Reflections on 2021 as we step into 2022

The past year has seen us do an immense amount of healing and go through lots of transitions. We ended 2020 with an uptick of mystery toxin blowing in with the storms at the ranch we were camping on, and we left mid Jan after our tent got contaminated. That was our transition into hotels, which was lots warmer and comfortable. It was also allot more healing than camping in the desert for us bc there were hot tubs to help speed along detox, unlimited clean bedding and towels, and unlimited showers. It was a hard transition, but we survived and then thrived. We started 2021 in NM and then after a day in AZ, we worked our way east. We explored some of TX, had a longer stay in OK, made our way to FL, and came back to OK after trying some places in GA, AL, TX, and MS. We put 49,000 miles on our truck exploring since October 2020. Exploring in early April brought a new level of understanding of what mystery toxin felt like when it wasn’t steam rolling you and you weren’t waiting to see if you’d wake up wrecked the next day. This was a night and day game changer in our mold avoidance journey. Once we started successfully avoiding mystery toxin, our healing accelerated greatly despite indoor mold.

Another big area of transition was from unemployed nomads 100% in learning and detoxing mode to Wesley starting his business. When we were on the ranch the near daily meltdown was over the anxiety of not being able to provide for his family and running out of money. To say the least neither happened! In May, after learning mystery toxin’s more subtle feel, Wesley bought his computer to start working. He applied for some projects on upwork, and his growth trajectory has been nearly vertical to the point where keeping up with everything has been a challenge. Doing project and support work has allowed him to maintain the flexibility we needed when we were still nomadic, and since settling, he really needs a magical extra 20 hours/week to get it all done. We’ve gone from using the prepared provision God gave us in savings to fully self sustaining with income that’s surpassed what Wesley made in Iowa. One of Wesley goals since he was a teen was to own his own business, and God has used this crazy journey to provide a business for him.

The other major transition has been healing enough to entertain the idea of biological children. Wesley’s dream was to have a van load of kids someday and then he met me. I was too sick to imagine enduring pregnancy well. I watched my patients and friends with similar health issues have horrific pregnancies I was not interested in so I said I’d be happy to adopt as long as I don’t have to endure pregnancy. While we were in FL, as Wesley was just starting to get the business going, I really started to think about my stance on pregnancy. Being nomads living in hotels sure didn’t seem like a very good situation to bring foster kids into, and then there’s the coming and going until parental rights are terminated. That seemed less feasible than pregnancy given the huge amount of healing I’d experienced so I asked Wesley his thoughts and we decided to stop preventing pregnancy and see what happened. I knew I’d get pregnant right away bc this was my big step of faith that challenged my biggest idol of my health just like selling everything, moving far away, having no guarantees except a Great God was the bigger step of faith for Wesley. Sure enough, the first cycle of let’s see what happens resulted in pregnancy. It’s a testament of the level of healing and God’s protection that I got pregnant and in the grand scheme of pregnancy, have had a pretty uneventful, healthy pregnancy despite having had COVID and all the exposure to vaccinated people along the way while living in hotels bc both of those increase the risk of losses.

We hit our hotel goal in OK of keeping a hotel room more than a month, and decided to try an area we’d wanted to try out using an Airbnb. We stayed a month and then transitioned into a rental. It’s been anything but easy, but we’ve identified some source points of badness and it’s gone so much better without them! We’ve been able to do laundry in house again, which we lost before we ever left Iowa.

Here’s a recap of some major areas of healing in our journey (it can all come flooding back with a toxin exposure, but we have tools to clear it out quickly and regain lost ground):

• Laura’s early onset dementia is gone. I can remember names and words again
• Wesley handles stress much better
• Laura’s overwhelm and despair from feeling terrible and wanting to die is gone
• Wesley’s concentration has improved
• Laura’s food sensitivities, chemical sensitivities, and EMF sensitivities are gone. I attribute this largely to my gut healing for the first time. I always chased this elusive healing of the gut before, but couldn’t get there in toxins.
• Wesley’s back pain is gone
• Laura’s autoimmune and Lyme flares are rare instead of pretty regular
• Both of us react less to indoor mold since focusing on mystery toxin avoidance. Some buildings are a problem, but it’s an exception, not the rule now.

As I sit here writing this looking out the windows at the snow falling, I’m incredibly thankful for the transitions that have taken us from the first snow storm of mold avoidance where we snuggled over 40 hours on an air mattress in a Walmart tent for warmth in Oct. 2020 to sitting comfortably on a couch in a home with heat. We take so many things for granted, but it’s truly been a whirlwind year learning, traveling and healing. We finally got our long sought after visit with Audrey and Seth this week, which was a perfect end to the year! God bless you all in 2022 as you weather the crazy of our world knowing we have a sovereign God bigger than all of things we see.