Welcome to Georgia's Journey

Georgia Lily Lucas was born at home on October 6th, 2008 4:15am, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was diagnosed with SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) on April 1, 2009.

On April 3rd Georgia was taken home, to be near her sisters and the rest of her family and friends. Nearly three weeks later, on April 21, 2009, she died peacefully -- in the loving arms of her mother and in the same room in which she was born.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Emotions

Well, I said that that was all for tonight but apparently I lied. Now that I have dealt with the last post I feel the urge to write about something else. Something more to do with Georgia and her baby sister that we hope to meet in May.

As news has spread that we are expecting another child we have been met with nothing but excitement and enthusiasm. People have looked at me since we announced that I'm pregnant and tell me that I look happier. When people ask us if we're excited and we don't immediately reply with the appropriate amount of spunk the response is, "Well, everything's fine right?!!"

Now I don't want to make anybody feel bad here. We love that you're excited for us. We love your enthusiasm and optimism...but...while as far as we know 'everything' is fine with this baby, 'EVERYTHING' is not fine. While we feel truly blessed to be expecting our fourth child. She is our fourth child not our third. We have still lost one of our children and continue to feel her absence everyday. There is no moving on here, only moving forward. The happiness that we feel about this baby does not replace the grief of losing Georgie. I think that anyone who is a parent would agree that once they met their child for the first time their lives were altered forever. Well, the same is true of losing one... even when you're expecting another.

This pregnancy has been a roller coaster of emotions. I have the pleasure of watching two of my daughters grow and play everyday and I have another that I get to feel growing stronger everyday. I am hopeful that the life growing within me will bring some healing into our lives, especially Calla and Maya's. All of this however, is tempered by fact that there is one more of my children that I will never watch grow and play again. The pain of knowing this does not go away even as I feel our youngest roll around and kick me.

All that I ask is that if Mike and I don't show the 'appropriate' amount of enthusiasm when you bring up our pregnancy, that you try to remember we really are excited. We are thrilled at the idea of having a fourth daughter. Sometimes however, our excitement doesn't come across too clearly because we are still missing our Georgie and we will continue to miss her long after we have welcomed daughter number 4 into our lives.

Love to you all,

Kristen

Resolutions Con'd

A few people have commented or left questions on the last post so I just thought that I would quickly address some of them. The name of the meat shop where we have found local meat is The Carver's Knife. It's on Regent across from the mall. It doesn't have a huge selection but it serves our needs. It even offers free range, hormone free roasting chickens. The best information that I have found on local eating has been by googling 'local meat' Winnipeg. The 100 mile website for Winnipeg has some great links listing businesses here in the city supporting the effort. The also have information on farms here in Manitoba that deal directly with the public. One of them even invites the whole family to come and check them out.

If you're looking for a little inspiration I highly recommend the documentary Food Inc. I also love the book 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a very entertaining and inspiring account of her family's efforts to live locally for one year. She and her husband along with their grown daughter co-wrote the book and they all have something to share from essays to recipes. She is not a purist and offers a very real idea of just how much work and dedication goes into growing your own food. I've recently read it for the second time and am pretty sure that it won't be the last. I now keep it in my kitchen where I can access the recipes quickly.

That's all for tonight.

Love to you all,

Kristen

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Resolutions

With the new year comes the idea of resolutions. I don't really ever make them. I think that they are a great idea but I just believe that there are 364 other perfectly good days to start something new. This year however, Mike and I have decided that we should try harder at becoming more responsible human beings when it comes to food choices. Some of our decisions are only an extension of things that we have already been doing but have still lead to some adventuresome shopping.

The first part of our plan is to only buy 'real' food. This means avoiding pre-packaged foods that contain colors and any of those preservatives that one can't pronounce. It also means avoiding products that contain added sugars, corn or soy ingredients that aren't actually corn or soy products. Because of Calla's allergies we already do a lot of this anyway but we're just trying a little bit harder. The other day Maya asked for a granola bar and I told her that we don't have any. I offered to make her muffins or oatmeal bars and she was perfectly content.

The second part of our plan that I thought would be the most difficult was to buy local meat. This actually turned out to be the easiest. Turns out that there is a meat shop not far from here that carries %100 Manitoba beef, poultry and pork products. They also carry local bison and cheeses. Shopping there is easy.

The third and most difficult part of the plan was to choose foods that were locally grown. Now, I am not a purist or a sucker for punishment. It is January and I live in a city that is snow covered for half of the year. I am also pregnant and feeding two small children so by 'local' I had decided to stick to the continent of North America, at least for the winter months. Easy right? After all, California is still on the North American continent. Well... not so much.

Turns out that the Wild Pacific Salmon I have been buying is a product of China. Huh? B.C. is still one of the Canadian provinces isn't it? In fact, frozen products leave me the most baffled. One time I went to buy some frozen carrots only to realize that they had been shipped in from Israel. Carrots from Israel! Manitoba is famous for its carrots and it is one of the easiest vegetables to find on the shelves year round.

Not long ago Calla requested asparagus for supper. I told her that it was out of season but I would check the frozen aisle and see what I could find. I was thrilled to find it until I read that it had been shipped in once again from China! This year I plan on buying tons of it from the Farmer's Market and freezing it myself. Calla absolutely loves it.

It's funny what you can learn as you pay attention to the items getting thrown into your grocery cart. We still have stuff in our pantry that I am not particularly thrilled about but it's all part of the process.

Georgia has taught us to continue moving forward and making the best choices given the circumstances. We continue to embrace this philosophy in all aspects of our lives even if we have a long way to go!

Love to you all,

Kristen