We are staying in Chiquiamula with Jess and Josh. They came here from Alabama and started as missionaries with an organization called Building Believers in Christ. They are a great couple that clearly demonstrates southern hospitality.

The 1st orphanage we went to was called Es Cuopis Hogar el quipu las which is run by Franciscan nuns. We put shoes on about 60 children and  nuns that were there. After giving out the shoes and playing with the kids the nuns treated us to crackers, juice and delicious mangos that they picked from their own tree. The children were very fun, appreciative and loved playing soccer. The older girls also performed a “dance routine” for us.

Next we went to a church and gave out about 75 pairs of shoes. We quickly realized when we opened our bags to give out pixie sticks, stickers, bracelets or small toy cars that the children get so excited and all of a sudden you have crowds of children around you. They were very happy to get something, but most of all they wanted to be held or hold your hand.

Our last visit was an orphanage that was the most difficult to get to. It was at the top of a huge mountain and most of the roads to get to it were either blocked, had deep ditches or were to narrow for us to get up. We prevailed and found a way up. There we handed out about 60 pairs of shoes, toys, stickers and soccer balls.

Our last stop was to eat dinner! We had chicken, beef or pork tortillas and they were very good. We were all hot, hungry and appreciative of a delicious meal. We ended the night with ice cream and milk shakes then headed home to have a wonderful outdoor shower under the serene sky of Guatemala.

We will be traveling to Antigua tomorrow and 2 more shoe distributions.

On Tuesday June 17, 2014 I will be traveling with my daughters Jordan and Kaitlin to Guatemala with Soles4Souls. I feel so blessed to be able to share this extraordinary experience with my daughters and blessed also that they share in my passion of giving and helping others.

Please follow our blog as we will be posting pictures and sharing our experiences with all of you. You can travel with us virtually!!!!

Keep us in your prayers for a safe and successful trip.

More to come……

Michael Turns 18!!!!

I can’t believe that my baby boy is turning 18 at the end of the month! To think, it was 16 years ago that our world got turned upside down and the doctors said he would not live 6 months. No, Michael would not see his 3rd birthday, 4th birthday and so on.  As I recall those days, I can still feel the stiffness in my shoulders as they became frozen, my body rigid and chest tight, as I find it hard to take a breath.

Today Michael has accomplished so much and persevered through many, many, hard and difficult times. He is a junior at Masco Regional High School is a member of the band and plays the trumpet. He works at Market Basket as a bagger and loves his job, chatting with all the customers. He also volunteers at Salem Hospital in the Materials Management department and enjoys delivering packages, mail, flowers and operating room supplies throughout the hospital. He has recently become a certified dog handler and he will travel with his dog, Boomer, a very handsome Golden Retriever to facilitates for dog visits. Michael also love playing on his ipad and PS2 and going to the mall with his friends.  Amazon, is a friendly site of his and the UPS guy is at our house almost daily,

Life with Michael is all about balance and persevering day in and day out. Some days are easy and some days are just plain difficult. Remaining hopeful and faithful is the only way I know to endure the hardest of days. I constantly keep my eyes and heart on Jesus and know, He has a plan. A great plan! I don’t know what it is, but I do know God is not finished with Michael; He has a lot more in store for him, more than I could possibly imagine!

Michael has endured about 25 surgeries. One in particular had him in the ICU for 17 days and home for another month. Through it all he remained positive and took each day as it came. I have learned so much from my son; life lessons that I never would of learned on my own.

I don’t know what the future holds for Michael, I do know, God’s perfect plan will unfold before our eyes. As I continue on this journey, I trust, I hope and I love, knowing You have done it all for me.

What are you giving yourself this Holiday/Christmas Season?

I am giving myself the gift of gratitude this Christmas Season. I think we can all sit and think about all the things that maybe did not go our way, or goals that have passed us by, accomplishments that never became a reality. So I challenge you today to flip the coin, change your eyes view of any situation and decide in your mind to have a grateful heart. Yes, the change occurs in your mind, once you change your mind, you change your vision of the situation and alter the energy in your life. When you do this you move from a negative mind to a positive mind, this is the most powerful way to force change in your life!

