Fighting Giants

My Vladi. It will be four years in April since Vlad became part of our family. He spent the first three and a half years of his life in an orphanage in Ukraine all because of two words: Down syndrome. I face these two words every day. Like two giants that at times seem undefeatable and at other times can be felled with my own little slingshot. Down syndrome often looms large in places like speech, when Vladi has to think and try and strain so hard to pronounce a one syllable word like up or cat. And yet, when it comes to sharing a tattered and well-loved stuffed Mickey with his sister or comforting a crying Whitman who has just nailed his foot in one of his many attempts to really fly, Vlad knocks Down syndrome over like a set of wobbly dominoes. Down syndrome. It can't be explained and it can. And I often don't even try either way. Because he is just Vlad. He is not Down syndrome. I just have to embrace that most days. Embrace my little Vladi. Sigh. :)

There are many unknowns when you adopt a child. Doesn't really matter at what age the child steps into your family. There are things you just don't know and won't. And when your child is primarily nonverbal, the sea of mystery only deepens and widens. And this can be both magical and endearing at times -- I may never know why Vlad lines his shoes up in cute little rows or why his one ear has a delightful little indent in it. And it can also be maddening and terrifying at times -- did the orphanage know he had asthma and just not tell us so that we could discover it on our own one night when he was gripped with pain, and he could not express where or why, and I was begging God that his appendix hadn't burst or he wasn't going to die in my arms of an undiagnosed terminal disease. Ok, I can be a bit melodramatic, you know I direct theatre, right?

All this to say, that for the last number of years, we have had many trips to a variety of doctors, many hospital stays because of labored breathing and respiratory infections dangerously progressing, many tests with inconclusive or negative results, many rounds of antibiotics that seemed to patch Vlad up for the moment, only to send his little system spiraling again. It has gotten old. So, as allergy/flu/cold season began its dreaded congestion march into the semester, I was searching. Sick of the doctors, the meds, the nebulizers, the sick days, the tears, and the watching and holding my son and feeling helpless. And then, I went for it. Dun, dun, dun. I decided to go the all natural route.

GASP! Now, this is not me. I keep my creativity and my risk-taking to the stage for the most part, and keep my regular boring life, regular and boring. I compartmentalize my life quite well, thank you very much. But this fall I had faced a giant that's name was not Down syndrome. It was my sweet kid's chronic "whatever it is" -- allergies? diet? asthma? All of it. And I wasn't able to knock this foe over. So, I decided to try a sneak attack. I had a bottle of an essential oil blend in my medicine cabinet and I thought, why not. Nothing else has given my kid any relief. Every year in December, he is so ill, and nothing helps manage his asthma and build his immune system. Until this.

This December was different. All of my kids. ALL of my kids were healthy for the entire month of December. Syrus. Whitman. Ani (who I should mention was in the hospital last December with a fever over 102 when she was only 2 months old). And yes, Vlad. Gulp. We have been using essential oils and they have been working. Now, look, I had a friend in college who used Tea Tree Oil and I thought he was nuts and smelled funny. And here I am, 20 years later, thinking I should call him and say, dude you were WAY ahead of your time. And I was the one who was nuts. (Although I still think Tea Tree Oil smells funny, haha).

Now, I'm not going to go into some big treatise on oils. All I am going to say, is my kids made it through a month of allergy/cold/flu season without antibiotics and hospital visits. I count that a victory against one of the giants in my home.  And I don't want this to be a one time thing, people.  Much like the Baker in one of my favorite musicals, INTO THE WOODS, I am saying, "No more giants, waging war. Can't we just pursue our lives with our children and our wives till that happier day arrives?" I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me.

And I would love to share! So, if you want to try some of my arsenal of giant-fighting oils :) then Ani and I are going to open up our home on Saturday mornings. Sharing Saturdays if you will. Come. My husband will watch my kids AND your kids in the basement. We'll have a cup of coffee in my kitchen and Ani and I will show you how we combat things like allergies, asthma, colds, flu, trouble sleeping, anxiety, bad moods (hello!), and snoring (yes, that's right, after 15 years, my husband no longer snores because of all this). I'll even let you try and smell and see these mysterious oils. Haha. I know they sound like they might be too good to be true. But you know what, so do giants. Except, folks, I've fought some of those myself.

Saturday, January 10th, 10am -- Allergies, Asthma, Colds, Flu
Would love to have you -- message me if you are coming!

Saturday, January, 17th, 10am -- Sleeping, Anxiety, Moods, Snoring
Would love to have you -- message me if you are coming!

Can't make it on a Saturday?  Let me know and we'll hangout a different morning -- let's just hangout and talk giants and oils and life and what God's doing in our lives.  (I want more community in 2015, people, but that's for another blogpost) :)