Journey to Healthy

For the past one and half plus years, I have been on a journey to become more healthy.  It started with a desire to lose weight, so I began working out and counting calories.  I ate "diet" and "low-fat" foods whenever possible and all kinds of sugar-free and fake sugar stuff thinking it was better for me because it was lower calorie.  I was doing the best I knew how to lose weight and get healthy.

But, as I have learned over the past few months, whole foods that are not processed or as minimally processed as possible are actually best for my body. Foods high in healthy fats are better than foods that have the fat taken out (and then sugar added back in to make it taste good) to make them less caloric. Our bodies were created to need fat, but not the gross, processed junk fats, but the real, whole, God-made ones.  For example, I just recently learned that whole milk is the best grocery store milk option because it is the least processed. Other milks like 1% or even worse, skim, have most of the fat taken out and then they have to add back in white coloring and vitamins A and D to make it like the other milks, which just makes it more processed. Vitamins A and D are only processed by our body through fat, so drinking those vitamins without also drinking the fat is pointless! I have found that by eating the whole version of foods my body is getting the healthy fats it needs and subsequently, it fills up faster. Even "healthy" foods like wheat bread, milk and yogurt can quickly become unhealthy with all the added sugars and processing that goes into them, it's a slow process to educate myself and makes changes to a more wholesome diet.  Just like with all foods, though, it's easy to go overboard, even on good foods, so it's important to always maintain portion control.

Naturally, as I have started to clean up my diet and my family's diet, my focus has also turned to the other things in my life that are harmful to our bodies, things such as household cleaners, medicines and skin care products. Most medicines, especially liquid or chew-able ones like the kids take, have all kinds of sugars and fake dyes in them. I don't know why I would allow my kids to take that stuff when I try to steer them away from pop, juice and other sugary, fake things. Having cleaners that aren't toxic to my family is also important to me since we all touch the surfaces I clean on a daily basis. Our skin is our biggest organ and up until recently I rarely gave a second thought to what kinds of products came in contact with my skin, things like face lotion and Vaporub and sunscreen.  I have started doing essential oils for this very reason.  I want to find more natural ways to replace the foods, cleaners, medicines and other products we use that have harmful dyes and chemicals in them.  It's a journey, always, so I won't be replacing everything at once, but slowly over time, I hope to.  I have already found many uses for the oils and have had really good results, even in just a couple of weeks. We have used oils for cuts/scrapes, a bad rash Ashten had, Chris' and Brayden's allergies and my horrible headaches I get every month.  I still want to make my own cleaners, use oils instead of face lotion, make a cream for Chris' excema and make my own sunscreen.  It makes me feel good that I am doing things naturally in a way that's safe for my family.

Some of my motivations for continuing to improve our healthy, natural lifestyle at home are:

• I want Chris and our kids to love and eat good-for-them foods (which they have already started eating more fruits and veggies, so that's a win!)
• I want to honor God with my body and I want to be able to say to Him that I did the best for my family that I knew how. I cannot learn these things about the foods I was eating and the products I was using, continue to habitually use them and claim I just didn't know any better. Ignorance is not an excuse for me anymore.
• When we bring our daughter home from China, she is going to have some special needs. Which ones and how major/minor we don't know yet, but we do know that food will have been a contributing factor at least the severity of some of her needs and giving her body the nutrients it needs will help equally as much as the better healthcare she will have access to. I want to fight for our daughter's healing as naturally as possible, including good food and using oils!

Before you think I'm totally crazy and way too strict, let me say this: my kids still eat pizza and hot dogs and ice cream and candy, they are not deprived in the least. I know better than to think any of this will work or stick if I force it or if I ban certain foods and products.  I have been giving them a choice still between medicine and oils, hoping they will see a difference in how they feel with the oils. There still is a little bit of an everything-in-moderation attitude, I'm not banning sugar or forcing them to chomp on just celery for dinner (though they do love celery)!

This is definitely a journey and I have found that small changes work better than trying to overhaul everything at once. I am by no means an expert on any of this and I am definitely not trying to come across as judgmental, I just want to journal what has worked for me and remind myself how far I've come. Two years ago I would never have thought I would be where I am today, making my own yogurt and doing essential oils! I joked with Chris the other day after I had just gotten a couple of new maxi skirts for summer that I am becoming more hippie-like all the time, long skirts and all!

Look out, I'm getting more "granola" by the day!