Sit for a few moments and write down all that has happened in your life the past year, all the positive things all the negative things. Once you are done, focus on the positive and elaborate on how all those positive things got accomplished. What was your role in making them happen? What was others’ role in making them happen? What did you gain from them? How has it changed you as a person or professional? How has your life changed? With the negative things realize, some of those things are not within your control. Put your “ego in park” and say, I did the best I could and I have only so much control. There may be some negative things you can change, look at those things and ask yourself, “can I make these things different, is it possible for them to be in the positive column in 2014?”

Congratulations! You have begun the journey of a grateful heart, you are beginning 2014 with a heart so filled with gratitude and peace. In 2014,write down your year’s journey, keep a journal with the positive and negative things. Focus on how you are able to make a difference to those negative things and know always we only have so much control! I believe God has a great plan for our lives and part of that plan is in the difficult times to let us know He walks us through those days, weeks and even years.

For me this past year has been a struggle. Michael was in the ICU for 17 days starting on Jan. 1st, I was diagnosed with breast cancer the 2nd time and my parents (age 82 and 86) started experiencing even more the effects old age and dementia. I had to stop and see the gratitude in all those situations. First, Michael’s situation was fixable and cured! My cancer was detected early and had not spread! My parents are healthy and I have them here with me into their old age. I have 4 siblings that share the responsibility of their care and we all have come together to keep my parents in their home with the same love and compassion they had shown us all through our childhood. So I had to stop and realize “there is always a rainbow at the end of the rain”, and God has given me the eyes to see and heart to feel it!

Be grateful for ALL you have experienced this past year. As my mother always said “this to shall pass” and it does pass and the rainbow does come!

So many people have been asking about great juice drinks and smoothies I just had to add another one of my favorites to my blog.I am still lovin the kale and how it gives me energy and makes me feel, so here is my latest concoction.

handful of kale

handful of spinach

1 pear- cored-skin on

1 lemon- peeled

fresh grated ginger- I use maybe a teaspoon, but you can add more or less

Add water to fil line on Nutra Bullet container- It is app. 8-10 oz of water

Add all above ingredients to Nutra Bullet and blend

Serve over ice

Enjoy the drink and the benefits it hold for you throughout the day

Sacred Space

Sacred space, what does that mean to you? For many it may mean a spiritual place and to others just simply a quiet space that no one can find them or reach them. Today I feel we are all in search of that “sacred space”. I can remember being in the hospital with Michael and being inundated with doctors, nurses, social workers, residents, volunteers all great people and all just doing there job. Yet, some how I felt they were encroaching on my space. The door to Michael’s hospital room was like a revolving turn, with constant traffic in and out. To find time alone in the hospital was difficult. Yet one day I stopped and realized, that the walls that surround me do not stop me from walking out the front door. The massive brick building that stood strong and sturdy many stories high could not hold me in. Yes. I had to be there while Michael was receiving treatment but I was not held captive in that massive building. I was free, free to walk down the hall and look at the helicopter pad, free to take the elevator to the 1st floor and sit in the chapel, free to take the elevator to the healing garden and sit outside on the 8th floor of the Yawkey building overlooking the Charles river and the salt and pepper bridge, free to walk out the front door and run or walk over the bridge to the Charles river. Yes I could leave for 30 minutes or an hour and no one would miss me. Most of the time Michael would sleep through his treatments. So I would let his nurse know I was heading out to find my “sacred space” and the greatest thing is it was a different place every time!

So as you sit and wait on loved ones and have so many unanswered questions, take a walk and find your “sacred space”. Whatever it is I guarantee you will walk back through that hospital room a different person, nothing most likely will have changed, but you will be different. Nothing earth shattering just slightly different, easier, more confident, shoulders less tight, posture a bit at ease. Relaxed and able to breath a bit easier.

Start today and find your “sacred space” whether you are in a hospital, at the office, school or your home. Find your space defend it and guard it. Don’t let anyone steal it from you be vigilant! You will reap such great rewards and wonder how you did without it.

