Blogging was never on my list of goals. It wasn't even something I ever considered but my son, Daniel, kept asking me when I was going to start writing my book. It was on my recent birthday that he was persistent.....persistent enough to develop this site for me. He knows all too well where our family has journeyed in the past 4 plus years and he also knows how much we learned. He keeps encouraging me because he also knows that we lose a lot when it's never written down.
It was in April 2015 in southern California that my prayer really started being answered. When my husband of 29 years, Alan, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in the brain stem (medulla ) in January 2014, we were shocked! That diagnosis turned our world and the world of our 4 children upside down. Alan had the "standard" treatment in Louisville which was 30 radiation treatments which didn't shrink the tumor but instead only made him sicker and weaker.
From the time of his initial diagnosis in January 2014, we significantly cleaned up our diet with the encouragement of my sister, Maggie, and her husband, Dana. We went from eating the "Standard American Diet" to eating much more nutritious food. Unfortunately, as we were feeding our bodies more nutritious food, Alan's body was simultaneously being bombarded with radiation and another very harsh IV treatment. Physically, Alan's body didn't stand a chance to heal and Alan passed away in June 2015 in southern California. Thankfully, we went to southern California the last two months of his life when Alan was desperate for good information and treatments that made sense. It was there in a holistic wellness clinic that we received the answers that Alan needed to pass on in peace. He is in paradise with Jesus.
From the time Alan was first diagnosed, I would sit at our kitchen table with my Bible open, praying for God to teach me what it was that I was to learn from this painful journey. God is so faithful! He has taught me so much more than I could have ever imagined would have been possible. In the past three years since Alan passed away, God has brought so many people into my life to teach me about food, to encourage me and keep me accountable, and to open doors to share what I have learned. He has blessed me with so much knowledge and an enormous passion to share with others what we learned on this painful journey. It would be greedy to keep to ourselves what we learned because all of our lives are intertwined and we are to help one another.
My prayer for any blog is that it would bring honor and glory to God, our creator. He knows each of us intimately and He created the perfect foods to nourish and heal our bodies. That is the answer to my prayer! He only asks that we trust His ways and remain obedient. Healing my body through food is not a speedy process because my body didn't get these conditions, ailments, diseases overnight......I filled my body with "junk" instead of pure food for so many years. Some "junk" was obvious like way too many chocolate chip cookies! But some "junk" was NOT so obvious like what's been done to our meat, dairy, grains, and produce. More on those topics along with some of my recipes in future blogs.
On a very personal note, God has already healed my body of these three "physical issues" through food: 1. diverticulitis (which "they" say can't be healed), 2. hot flashes & night sweats, and 3. seasonal allergies. God has been so good to me! I'm in awe of the healing because God healed my body of these three issues through food during one of the most stressful times of my life. Jordan S. Rubin, the author of the New York Times Bestselling book, The Maker's Diet wrote, ".....other factors figure in our health picture as well-----genetics, environmental toxins, lifestyle choices, emotional and mental factors, and cultural trends that affect health-----but diet remains the single most influential factor in overall human health."
Sometime soon, I'll be writing about each of those three physical issues that I previously had and some of the foods that I removed from my diet and some foods I added or where I found "purer" sources of those foods. Beautiful, nutritious food is out there and God will use it to nourish and heal your body if you will only......trust and obey!