Half my life

Today marks 17 years of Chris and I being together.  We started dating May 9, 1997 when we were 17, we are now 34!

These last 17 years have seen us through a lot and there is no one in the whole entire world I would rather be going through all of it with than Chris!  He's my anchor, he calms and reassures me in a way no one else can.  He also makes me completely happy and completely frustrated in a way no else can either.  He knows me better than anyone and he still loves me, that's saying a lot! We are so complementary as parents, what one of us lacks, the other has and vice versa. We've done a lot of growing up together, to say the least, but we've grown closer in the process and that is invaluable to me. Who knew, 17 years ago when we were just young teenagers that we'd be here today?! This has definitely been the best half of my life!

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

Ashten got to spend a day at work with Chris on Take-Your-Daughter-to-Work Day (which is now technically called Take-Your-Son-or-Daughter-to-Work day to be politically correct and all)!

I was worried she would get bored quickly and then would be a huge distraction while Chris was trying to teach and stuff, but he said she did so good.  She helped pass out papers, grade some stuff and interacted with the students.  She is a little social butterfly, so she throughouly enjoyed the whole day.  She even got to have a special treat for lunch: McDonalds!!  And I got a day off to really live it up, i.e. bra shopping, meal planning and adoption paperwork stuff!!  Woo-hoo!

34

Well I turned 34 on April 23rd.  It wasn't that eventful as far as milestone birthdays go, you know, 33 and 34 are pretty obscure.  But Chris and the kids made it really special and I definitely felt loved and spoiled!

Chris and the boys all had a early release day, so once they were all home, we went out to lunch at Olive Garden.  Yum!  Then we came home and did presents and had some chocolate cake!  They got me some workout shirts, a couple new purses (he found a great deal on some designer purses!) and a speaker to play music from my phone on!  The kids still had piano and church that night, but Preston was sick, so I took the kids to church and Chris stayed home with him.  Then, while they were in AWANA, I came home and hung out with Chris and Preston.  It was a wonderful birthday and I kind of love the times I get to be spoiled like that, it's fun!  And I may or may not have eaten cake for breakfast the next day!  YOLO, as Brayden would say!

When it came time to blow out the candles and make a wish, I'm sure you can all guess what I wished for.  I'll give you a hint: it has to do with a little girl we affectionately call "K"!  Still praying and hoping for a referral soon, ya know!!  And I wouldn't complain if we had to spend my 35th birthday in China.  #justsayin

Easter 2014

Apparently we are in the minority, we don't do Easter baskets, Easter egg hunts, bunnies, jelly beans, ducks, etc.  That's not a celebration of Easter, that's a celebration of spring.  Easter is a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, which as a Christian is 1000 times more exciting than some bunny or chocolate or anything!  Jesus' resurrection means I don't have to live defeated in my sin anymore!  Christ has paid for all my sin, past, present and future and has given me the freedom to live life abundantly in Him!  Now that's something to celebrate!!  I've wrote about this before, so I digress. It's not like we shelter the kids from that stuff, we just don't spend our money or time on it as their parents.  Our poor kids, huh?  Chris' mom usually gets the kids a little something for Easter, a new outfit and some candy or something.  The kids appreciate it and it's fun for them, which is cool!  And this year, our next door neighbor came over the day before Easter and brought each of the kids an Easter basket.  It was so very sweet of her.  She said it was a thank you for all the times the kids had shoveled her driveway throughout the winter.  Which is true, they had shoveled her driveway a few times, but we had them do that because a) they had energy to burn and b) it's good to teach them to help others out.  This reward was so unexpected and very special to them!

Sunday morning we got all dressed up for Easter and headed to church for a pancake breakfast and then church service.  After an amazing and very worshipful church service, we went over to Chris' parents house for a nice relaxing lunch.

There's always gotta be a silly pic!

I've got out of making Easter dinner two years in a row now!!  Last year Logan's birthday was on Easter, so we went out for orange chicken for lunch (you know, just your traditional Easter dinner, haha!).  And now this year Chris' mom is handled everything, and it was delicious!  I could get used to this for sure.  It's not that I hate cooking, I just hate the pressure of making a nice meal on a holiday.  I'm more of a casual, low-key dinner maker.

Hope you all had a Happy Easter too!

Basketball

Now that the weather has been a little nicer consistently, the kids have enjoyed going outside and shooting hoops.

It's funny to see how each of the kids "plays basketball" differently.  Ashten for example, sees the ball more an accessory to pose with!

