Our God Shaped Life

I was running and listening to the song by Plumb, called God Shaped Hole. I thought about the song and what it meant. There's a God Shaped Hole in all of us. It's God just waiting to fill it with his love for us. I often spent much of my first 30 years searching to fill this hole, which often just made the hole deeper. Alas, October 3, 2010 arrives and I  feel that God shaped hole being filled. The gift God gave me was a beautiful, sweet girl named Audrina Soleil. Audrina Soleil entered this world and a storm of emotions overtook our lives. Audrina was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, Truncus Arteriosus (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/truncus-arteriosus/DS00746). I turned to God and prayed like I have never prayed before, Audrina pulled through after an extensive open heart surgery and 4 weeks of recovery Audrina. You can read more about her  journey at her care page:
http://www.carepages.com/carepages/AudrinaSoleil1010

I will keep her care page updated when medical events occur, but in the mean time I want to use this blog to journal our daily life, our daily God shaped life. I want to share what wonderful things God is doing in our lives and also include information on how we are living a God shaped life including our spiritual journey with God,  helpful nutrition and exercise information, and of course lots of pictures and videos.

I will begin our first post with a video of just how miraculous God is! To think just 5 months ago this little girl was recovering from open heart surgery!!! Now look at her and all the strength those skinny little bird legs have!

Today was a typical wonderful day in our house. We started today with our bible reading. I am reading along with Biblegateway.com. I never thought I could just read the bible, I tried many times to read it and just felt lost. Audrina and I have been reading it almost everyday for the past three months and I just love each passage and the readings are so clear to me. We have read Matthew, Mark and most of Luke. It's an incredible story, Jesus's story, and its interesting to read it in each book.

We had quite a storm brewing so I just took Kyla around our big block one time, it's about 1000 meters-so it is a good warm up for me. I am getting back into my Crossfit workouts (http://www.crossfit.com/). I love it! I feel so strong when I finish. I am amazed that after taking over a year off from anything but the lighter crossfit mom work outs that my body is remembering things. I am getting things like my pull up, handstands, and heavy lifts back! Here is the workout I did today:
70 burpees
60 situps
50 35lb kettlebell swings
40 wall balls (was suppose to be pullups, but my hands are shredded from Tuesdays pullups)
30 second handstand practice ( was suppose to be handstand push ups, I'm still getting use to being inverted after taking a year off)
finished in less than 30 minutes, with one break to give the baby some avocado

After I worked out Audrina and I hunkered down and watched the TV as the frightening storm passed over us. I have lived in Florida almost my whole life and never worried too much about the storms. It's different when you are holding your sixth month baby in your arms. I prayed for God to watch over us and He did-we were safe! I can honestly say not until Audrina was born did I have such an intimate relationship with God. We talk everyday and not just as my last prayer before I go to sleep, but throughout the day. He comforts me and it feels good to thank him and pray to him for health and guidance.

Eric, Dada, actually got home before 7pm due to the storms! Not great for our new chiropractic business, but great for Audrina and I. It was nice to have him give Audrina her bath and read her her stories while I prepared dinner. I am beginning to transition back into my paleo diet (http://thepaleodiet.com/), I did really good today besides a couple bites of Easter candy I have out for decorations, got to remember that-they are for decorations!!!! For dinner I made a Shepherds pie with sweet potatoes. Here is the recipe:
1 lb organic beef
medium vidalia onion
4 sweet potatoes
can of peas
cup of shredded carrots
olive oil
a healthy butter
tablespoon of flour
various seasonings, cinnamon, cumin, natures blend seasoning

1.  Boil sweet potatoes until soft-mash with butter and cinnamon
2. Heat onions, add beef and brown, add carrots and peas, add seasonings, flour
3. Grease baking dish, put in meat mixture, top with sweet potatoes
4. Top with couple pats of butter bake 350 for 30min

As you can see there is not strict measuring, working, thinking with my menus. I get ideas from other healthy sites, generally forgot to bring the list to the grocery store or forget the site I find the recipe on, so then I just "wing" it and it almost always comes out wonderful! I think that is important for creating a healthy life for your family, making it easy. It feels amazing to eat what our bodies are intended to eat and to feed your family good, healthy nutritious foods. Audrina has started some solids, her main source of nutrition is still breast-milk though. She loves avocados, bananas and sweet potatoes. Her healthy eating now will ensure health in her future!

Good night all, I will keep you in my prayers, please continue to pray for Audrina and her continued health.

Love,

Rachel