~Welcome Fall~

Hello, Everyone! Been a while since I have updated you on our bunch...so here you go....

Life has been crazy here just like at everyone else's house! Billing for the business, kiddos, cooking and laundry pretty much keep me hopping!! =) The latest challenge for our family has been Kate's atopic dermatitis--pretty specific form of eczema..and yes, its the same one I had as a child, but Kate's is much worse than mine in that it is all over her--arms, legs, ankles, feet, hands, wrists, back of her neck and some days on her face...she itches quite frequently, and is fussy at times, but overall is a little princess that loves to smile, play, laugh, and talk....she has really started showing her personality in stores, when she yells...HI!!! to everyone we meet! We took her to 2 different doctors last week, actually, I took her to one....got really upset as he wrote me out 5 different prescriptions for her and basically told me it was chronic and she would have to fight it forever...which I know did not happen to me, vitamins and prayer healed my problem years ago and I only have flares when I am highly stressed or have major hormone changes like with pregnancy. All of my research on Kate led me to info about the rash I had while pregnant both times...yep, probably was just my old atopic dermatitis flaring. Lovely. Why can't doctors tell you those things when you are PAYING them money.....guess, that just means God wants us to remember to lean on Him, not man.

I just wanted to cry though, that a doctor would offer me five prescriptions to put in her little body, when all the time I was pregnant and nursing I was sooo careful about what I was giving her--and now, they think I would just cram her full of meds that never helped my condition as a kid, and will effect her down the road...I think NOT. We took her then to a homeopathic nurse practitioner--wonderful man, who actually gave me lots more info and told me it was more than likely a milk allergy (which we had pretty much figured out on our own) he gave us several options to try and we did...not much change though, although we do think the key is in the foods she is eating, so slowly we have eliminated the main ones that make her flare--which now means no dairy, no wheat, no citrus and no refined sugar. All big bad triggers for skin allergies. Supposedly, it is usually only one to two items that are actually doing it--but if we can eliminate these then hopefully, we can slowly add them back in and find the real culprit. Also, we have put her on some vitamins to help her skin---and we are also using olive oil in her bath water to help with the dryness. We may appear to be fanatic, but hey, if it works, we will be so glad, it sure can' t hurt to only eat foods the way God made them and intended for them to be eaten---sounds like a win-win situation to us. Pray for her though....its really a miserable way to live for a little one, and people really don't understand it so they usually think its contagious...which it of course is NOT....Pics are of--the kids with our fall decorations, Kate coloring her hair with ketchup (before it got cut from her diet too) , Connor on school picture day, and two pics of Kate's rash at its worst on Sunday. Thanks for your prayers. Love you all--Kan