beginning steps

The weekend to kick off our new life style rolled around and the beginning steps were being taken.  Striping Haleigh's room and cleaning it well beyond clean.  It was completely emptied and scrubbed down.  We bagged her mattress and box springs (after we bought new box springs, I think her old box springs were actually much much older than her...  maybe three times older than her) in dust mite allergy bags.

Very few toys were allowed to re-enter, and those that did had to meet strict requirements and a scrubbing of their own.

One special friend, the sea turtle, spent the night sealed in a baggie in the freezer to kill any lurking dust mites. 

 

The next night he ushered in a much better sleep!

The pantry also had a make over.  I threw away a lot of food that just wasn't healthy for any of us.  Then I bagged up a lot of healthy food that just wasn't healthy for Haleigh and distributed it to a few friends. 

Next, new items began to enter our life...

31 Days... Maybe Next Year?!

If you are an avid blog reader you probably know of the 31 Day Challenge over at The Nesting Place.  The challenge is to post daily the 31 days of October on one topic.  For several months now my oldest sister has encouraged me to take the challenge and blog our allergy and food journey for the 31 day challenge.  I have stashed several drafts along this allergy road  as we have traveled it.  There have also been several posts narrated  in my mind that never made it even to draft form.  In my last post I mentioned the degree to which I have been overwhelmed with life and needed an abrupt halt and reset.  Well, we did get a lot done on yesterday, laundry, bills, general cleaning and just a smidge of school... But the reality is I just can't post for 31 days regarding our Allergy Road, mostly because we are on a crazy allergy road that honesty consumes a LOT of my time.  However, I do want to get the updates and info blogged for a few reasons.  I need it all logged because in the daily grind of it I tend to forget why we are taking on this challenge of eating this new way.  Another reason is because it all happens so quickly I can't remember when we have challenged what foods or seen which doctors.  Also, it helps me see real progress when I hit a time of discouragement.  And maybe, just maybe it could help someone who may be in a similar whirlwind.
It won't be every day and every post post won't be about our Allergy Road (I still have to capture more sweet moments from of our fabulous beach trip, but you can get a fantastic sneak peak from my oldest sister's point of view at The Wright Place.  She has an amazing way with words!!)
 So let's go...
As I started to type this post I searched to see just when the beginning of this journey took place exactly.  May 1 was Haleigh's first allergy appointment.   I actually cried as I read the post.  I'm not sure exactly why, perhaps the wave of fear and unknown I felt at that time rushed back and surprised me.  Maybe mixed in there were tears from this weekend, one of the most challenging we have had due to allergies in several months.  Or could it just be I didn't expect to still be struggling with many parts of this going into our sixth month, shouldn't it be old hat by now!? 

Here is where it all began....

Friday, May 4, 2012

Detour On Our Journey!! Allergies!!

I have several pictures flagged in my photo suite just waiting to have captions added so they can be part of our sweet memory treasure box.  However, this week has caused us to pause and do a bit of regrouping.  
Over the past two years Haleigh has been sick more often than not.  Nothing too serious except for one or two specific episodes that were pretty severe, one requiring a 4 day hospital stay.  We have been uneasy with the amount of sinus infections, walking pneumonias, simple strep turning into more serious lymph infection, it just seemed to go on and on.  We have taken many steps of "medical digging" to find answers, lots of blood work, boosting vaccines, switching up allergy medicines...

In the midst of this time span I had made the decision to start taking steps to move our family toward a more whole foods diet and diving in to find out how to lessen the toxins Haleigh's body was (in my mind) obviously not handling well.  As my pile of books about whole food diets, herbs, essential oils, and even one on ancient breads grew I stole moments to read snippets whenever I could.  (I even caught my own microbes and made sour dough bread from scratch!  That's another post entirely.)  As this information intrigued me we continue to reach for answers and direction medically too.  About a month ago Haleigh saw a Pediatric Infectious Disease doctor who spent a great deal of time with us, ordered, and scoured lots of labs to check on Haleigh's immune system.  It was all surprising right on track.  She was anxious to see what our next appointment would show us.  That appointment was with the allergy doctor.
 This week, after a few rescheduling hurdles were jumped, we set out for allergy testing.  We were scheduled for "patch" allergy testing that would require patching on Tuesday, a recheck on Thursday, and another full appointment on Friday.  I expected we would go for this testing have confirmation that Haleigh did indeed really struggle with outside, environmental allergies.  I expected we would juggle some medicines around and see how much improvement that would bring to her health.  As we began talking with the allergy doctor, she was certain we were about to get some direction based on Haleigh's history, records, labs and physical exam.
We started with a "scratch" allergy test.  My baby lit up like a Christmas tree.  She did great during the "scratches" and although her little back began to show welt after welt she didn't try to scratch once.  She just held onto my phone and peered at the Wild Krats show determined not to move.
After the 15 minutes of waiting it out, the doctor and nurse came in to read the results.  Out of 24 pricks with different test solutions about 18 were strong positives.  The environmental ones were much like we expected, trees, grasses, dogs, cats, but then dust mites were added to the list. The food portion completely UNEXPECTED.  It shocked me when the doctor listed them and said the nurse will be in with more instructions.  

