Blessings

Okay, these past couple weeks have proven to be extremely busy for my family. First off, I'd like to announce that I was chosen to be an Enjoyable for Enjoy Life foods! What does this mean? It means that I am a brand ambassador for them here locally. It means that I am able to attend events as an ambassador and share the Enjoy Life experience with so many people. This is a volunteer position, but I believe it pays more than I could ever imagine.

With that, I will roll on with the next announcement, yesterday was our FAAN walk for Food Allergy awareness. The walk was what I would consider a success. There were over 1000 people there. This is small for most "cause" walks, but this was a big crowd for us. While food allergy sufferers are rare, the number is growing, at a scary rate. Of course, that rising number is why we walk.

I had every intention of attending this walk with my children as a walker, but fate had other plans for me. I was contacted last week about the ambassador position (which took me NO time to accept), and asked if I would be able to make a last minute change and attend the walk as an Enjoy Life ambassador. I'm not going to lie, at first I felt a little thrown off because change is hard for me sometimes. It didn't take long for me to realize that this was a big opportunity and I changed up plans.

I arrived at Wash Park (SUCH a beautiful park!!), set up my tent and stared in amazement at the amount of samples I was given to share with the crowd. Seriously, there were a TON! I would later be even MORE amazed by the number of samples that were gone after the walk. People slowly started approaching my (*ahem* Enjoy Life's) tent and the stories slowly started coming in. People started realizing that I was at this event, not as just a company spokesperson, but as the mother of a severely food allergic child. As people came to realize this, they started flooding me with their own experiences and stories. I couldn't believe just how many wanted to share little pieces of their world with me. One woman in particular stands out in my memory. She had never heard of Enjoy Life before and upon hearing what "allergy friendly" means to the product (free of the top 8 allergens) she cried. I knew instantly why she was crying. These were tears of relief, it was the weight of the world being lifted from her shoulders for just a small moment in time. She cried because she read the label (to verify as ALL FA parents do, ALL of the time) and saw that it indeed was safe for her son. She cried because there was a sea of people surrounding her that shared the same fears, concerns and stories. She was crying because she was overwhelmed by this relief. You see, many FA parents spend our lives in fear of the unknown, the fear of one tiny mistake, we just fear for our children's lives. To be able to set that fear down for just a moment means letting our guard down, that is a relief, but different from any other form of relief one will experience. This woman thanked me for being there and asked if she could hug me (I'm NOT the hugging type of person, at all), before I knew what I was doing, I was reduced to a few tears myself and hugging this complete stranger. When I look back, she wasn't a stranger, she was kin, definitely kin.

The emotions of the day kept rolling in. I had dads running over to the tent just to tell me how much they love Enjoy Life and how thankful they are for such a company to exist. I know this gratitude and I know it well. There were grandparents, cousins, aunts/uncles and even friends of food allergic children/adults who knew the brand and knew it well. I can understand that as well, my parents will scour a store looking for two things: Sun Butter and Enjoy Life. There were people who wanted to ask questions for co-workers and taking brochures to share with them. This compassion and sharing just made my heart one big beating smile. The blessings of the day were so much more than I had anticipated.

On another note, I am a firm believe in Yin and Yang. Yesterday's Yang being the walk and the many blessings that poured out. The yin of the day came a few hours later, when I got the phone call that my grandfather was rushed to the hospital and suffering from dehydration and pneumonia. My grandfather is no longer a young man (by any stretch), he is no longer a healthy man and so this trip to the hospital could quite possibly turn bad, really bad.

I think the blessings of the earlier part of the day carried me through hearing this news about my grandfather and stayed with me through the night. There is no doubt that we needed our Yang before our Yin yesterday. I tell my children that God has a plan for all things, big and small. Yesterday, as I was getting ready for bed, I reviewed the day in my mind and realized, I was looking at the blue prints of Gods plan for the day.


I have YET another announcement, but this one deserves a separate post. I will post it today (hopefully) or early tomorrow. As I said, it's been a busy busy time for us, thank you for your patience through all of this.