By the time you read this we will have been on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for 40 days. That is a miracle in itself. I am telling you, I kicked around this idea for an entire year before we decided that it was the path God was leading us to. I spent two weeks prepping and one day gutting our house of everything it stowed in the food department. It looked like we were moving. I prayed and I prayed and I laid it at the feet of Jesus.
Yep, I talk a lot about my faith. It is the single element that has held my shit together. It is the air I breathe and the direction I seek. It is everything to me. So keep that in mind as you read my blogs. They will be loaded with this kind of content. But honestly, when you continue to watch what happens, you will give Him the glory just as we are no matter what you believe. It is not what we do but what He does through us.
I spend anywhere from a minimum of 5 hours in the kitchen to almost 10 some days. I make everything from scratch and my amazing husband brings me almost all of my goods to do so. He does the shopping now and I must say I really love it. I do a pick up here and there but otherwise he took that job. He is wonderful. We eat meat, fruit and vegetables. We have the occasional meringue or frozen coconut oil treat but absolutely no starch or grain and no refined sugar. Let me list for you some fabulous things our Healer, Jehova Rapha, is doing though this crazy diet (and in no particular order).....
1. Around day 30 she decided she wanted to potty train. We are still working on this but overall has been so much better than I could have imagined. It has been almost a week and she has very little accidents.
2. She falls asleep so much easier than she used to.
3. So much calmer.
4. Within one week she was able to focus on a task up to 10 minutes where as before it was maybe 2. Maybe.
5. She asks for help when she needs it now. Never did before.
6. She can label all the alphabet letters (if she wants to!)
7. Flip through books and point at pictures and name them as well as count the items in counting books.
8. Sing and participate in motions in class songs at circle time.
9. Greet our dog by name when she comes in the room, pet her or try to ride her like a horse (all new).
10. Follow directions from adults much easier and very quickly. So impressed I could take pictures of her and Ainsley. She actually looked at the camera and said "cheese" better than Ainsley!
11. Spontaneously requesting things like food items or games (still slow but there is improvement).
12. Answer yes and no questions.
13. Talk back with a sassy sounding "NO".
14. Wait her turn.
15. Transition better.
16. Thanks to my terrible allergies she tells me to, "Blow, Blow".
17. I asked her to join Ainsley and I coloring and she stopped what she was doing to color with us (she is not that interested in art to say the least), and I asked her for the black marker and she found it and took the lid off for me and handed it to me. Stayed with us for almost 15 minutes.
18. We all met new cousin, Gabriel (4 weeks old), and was so interested in him, touched him gently on his head and leg like I told her to and then she kissed him on the chest. So sweet.
I could keep going but I wanted to give you the idea and wanted to have it in writing for the proof. I forget everything almost and I do not want to forget all she is doing new right now. This post is for you but probably more so for me to have this to look back on.
This road is hard and it is so isolating, but it is so worth it. Oh, and on a beautiful side note, my kiddos are eating vegetables and LIKING them. They eat squash, zucchini, asparagus, avocado, green beans and carrots. We add one thing at a time so we will eventually have them even more well rounded. Muahhhahhhhaaaa. Ainsley earns her stars for each meal and at the end of the month is rewarded with a nice toy of her choice. Bribing is great. I wish I got that excited over stickers on a chart, for real.
A huge thank you to my family who came to the Walk Now for Autism Speaks 2013. Thank you David, Jenn and Gabriel Blumberg, Katie Garlington, and my parents Leo and Tricia Blumberg. Having you there means so much to me and I know my girls will not forget. The more the merrier my friends, come join us next year! We always have a big party at the house after and it is a great time. Please keep my Father in Law in your prayers as he is undergoing chemo/radiation. He and Ann could not attend because of it. We are all in this crazy world together so let us not forget to lift each other up.
We are working on a speech evaluation next week so please pray that we are with the right therapists and the right amount of speech will be recommended to help our sweet girl. Thank you for reading, thank you for caring, and most of all we thank you for praying.
Much love and blessings,
Team Baylor
