What started my passion for health? The answer.

God.  Yes, He's the reason for everything.  He turns everything into good....and I am an example of His plans that can seem very hard to understand.
But, there are other things that have happened through my life that have really affected how I think about health, farming, growing organic food, etc...  Here is my story.

As a little girl I was known to my family as the "animal lover".  I was going to grow up and be a vet.... I have changed my mind over the years.... =D  I just loved any kind of animal, bug, anything that could be my pet.  I would dig for hours in my grandma and pap pap's  back yard in the rocks for snails.  I would let them slime all over me. :-p  I got heartbroken when Andrew, a little toddler at the time, stepped on one accidentally and crushed it.  It was my little friend. 

We lived on a farm.  21 acres of wonderful land I would run and explore all over!!!  I LOVED it!  We had chickens, ducks, goats, a pony, plenty of cats, a few dogs and my bunny I got when I turned four.  We moved there right after I turned six.  I got into plenty of trouble, such as riding the goats and the like.  It was a blast! :)  We had a u-pick blueberry patch/farm; around 300 bushes.  It was so fun in the summer when our friends would come to pick blueberries.  I just LOVE fresh blueberries..... and friends to pick with was a bonus!  We also had a wonderful 1/4 acre of asparagus.  Such blessings.  I wish I had really known what I had when we lived there.  I took it all for granted.
 We also had a creek running through our woods, and Christian and I would sometimes go down to fish.... and we actually caught a fish once that I remember! ;)

I have VERY fond memories of riding our pony, Smokey, all over our land!!!  I was the only one who knew how to saddle him, and he was quite stubborn and wouldn't obey almost anyone.  I had to pretty much train him again because it had been so long since he had been ridden.  He was about twenty-five.  I loved him and enjoyed those hours on his back! :)

I have always been a farm girl and love the outdoors!  I've dreamed of living on a farm again.  I hope I will be able to again someday.

Okay, so, I love animals, love the country, love my family and love God!  

I moved from the farm when I was eleven or twelve.  We had to give our animals away except the dogs, cats and my bunny, Tiny Ears (Tiny).

Around the time that we moved I started having some health issues.  We didn't really realize it but now, looking back, I can see.  Years of not understanding why I felt the way I did followed.

About two years ago we were experimenting with my health and took out a lot of different foods.  I was eating a lot of fresh food.  Immediately I saw and felt a difference.  My joints felt better, the bloating went down, I felt less tired among a number of other things.  I few weeks after that I went to a friend's birthday party.  I ate what I thought I should, except I had a *tiny* amount of dessert (a little piece of brownie w/ less than a scoop of ice cream).  It made me feel bad for a couple weeks!  After that, we knew that something I had been eating wasn't agreeing with me.  Since then it has been a huge process, and still is.  One thing I have found to help me feel good is juice fasting.  For my birthday I got a Champion Juicer, and I LOVE it!!!!  It does such a good job, and as a bonus, if you put a certain piece on it, and push frozen fruit through, it makes the fruit like soft serve ice cream!  It's been such a blessing!!!
Having these health issues have really caused me to have a passion for eating healthy.  Our culture's eating is so corrupt!  All the genetically modified foods, growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, and animals fed these things.....not good!  I keep hearing about more people who have digestive issues, and there is a huge rise of food intolerances.  I wonder why?  Did we always have these food sensitivities?  I don't think so.  Teddy and Nathan have both had dairy problems, but Teddy has outgrown his.  I'm hoping it won't be too many years before Nathan will do the same.
There are so many thing to be thankful for, and I am *so* blessed!  Lots of people tell me they're so sorry for me, etc..., but I don't want them to be.  I would appreciate prayer, and I do hope that my body is healed someday, but God has done some wonderful things through this, and I don't want to wallow in self-pity.  It has encouraged me to study health, and I have actually had the opportunity to be able to help some people because I have had these problems.  Yes, it's true I don't eat very many different foods, and yes, it is hard for me.  But, God is always with me and helping me to see the good in my circumstances.  It has helped me find myself.  I *love* the homesteading lifestyle.  Growing organic food from the garden, and raising grass fed animals, getting fresh, raw milk from a cow, raise healthy chickens for eggs and meat, canning the produce from the gardens, cooking healthy and making other good choices.  I don't want my children (someday) to struggle with their health as I have.  I hope that by making good choices in what they eat they will have healthy bodies.
I have been very blessed in some very wonderful friendships that have helped me so much....not to mention the support of my family.  They have just been so patient with me.  I love them all dearly!
A few nights ago I was lying in bed just thinking about my health issues...sometimes I lack the faith that I may one day be healed and that is a fault.  But, God spoke to me.  I didn't hear His voice clear, but it was a voice inside my heart.  He told me that even if I wasn't healed on earth, someday, when I die, He is going to take all of it away, and I will have a new body, free of any discomfort.  I will be whole in Him!  It just made me cry.  I had never thought of that before.  I knew that we would all have new bodies etc..., but it had never fully hit me that He would free me! :)  It was a joyous thought!  I know that it will really help me in the future when I am feeling discouraged.

So far my year has been a *wonderful* one!  Some big things have happened and are going to happen!  Big things, and just changes that seem little, but are bigger than you could imagine, in myself.  I turned seventeen in December, had a wonderful dance for my birthday party in January, am really doing well in school this year, which is very important since it's almost the end of my junior year, I've been very blessed in some amazing friendships, God has been working in my heart and pulling me further into His love and protection, I am understanding some things that I have struggled with, I am excitedly planning and working on my gardens for this year (a huge passion of mine) and have loved it!, am just learning so much as I study (a couple of my favorite sources are, The Encyclopedia of Country Living,  All New Square Foot Gardening and Nourishing Traditions, wonderful books filled with great knowledge!) and my relationships in my family are building into great friendships I didn't used to have.

So, I hope that through this you have seen how great God is, and how He has a plan for EVERYTHING!!!  Seriously.  The things that seem so terrible occur because they're part of a great and wonderful plan.  Only He knows what it is, but we can know that all is done because He loves us.