Kale the new Spinach

            Now that I am a 50 year old woman and in medical menopause I am even more vigilant about how food can help or harm me. Reading and researching foods has not become a casual past time but a necessity. As a result of my 2nd breast cancer diagnosis, I have  been advised I need to go on a drug, Arimidex, which cuts my chances of a reoccurrence of cancer to any part of my body from 15 % to 9%. I do not like 15% and not real psyched about 9, but that’s my only choice. One of the side effects of taking the drug is, bone loss and joint pain. So with all the changes my body is under going, I felt it was my responsibility to support and help minimize any of the side effects as best I could.

Food, I thought is in my control. I can control what I eat and what I buy. As the shopper and cook in the family it was easy. The more I read the more I was empowered. You can’t pick up any health magazine without the “organic topic” coming up in some way. I have been so grateful to Prevention Magazine and many others that have helped and guided me in my organic journey. I have found a local farm, Tendercrop Farm in Newbury that has all organic fruits, veggies, and meat. The food tastes so good I think to myself, “What was I tasting before”? The food has such rich deep flavor that you do not need to add much to the veggies, fruit and meat to have great flavor, which brings me to my newest power food choice….. kale.

Kale has become part of my daily food regiment and I reap such great benefits. It is rich in vitamin K, A and C as well as a great anti oxidant and anti inflammatory and detox.It came into my life at the same time the Nutra Bullet arrived at my doorstep. A marriage made in heaven. My newly found eating regiment was now complete. I start most of my days with a  nutra bullet drink and continue on with organic fresh foods. My favorite new drink I have perfected and it tastes great! It also makes you feel so energetic, you won’t believe it.

6 oz. water

1 cup Kale

8 fresh strawberries

1/3 cup blueberries

1 pear

1 tsp chia seeds*

*The package says1- 2 tbs is a serving and I tried that at first and had a lot of stomach pain. It was too much for me, so I suggest starting out with a smaller amount and seeing how your body reacts and then gradually add more.

So start today, find your favorite, fruit, veggie or meats and make great snacks, meals and reap the rewards your body will love! Pay attention to how you feel and remember that feeling when you go to reach for some processed food, your body  will love you for stopping and thinking about it first!

Join Jodi Sampson as she proves that never giving up and relying on faith can lead to The Face of a Miracle.

Tanzania

Jan.16, 2013 I turned 50 and decided to fulfill a dream and check 1 thing off my bucket list! When I worked at New Balance I became familiar with a non-profit organization, Soles4Souls and I really loved the simplicity of it. Take shoes you do not wear and give them to someone who has no shoes, seemed simple to me. I looked into the Soles4Souls website and realized you could travel with them, I thought hmmm, this is something I could do! I checked back several times until I made my final decision, which was easy when I saw a trip that went to Tanzania on the day I turned 50! I thought, that’s it! And my mind was made up and I never doubted my decision.

I liked the simplicity of the idea of helping others by giving them shoes. I looked in my closet and saw all the shoes I had and thought, I can’t imagine not having 1 pair of shoes. Such a basic necessity.

Tanzania was more than I could of asked for. Before leaving I focused on giving shoes to the children, what I would bring to them and basically what I would do, not what I would receive. I only had half of the whole idea behind Soles4Souls. I can remember driving in a hot bus as the dirt from the roads flew in the windows and thought to myself “what did I get myself into”, then as we approached the 1st orphanage and I saw all the children excited and running towards our bus, I thought “WOW”! Smiles and eyes wide and full of hope! I can’t imagine what was going on in their minds! What have we got in our van? What have we brought for them? As we all stepped out of the van the boys came over and gave us all hugs, the girls hung back and were shy. As the day went on and we washed, measured and handed out shoes the girls warmed up. They would touch my skin with wonderment, look with fascination at my French manicure and touch and caress my hair. They played soccer just as hard and with such talent, some running around with no shoes and dresses on. They take off their shoes, as they do not want to get them dirty! As we finished up the day and said our good byes it was with mixed emotions. Sad to leave such caring children yet felt happy to have been able to touch a few childrens’ lives in a positive way. We jumped in the bus and headed to the next shoe distribution, all the way there I thought, I gave so little and received so much in each and every child today!

Thank you Soles4 souls for opening my eyes to needs far away from my home and how I can help in the smallest way and get back so much!