When the nurse came back in to discuss further details she placed a stack of papers in front of me and gently said, "Life in your home is going to change.  Along with environmental allergens that span the seasons of the entire year, she is allergic to wheat, soy, eggs, milk, and maybe peanuts.  So you need to get educated on what she can eat, next take her off all the allergens for two weeks.  After those two weeks reintroduce them one at a time and see if her body will tolerate them if it can't you will clearly know.   Also, there are lots of changes to make in her bedroom for this dust mites allergy."  The nurse stepped out to get a few more papers and I could feel the color in my face drain.  Seriously?!? what foods are left?
So another adventure begins.  (Please know that I know it could be SO much worse!! These are allergies, and we can deal with them, but it is a LOT of allergies.)  I have spent most nights since Tuesday, once everyone else is in bed, searching out the resource sites the nurse told me about, looking for recipes and recipe books.  I think plain meats, and vegetables will be the staple for her two weeks without any of these allergens.  (If I stick with vegan and gluten free recipes that seems to keep all our unwanted ingredients out.) A sweet friend who has traveled a much harder, more intense road with these foods has offered to go with me to whole foods and teach me the label reading, as well as, point out their tried and true "go to"s.  Tomorrow and the weekend will bring the purging of Haleigh's bedroom "stuff," only things used daily are to stay in there.  We have bagged her mattress and pillow in the special allergen bags, picked out one stuffed animal that gets to be in her bed after a cycle in the washing machine on hot.  
My sister has encouraged me to track our "allergy journey" on a side blog.  I'm not sure it will be too exciting.  Therapeutic for me maybe, and it has to be logged somewhere.  Perhaps some things I learn along the way could help another overwhelmed mom when she feels she's the one standing in front of a wide open fire hydrant. (For example, did you know some Asian restaurants mold wheat flour into shapes to look like pork, beef, or shrimp!?)  I don't know, we'll see how that works out.  
BUT here is what I do know...
I know God started us on this path before we knew we needed to really be here.  
I know His timing is amazing as there is really no better month for us to go through our trial of limited food and re-introducing the allergens, all of the "end of the year" parties have been celebrated with goodies and treats we'll have to step away from now.  And most of our scheduled events are on summer break.  
I know God has been faithful to walk our family through other really tough stuff.  Through Mackenzie's food and health struggles as an infant He pulled us closer to Him and closer to each other, and showed Himself in mighty ways.
I know He is going to strengthen and walk with us on the tough road again.  We have just finished a series at church on "His strength in our weakness."  As a friend replied when I sent out a "distress text" to our small group, "He has prepared you for this."  
I know He has, and is, and will continue to!

Chasing Joy

 We waited months for this to happen...

  

time to be with family and linger in unhurried conversation

 

time to just stop and be still.

 

when the biggest decision of the morning was whether to walk on the beach with the man I love so much and laugh so hard with...

or to sip a cup a of coffee while rocking slow as the house fills with the sound of all the cousins waking into the fun day ahead.

 the week was absolutely packed with sweet treats, togetherness, laughter, and love.  

It was a week with

time to soak in the reality of the blessings from an amazing God!

Since we have been home however, it feels as though we have been running up hill and the hill just keeps getting steeper and higher.  So today we are chasing joy.  Today we will stop.  Dip from the happy memories of a few weeks ago to even out the list of all that must get done.  Taking a day with only the essential school that must be done and tackling the mountain of laundry, bills and emails.

Its hard for me to not log a full school day since it is an ordinary Tuesday.  But everything in me is screaming, "Stop!" My devotions this morning kept pointing me to joy because of Him, seek rest in Him.  The reminder of not having to do it all to gain His approval.  So today we will crank up some praise music, divide up the chores, tackle what must be tackled and soak in the reality of the blessings from an amazing God!!

