Ten Years

Today is our ten year wedding anniversary!

GFCF... What the F?

I received medical results this weekend that showed that my Luca has some "very high" food allergies. We will be eliminating wheat (gluten), dairy (casein), and eggs from his diet. Although he shown many of the signs of food allergies, I have to admit that I was stunned and had a range of emotions upon reading the results. GUILT... I have been feeding my baby these foods for the past three years! So many of his illnesses could have been easily prevented! MORE GUILT... Oh no! His favorite foods are over. No more Sunchips, Cheerios, Fiber One Bars, our homemade cookies we bake together! He is so little and won't understand! Hope... maybe this new diet will help with some of the health and behavioral issues we have been dealing with over the past three plus years. Confusion... What am I going to feed this child??? In case you don't know.... GLUTEN, CASEIN, AND EGGS ARE IN JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING.

Unless otherwise noted gluten, casein and eggs are found in... just to name a few....

* all baked goods... cookies, cakes
* all chips, pretzels, crackers
* all breads, bagels, muffins, doughnuts, tortillas
* all cereals, oatmeal, breakfast bars, waffles, pancakes, syrup
* many lunch meats
* pastas
* most condiments, seasonings, spice mixes and breading
* candy, artificial colors, artificial flavors, cake decorations and frosting, CHOCOLATE
* cheeses, yogurts, butter, milk, pudding, marshmallow cream, chewing gum

It is even used in play-doh, glue, and on envelopes and stamps!


Soooooo, being that I have no GFCF (Gluten Free Casein Free... cool new lingo I am learning) food in my home, I fed him a nice big bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and we left for the grocery store. I am somewhat familiar with the GFCF diet because my amazingly adorable, beautiful, funny, nephew Carson (Curing Carson) IS ALSO ALLERGIC TO WHEAT, DAIRY, AND EGGS. He is on the diet. What exactly was in the water when my sister and I were pregnant??????

Our first stop was a Trader Joe's. They had a good selection of GFCF crackers and chips as well as some brownie and pancakes mixes. It was a bit confusing though because although the Gluten free foods were well labeled they were not clearly labeled "Casein Free" or "Egg Free" which meant I had to take some time reading many packages. I easily found GFCF lunch meats and pastas though. The price there were GREAT! Although the packages were smaller, the prices were less than I would pay for our usual brand. I couldn't find GFCF ice-cream, butter, "Rice Dream" brand milk, any cereal, or bread that looked edible so we checked out Vince & Joe's. I was able to find all of these items and more at this store but they were VERY expensive.

$5.99 for 1/2 loaf of GFCF bread... the pieces are also about 1/2 the size of a 'normal' piece of bread
$6.59 for GFCF Apple Granola bars
$5.79 for GFCF cereal
$3.79 for a very small bag of Tapioca flour
$3.99 for "Rice Dream" milk.... 32 oz!!!!!
$4.49 for GFCF butter


Holy Moly. This sucks.

Beautiful Boy

Our Paperwork Is Expiring

Just received an e-mail today from our adoption agency reminding us that our I171H (permission from the US government to adopt an orphan) will be expiring in a little over a month. This required and very expensive piece of paper is good for 18 months. Thankfully we get one "free" extension. However, we will still need to pay $400 for a homestudy update through our social worker and all new supporting documents (letters from our employers, letters from our doctor, financial statements, police clearances, references, etc.). Looks like I am back to making phone calls and appointments. UGH. The kicker is that this new I171H will expire as well. I know that we will not receive a referral and travel within the next 18 months. I really don't know why I am doing this!!!!!! However, our social worker and agency advise that we keep everything up to date. I am going to play by the rules, continue to jump through hoops, cross my T's and dot my i's, and hopefully one day we will bring our daughter home.

Yesterday's Conversation

Here is a little excerpt from a conversation Luca and I had on our way home from the mall yesterday....

Luca is singing the "Yoda" song by Weird Al when he suddenly stops.

Luca... "Mommy, where did you buy me and Adrian?"
Me.... "I didn't buy you. You grew in my belly,"
Luca.... "What did you eat?"
Me.... "I didn't eat anything to make you grow in there."
Luca... "Then how did I get in your belly?"
Me...... "God put you in my belly."
Luca... "Who is God?"

I then went on to talk about why we go to church and who we talk to when we say our prayers. I then started singing the Yoda song and thankfully he joined in.

15 Months

Today marks 15 months in our wait for Eden.

Barefoot Boy

The Barefoot Boy
by John Greenleaf Whittier (1855)

Blessings on thee, little man,
Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!
With thy turned-up pantaloons,
And thy merry whistled tunes;
With thy red lip, redder still
Kissed by strawberries on the hill;
With the sunshine on thy face,
Through thy torn brim’s jaunty grace;
From my heart I give thee joy,—
Blessings on thee, barefoot boy!