Jody was brought up in the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination. She was very active in her church as a child. After her parents’ divorce she began to be alienated from her former faith. After a failed marriage she got involved into Yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism and Wicca. Later she became active in a Unitarian-Universalist congregation. At work she met a Catholic friend who began to have religious conversations with her. This was the beginning of the path that would lead her home to the Catholic Church.