WHERE MY STORY FIRST BEGAN

PART 1

At 27 years old my life changed. I became a mom. I thought I had everything in life figured out. Turns out I did not. I wanted kids so bad that I had my first one two years after I got married. I loved him so much and never could fathom that type of love before. It was and still is truly an indescribable feeling. I had mixed emotions during that first year with my son. I did everything by the book and listened to everyone’s advice on how to raise him. And hey, why not? I had zero clue what I was doing! This was fine until my son started having health issues all the time in the first two years of his life. This included eczema on his face, allergies to all kinds of food, belly issues like constipation, a LOT of sleep problems, and many tantrums. I was exhausted, drained emotionally and physically, and I had zero clue on how to help him.  There were many nights when I cried just to fall asleep (if he even would let me).  Little did I know then, his body was internally on fire.  I did not know how to put it out.  So I dealt with it the best I could.  What else could I do? I lost most of my friends and was stuck home all day everyday with him.  I had some support from my family but not when it came to his allergies and health issues.  They offered advice but it was only temporary relief for him.  I love him so much that it killed me internally watching him suffer.  So then something surprising happened…..

PART 2

So then something surprising happened, I had my second son (Damian) and little did I know at the time, THAT was the turning point in my life.  It was not planned for me to have another child just yet, but God had other plans. I was so overjoyed at the thought of having him, but I was terrified at the same time.  I didn’t want to go through all the pain and suffering for him as I did with my first one.  But I had to, so I tried my hardest.  Things were going good, my older son still had his allergies and all his other health issues (including sleep), and his little brother was the easiest baby! Damian was actually a distraction from my oldest son’s (Raiden’s) issues.  AND then about a year or so in, Damian had a severe allergic reaction to peanut butter.  He didn’t ingest it, just licked it and his eyes blew up three times its size! I was TERRIFIED! I called the pediatrician and was told to give him Benadryl, which I did.  It was a moment I never experienced before.  Raiden never had anything like this.  It turned out after Damian’s tests, that he has a severe allergy to peanuts and requires an epipen (plus a million other food allergies)!  So life went on, we were super cautious and careful about what we gave him.  THEN, something else happened, a family member brought up that Damian was not developing like he should have been.  He was ‘in his own world’ so to speak.  He was lining up toys, wasn’t talking, making noises, walking on his tip toes, and zero eye contact.  My baby was absent from our world and when that Autism diagnosis came, I was literally speechless…….

PART 3

So there it was.  Autism.  What did it mean?  What would we (my husband and I) have to do for our baby?  I was so scared, not just for me, but for him.  How was this fair? Why was he the one to get this shitty end of the deal?  I fought with these feelings for so long.  Damian just seemed so helpless, so fragile, so innocent.  

Naturally, we did all the things for him that you’re supposed to do.  We got him therapy galore.  He was in Early intervention program and transitioned into an amazing school district that literally saved him.  To those teachers, I am forever in their debt.  His preschool teacher brought Damian’s speech back, made him eat more than yogurt, and facilitated a lot of social interaction between other students in her class.  Granted Damian was only 3 at the time but he still was around kiddos, which was what he needed.  He definitely got the basics down, but was still in his own little world.  We accepted this because at least he was communicating with us and eating.  He wasn’t in a lot of distress.  The progress was immense.  We were all happy.  My older son, Raiden, did not know how to play with Damian, and still doesn’t.  And that’s okay, because it’s hard for a kid to figure out how to play with someone different than them. Eventually they’ll get it. I’m not worried. 

During those years in pre-school though, were the toughest yet, especially with sicknesses.  But we persevered and went on with our lives.  That is until Damian turned 5 and everything changed…..  

PART 4

It was that time. Kindergarten year. He was used to his Pre-School teachers and aides and now it was time to get used to new people, new environment, new kids, and so on. It was also the time at the pediatrician’s office to get those ‘required’ immunizations so they let him in kindergarten. Prior to that, in Pre-School he was required to get the flu immunization which I think caused a lot of damage. Due to his genetics, which I will get into much later, he is not able to filter out toxins properly and they get lodged in his body, and cross the blood-brain barrier, and boom, cause all kinds of trouble. Before you judge me, hear me out. I am not anti-anything, I am now more mindful as to what goes into my children’s bodies. I do my research and make decisions from that. But that is a topic for another day. So after those immunizations for kindergarten, Damian was complaining a LOT about his belly hurting. It was abnormal to me because it came out of nowhere. He wasn’t around anyone sick, nor was he in school yet. He was in so much pain that I cried with him. And THAT was the point in our journey that I decided to change a lot of things…..

PART 5

I got an invitation to an ‘oil’ party. I wasn’t sure what it was but I wanted to spend some time with my friends so I joined the party. Little did I know, this was the beginning of big change. This was an essential oil party for Young Living. At first, the price threw me off because it was super expensive, and I couldn’t even fathom spending all that on oils! I received some goodies from the party and over the next few weeks I decided to take the plunge and bought my first kit. And so glad I did! The thieves line for cleaning was phenomenal. It cleaned even better than all the crap I had at home. Now it’s the only thing I use to clean absolutely EVERYTHING in my home, including carpets! Not only was the cleaner good, but the benefits from thieves were and still are amazing! Thieves provides respiratory support, fights germs and viruses, and smells like cinnamon which is my favorite. I roll thieves on my kids feet every day for immunity boost. But enough of that. Young Living started my journey and just kept me going. After about a year or so, I felt like we detoxed a lot of toxins from our home and bodies so I decided to take a look at our diet. I was told by a friend I met on Facebook that this one diet (GAPS) would be good for my son (on the Autism Spectrum). I was hesitant at first but eventually decided to get the book…..

PART 6

Okay, so I got the book and it was sitting on my shelf for about a week before I opened it. I was terrified. I couldn’t possibly make my boy eat the way the GAPS diet was set up. I put it in my head that it was impossible because it seemed VERY impossible. How could my kid possibly eat this way ever?! But after a lot of browsing through the book, I finally decided to give it a go. But, I made a mistake. I never read the book all the way through. I DO NOT encourage this. Definitely have to read the book before setting out to do this. So much information and the whys behind everything. Anyway, here I thought I was prepared and two days into the diet, I was calling it quits. My baby wouldn’t eat! He would drink the stock and ate some of the soups. He started to look frail and sick so I stopped it. At the time, I was so scared. I thought I was hurting him and was doubting everything. I wasn’t listening to my gut. My husband wanted to push through but ultimately agreed with me to halt the diet. We weren’t ready. At the time Damian was only 6 years old. So we took a little break and I started to read the book…..

PART 7

So I finally read the BOOK and wow! So much I didn’t even realize that happens in a human body. I could sit here and write a book on the GAPS book because there is so much detail. So in short, the book explained in detail how the body works, why certain foods are important, what happens when the gut flora is damaged, and so much more. I highly recommend this read. (It is called ‘The Gut and Psychology Syndrome’ by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride). Anyway, after reading the whole book and finally getting all the food prepped and ready to go, we started on the diet. What transpired next was so not pretty, BUT not as bad as the first time we did it. Damian was a bit tired/sleepy and kind of blah for a day or two. He ate the soups this time and drank the stock without any physical symptoms aside from the tiredness and the fact that he wasn’t having all the food that was making him feel icky. So this was all good and his eczema finally went away after years of it being so awful. We moved on a stage and that had many more food options. Damian was more accepting of the food now and started to be happier and happier. He started communicating more with us and being more aware of his surroundings. This was HUGE! A kid who went from being sick and only talking meaningless words, was FINALLY communicating with us. I had tears in my eyes. My baby was on his way back to us……