That's a Wrap (on Labor Day weekend)

 Our last day in DC was a great one!  I have to admit though, if it hadn't been our last day I'm not sure Mark and I would have survived another.  We were exhausted!!

 

 We spent the longest amount of time in the Natural History Museum.  I think we could have spent an entire day there, but we moved on so we didn't miss all the other great treasures just around the block.

 

The second museum on our path was the American History Museum.  Sophie and Haleigh were elated to see so many things they recognized from our US history cycle we studied last year.  Mackenzie didn't see too much of this museum since she literally fell asleep on Mark's head as she rode on his shoulders through the Presidential exhibit.  She spent the next few hours completely out on a chair in the middle of the museum.  (I was a little jealous of the rest Mark was getting while stationed with her.)

  Our favorite museum by far was the Air and Space Museum!  What a way to wrap up the day.  We almost missed this great museum but due to Labor Day extended hours we squeaked it out.  The girls had a blast in the simulators.  Sophie and Haleigh took a "spin" in the 360* combat simulator while Mackenzie and I were jostled around as we "traveled through time" seeing the stages of aircraft development.  The girls were excited to further explore the Wright Brothers exhibit and Amelia Earhart exhibit.

That night once we finally made it back to the hotel we ordered Chinese delivery and crashed, sure to have taken our last touring steps possible. 

The next day would bring our travels to WV for the big Benson Family Annual Reunion.

 This is a large section of our family tree...

 this is my dad's branch.

We didn't bring home the cow trophy this year, however

we sure did have fun trying!!

  

Of Coarse We Went to the National Zoo!!

From the most active otters we have ever seen...

to the fun statues...

the zoo guides with loads of info...

to the "O lines" far above our heads...

the snacking lionesses...

to the roaring lions...

dino skulls...

a monkey holding a monkey...

a cool iguana (just like the one in Tangled)...

more monkeying around...

amazing tanks...

to awe over the octopus...

to every smile

 

From the first minute of the day to the last it was a fantastic day.  Even as our exhausted legs made the trip back to the hotel the girls' excitement shifted from the animals to the Metro.   You would have thought it was a roller coaster as much fun as it provided.

Monument Tour

Wednesday afternoon we met up with Mark, settled into our hotel and then headed out for our first mission... dinner.  

Using what would be one of our greatest tools of the week, the Urban Spoon app, Mark found a Mexican restaurant that served local organic food with vegan options.  It was super yummy and the girls got to start us off by helping stir up the table side guacamole.

Our meal was fantastic, our route was planned, and we were ready to tour the monuments of DC.

 As we were making our way to our first monument we came upon the Sculpture Gardens.  We had just enough time to take a quick lap around the outer circle before the whistles sounded to signal the closing of the gardens.

The Washington Monument

 Making our way to the Lincoln Memorial.

 The girls' favorite by far, the Lincoln Memorial.

 Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Long after the sun had set we made it back to our hotel.  We were all exhausted after walking at least 4 miles to and from our hotel and throughout downtown.  

Aching feet aside, we had a great evening with many memorable moments.  Each monument brought great excitement bringing more reality to simple facts we learned over the last year as we studied US history.  There was a beautiful carousel that we couldn't pass up. On the last leg of our tour we had passed the White House and started back on the trek when we began to hear sirens and see many flashing lights.  Before we knew it we were front line as the Presidential Motorcade passed within 10 feet of us, pretty exciting!! 

What A Way To Start Our Trip!!

 Last Tuesday my girls and I set out to meet Mark in DC.  He had been there for a review course for several days.  The plan was to pick him up Wednesday at 3:00 as he finished his coarse and begin a great DC family adventure.  We pulled out a day early so we could fit in perhaps one of the most exciting parts of our trip...

 catching up with the older ones in this crew.

and meeting the younger two!! 

We had so much fun!! After a huge pillow fight we put the kids down for the night and Terri and I talked till we couldn't keep our eyes open.

 The next day before we had to head out Terri took us out to their zip line.  The girls screamed with delight.  It would have only been better if their oldest could have been with us instead at picture day at school ;)

 Thanks for a GREAT visit and the girls' precious chef hats, 

they will be worn often I'm sure!!

 Love you my friend!! Can't wait till our next visit!