Preston humbles himself and uses a pink and purple ball, just so he can shoot better, have better form and score more!

Logan usually isn't into playing the sport, but if he's especially rowdy or has energy to burn, he'll go out and play around a little, dribble the ball, but always making up his own game.

Brayden is usually out there with them too, but he was at soccer practice the day I took these.  Brayden is 100% about the rules and playing the way the game is meant to be played.

Newest cousin

My sister, Clara, had her second baby boy in February and he is just adorable.  Ashten loves him too, even though he cries almost every time she holds him, she is so patient and really tries to get him to calm down before just handing him off.

Olivia's shower

My sister's bridal shower was a few weeks ago and I think this is the first shower for one of my sisters in a long time that I wasn't involved in the planning of it.  It was kind of nice, though I did help a little by making a few signs and making some spinach artichoke dip.

I love it so much when all of my sisters and I are together, which has been happening more recently than it has in a long time!

Olivia with her two flower girls, Madison and Ashten

Clara, Monica, Olivia, me

All of us Versaw girls and our girls

The shower was a lot of fun. They planned a newlywed game where they asked Olivia's fiance some questions and Olivia had to try and guess the same answer he gave.  Some were funny and some were so sweet.  I'm so excited for her wedding, just less than 5 weeks away!

Paperwork and patience

It's been about a month since I've blogged about our adoption.  There really hasn't been anything exciting going on, unless you consider paperwork exciting, in which case I hope your job is something like accountant or auditor or lawyer or something!

We have finished up almost all our paperwork and we are just waiting on one more thing until we can get everything state certified and our dossier completed (minus our I800A approval) and sent in to our agency.  Our homestudy is also totally completed except for this one thing.  It's so so frustrating to wait on someone else to complete something so we can move forward, but I am trying my best to be patient and not harass the poor guy who is supposed to be writing this letter for us.  Never mind that it has already taken him 3 weeks and he's not delivered yet.  "Patience is a virtue, she is worth it, patience is a virtue, she is worth it" is my mantra lately!!

Once we get this final letter we need, we will mail everything off to be state certified, which should only take about 4-5 days.  Then we make 3 copies of everything and mail it off, along with our next payment, to All God's Children (our placing agency) and then as far as our responsibility is concerned, our dossier is completed.  When this final letter is done, our social worker will also wrap up our home study and send it off to the various places it needs for approval.  Once that has been approved by everyone, we will mail off for our I800A, which is our immigration approval.  That is taking about 2-3 months to come back, unfortunately, another step that is out of our control.  Once we receive that letter of approval, we will make a copy, get the copy notarized, send that in for state certification and then mail to All God's Children to join the rest of our dossier.  Then our dossier will officially be complete and then sent to China for the next step.

The next step is our Log-in Date (LID in adoption slang!), which takes about 1-2 months.  Once we have our LID, we are finally eligible for a referral.  And then we wait.....  The estimated wait time for a referral after the LID is 9-12 months and then travel is 5-6 months after that.  So we are hoping and praying that we will be able to travel in 2015 to bring our little "K" home!

I saw this in a book I was reading and love it!  It means "I love you" in Mandarin.  I am planing to make some art work with this symbol and hang it up in our basement!

We love you "K", mommy and daddy are coming soon!

Celebrating 9 years of Logan

We had 3 different celebrations of Logan this year.  But he's a boy worth celebrating!! 

The first was the "grandparent party" that we did in conjunction with Ashten's.  Secondly, Logan had a friend party at our house.  He chose the theme of Despicable Me and wanted a real cake from a bakery that looked better than anything I could do on my own.  

He had 6 friends over and they had a great time just running around being silly and playing together.  He chose BLT's for dinner.

Logan thought it was hilarious when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him. I'm not sure what was so funny, but he was having a great time with all his friends!

Presents time!

 Group picture! We didn't ask for a silly picture, I guess this is what happens when you give kids cake and then tell them to go run around and play together.

Logan made a minion out of Legos wihtout any instructions!  Great job Logan!  The smaller yellow piece is a banana.

On Logan's actual birthday, he had the day off of school, but Chris had to go back to work after Spring Break.  We spent the day watching Frozen, playing the Wii, going to the library and playing outside.  When Chris got home, we opened presents and then went out to dinner for Logan's favorite: orange chicken!  Then we came home and had cake and then Logan worked on putting together his new Legos!!