Tuesday, July 8, 2014

About Me

This is the part where I tell you a little bit about me, my family, and our journey (my husband hates that word) to health through real food. And of course I hardly know where to begin...






My amazing husband and I have been married for almost 10 years. We were college sweethearts; he was my Bible study leader when I was 17 years old and pretty much the silliest girl you could ever hope to meet. We've been in love for close to half of my life, and I can't imagine doing life without him.



We have 5 amazing, crazy, beautiful, ridiculous children. Grace is our oldest, almost 9 years old and a brilliant dreamer. Evangeline, our 6 year old, is the leader of the pack and the little mama of the house. Adelaide is a hysterically funny and hot-tempered 3 and a half year old, and I have her to thank for starting our real food adventure. Jude, our only son, is 2, is totally in love with his beautiful sisters, but currently completely obsessed with his Daddy because, well, the boys have to stick together around here! And our sweet baby Jane was born on April 8th; I can't wait to share the story of my first homebirth with all of you soon!



When Adelaide was a baby, she had terrible eczema.  Her sweet newborn skin was covered with a rash so thick and rough that it felt like a wool sweater.  In her chubby rolls were red, open, weepy sores.  By the time she was 9 months old we realized that she had a milk protein allergy, and we noticed sensitivities to other foods as well.  We saw a dermatologist and an allergist, who prescribed bandages for the symptoms (steroid creams, partial elimination diets with the hope that she would grow out of her allergies) without seeking the route cause.  When she was about 1 and a half, and I was pregnant with Jude, I began researching alternate theories on chronic issues like eczema, and food allergies.  This research opened up a whole world of new information to me, and our entire family started to change the way we ate.  3 years and a whole lot of work later, and our Adelaide is doing extremely well, we are all healthier, and our commitment to a real food lifestyle is absolute.  I'll always regret my poor nutrition when I was pregnant with my sweet girl, but I am so thankful for the questions these trials raised, and for the clarity with which they were answered when we started looking in the right places.  (I'll share more about how we worked to heal Addy in upcoming posts.)

My name is Courtney. I'm a writer at heart, but by day I am a busy Mama, following God, loving my husband, nurturing my children, and scrambling to keep all of the messy pieces of life together so I can share what I'm living and learning with you. Thank you, kind reader, for bearing with me as we grow together...



In the interest of full disclosure, honesty, and of course, comedy, I will now share with you a picture of what my hair really looks like:





Ok, now I think we can all move on.
 

1 comment:

  1. Hey I would love to get connected with you I have a one year old who is suffering from the same thing an I'm losing my mind, I am a Christian and I believe god is going to use this one day but I am still not doing well mentally when t comes to all this ! In from south jersey too. Is there a way we can connect ?

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