The Luckiest No Matter What!

My whole adult life, I'd always wanted someone I was close with to decide to do a destination wedding.  How incredible to travel to somewhere awesome and celebrate together.  When my sister Colleen announced that her and her finance were going to plan a wedding in Cancun, Josh and I were thrilled.... FINALLY!  Then we remembered... we're parents now.  Now just parents, but parents to three kids under four.  Hmmm.... this was not exactly the destination wedding scenario I had in my mind all those years ago ;)  However, Cancun is a special place for Josh and I.  We have visited two other times- both at some of the lowest, saddest, and most hopeless points in my life.  We first visited in the midst of our early go-rounds with fertility medicine and doctors appointments; it was a spring break get-a-way escape and was much needed.  Our second visit was the winter after losing my brother and our first miscarriage.  We were so grateful to be ...

When I last posted in October, I was crying in Foods for Living trying to figure out how to cut out wheat, rice, soy, beef, chicken, carrots, peas, coconut, cashews, almonds, and maybe a few more I can't even pick out of my brain right now from our diet after finding out about Judah's food allergies.  I was grateful the allergies were moderate and not severe.  I felt guilty for having not found out about the food allergies sooner. I was a little lost trying to figure out what to cook and how to get my questions answered. Most importantly, I was worried about Judah- how he would feel when he had to say 'no thank you' to so many foods he'd be offered in the future.  Feeling worried about if/when his skin would clear up and if these food allergies were really the answer.  Feeling worried if there'd be more or worse allergies on the horizon.   Over the rest of October and November, we cut all those foods.  We ate ham, turkey, and especially pork for prote...

We've been trying to get the bottom of Judah's skin issues for a long while now.  We've seen his pediatrician, a dermatologist, and an allergist several times over the last year JUST to talk about Judah's skin (that's a lot of $30 co-pays).  We've always been told he has baby eczema and that it will pass.  When he was a very little baby, that answer was fine for me because he would go through ebbs and flows with it; sometimes his skin would be totally clear and then he'd have a flair up for a couple of weeks. The winters were worse because it was drier out and in the summer, his skin was usually completely clear.  But for the last year, he's had bad skin the entire time, no ebb and flow. So I started to get more frustrated and asking questions.  He got his allergies tested a year ago, I probably told you, and they tested for all the regular most common allergies and he came back totally clear, but his skin still wasn't.  So after several appointment...