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Welcome to the KingZoo and Funny Farm, where we learn to live, laugh, and love together. Here you'll find snippets of life in our zoo, parenting tips we've learned along the way, reflections on shining God's light in this world, passions in the realm of orphan care, and our journey as parents of a visually impaired child with sensory processing disorder. Have fun!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The new HopeAnne

A few months ago I started seeing posts from several adoptive parents about Isagenix products and the positive effects they were seeing on their children, adopted children in particular.

Having three adopted children in our home, I've done plenty of reading.  I've gone to all of the support group meetings that I can.  I've watched the videos.  I know that there are major connections missing in our kids' brains.  I've offered low sugar, low carb, high protein diets to give them the best opportunities at daily living and learning.  I saw some results, but knew our kids needed more.  But what?  I've seen other families try extremely restrictive diets with no results or minimal improvement.  And of course there are always medications but I wanted to exhaust other areas first.

First I saw a video, the transformation of a young woman with Down Syndrome on Isagenix.  Her health improved, her mood improved, and so did her ability to learn to read.

Next, testimonials like these caught my attention nearly every day:

"My son from Ukraine came home with us when he was 8. He had cardiovascular issues and the cleanse and the shakes stabilized his imbalanced blood levels in a day! Also his eye sight improved and the optometrist said his stigmatism reversed and his prescription improved. His soccer coach also said there was a noticeable improvement in his athletic ability and quickness and agility on the field."

"We are a work in progress... Emma age 7 FAS/ADHD adopted from Ukraine at age 2 1/2. 2012 was a HARD year and ened with hospital stay and the start of a slew of meds for mental/behavioral issues. Isagenix enters in July... started shakes and gradually increased to add mineral and other supplements per John Gray protocol for ADHD. In the process of a few weeks... prescription meds are now at 1/2 dose!! She is happier, fewer mood swings and enjoying life more."

"We brought our 2 year old home from Ethiopia in January of this year. We received his referral when he was 7 mos old, went to court Nov 2011 and finally brought him home in January. (Yep...he was STUCK in a southern region Ethiopia paper fiasco and we fought long and hard to get him home). Anyway, he was diagnosed as failure to thrive, anemic, stunted growth... he was the size of an infant when we picked him up. He is thriving now... he wears a 2T clothes, he's grown 8 inches... but we have been concerned about his hearing and speech. We have been sure we would be in speech therapy with him. We'd get real close and he'd watch my lips as I said a word... he wasn't able to repeat it or it was completely different than what I said. Easy words too...nothing difficult at all. I had no clue at all what he was saying and he is speaking English.

He's been on Isagenix for a week now...and OVERNIGHT his language developed. He is speaking CLEAR. He annunciates his words! I CAN UNDERSTAND HIM and what HE IS ASKING ME FOR! He can HEAR better!! I cried. Literally cried. He is not frustrated and it's like this light has come on in him. I HAD to share this..." 


The clincher came for me when HopeAnne wrote this story, I Know What I Like.  It was eye opening to read "I don't like to make people sad" and "I don't like to be cranky..."  It hit me that she didn't like what was happening to her, with tantrums, anger, depression, obstinacy, etc., anymore than we liked the challenges these behaviors brought to parenting.  Something had to change.

So we decided to try it with some of our children.  Our results have been more subtle but so were our presenting issues.

It took me some time to realize that her mood was better; and we had fewer meltdowns.  Over one weekend, when I had run out of the shake powder, the old Hope resurfaced, and I knew that we didn't want to go back there.  We had finally found a nutritional plan that worked.

We have been working on reading for some time now.  We held her back a year to give her a better chance but here we were in 1st grade, still trying to remember the difference between Y, U, and W.  And all of the letters have sounds?  Hit or miss.  Not only did she learn those last three letters overnight, her eyes are opened to the world of learning and she is trying to read and sound out everything.

Prior to starting on Isagenix, the mere mention of the possibility of maybe needing to clean up the smallest of areas at some point later in the day, would send her into fits so terrible you'd think we had asked her to clean up a whole restaurant at the end of a busy day, all by herself.  Now, she not only quickly complies, she is organizing things. On her own. This is not a child who used to organize.  Yesterday she reprimanded me because I didn't put her books in her bin in the right order.  Order.  Yes, she had an order to the way her books were to be stacked.

She doesn't need to be reminded to get her daily jobs done.  She is doing them all on her own, even making lists to remind herself of what needs to be done.  The list making is her idea, not mine.

She's been able to verbalize some feelings and thoughts about her birthmother.  She's cried but in a healthy way.

She used to be the last to wake up in the morning, often needing to be awakened.  This was always unpleasant for everyone involved.  Now she's up with the rest of them and in a great mood, getting her morning chores done without reminders.

It could be argued that these are all maturational steps that would have happened right now anyway.  Maybe.  But all of them at the same time?  And all of these adopted children just happened to mature, heal, or "snap out of it" all at the same time?  All after making the same nutritional choices? I don't think so.  You have to know the HopeAnne before Isagenix and the HopeAnne after.  This is a totally different child.

For more information, I'd love to chat with you, or check out these resources:

A mom's testimonial

John Gray Protocol

Our adoption consultant's story

And her husband, too

5 comments:

  1. I have followed your blog on and off (because I am just super inconsistent with starting my own blog) for a while now. I was drawn to your blog because of your large diverse family. I have always been interested in adoption and we have just one son, who is adopted. Anyway, your newest post about your daughter caught my eye because I have a friend that lives close by that just began using and selling Isagenix. She is a very big believer in what it is doing for her family, including her two adopted children. It's nice to hear another report that this is working for you and your family.

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  2. Hello! Maybe I am missing something...why is this specifically effective for adopted children? Thanks!

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  3. I could have written a post on how it's helping others in our family but since I have a heart for our many friends who've adopted, that was my focus. Maybe the rest is for another day?

    It's not just for adopted children but those of us with foster/adopted children know that they all have suffered trauma at some level. Many received inadequate nourishment pre- and post-natally and some of them experienced drugs and alcohol in utero. Giving them good nutrition is helping to correct that which has been lost.

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    1. Send me a message at kingzoo@comcast.net and I'll let you know what we use.

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  4. Cindy, I went on the Isagenix website trying to figure out what shake powder it was that you are referring too. I am interested in it for my two boys that have ADHD and one of them is bipolar as well.

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