Lankford Love

I have people ask me constantly about our healthcare with Samaritan Ministries, so here is a post to answer many of those questions! Some are based on what I hear, and some are ones you've actually sent me. Always feel free to send more my way. I do ask if you join because of us that you would write us down as your referral. Here we go... Q:  How is this different from insurance? A: I wrote extensively on this in my first post , so this answer here will be the short version.  There are many ways Samaritan is different. The first way is that Samaritan, unlike insurance, is not a guarantee. Honestly, I'm not sure I ever viewed insurance as a guarantee, but since our government  does , I'm going to note it as a difference. Samaritan sees healthcare much the way the Acts 2 church is described - we all need to share in each others' needs! That is done by joining together with others, who have committed their lives to Christ, to share the burden of healthcare. With in...

This girl keeps me on my toes. She also keeps me embraced in her arms for "mommy-only" snuggles!  She has courage. High slides aren't a problem. This picture was taken at The Heard wildlife sanctuary and museum. They have large, fierce looking dinosaurs there that roar. Adeline hates them. She's actually been having nightmares about the "monsters from the Heard" lately. That poor girl. And poor mommy and daddy since we are the ones up with her. Yawn. Yesterday we sang our Joshua 1:9 song, prayed for a peaceful night, and made a "no monsters/ dinosaurs allowed" sign for her door. Last night she slept through the entire night. Praying that lasts! She still takes good 2-hour naps. Sometimes longer, but usually right around 2. Mommy loves good sleepers. We love Pei Wei! This weekend I took just Adeline on a date to Pei Wei. So special! We went to the park to swing afterwards. Adeline's favorite thing to do might be to swing.     The girl...

Lilleigh turned five a couple weeks ago, and it has been so fun to see how she uniquely God has made her. Here's just a glimpse into Lilleigh at five... I love seeing how grown up and independent Lilleigh is becoming each day! This is really a beautiful thing. As the oldest, she leads, and Adeline follows. I feel a whole new season being ushered in, and I love it. Lil can help Adeline with so many tasks that for so long I had to help with. The girls can play in the front yard, near the house, while I'm in the front room. They come out of their room in the morning when the Ok To Wake clock lights up. And my personal favorite- on weekend mornings, I can have clementines, waters, and muffins out at the little table, and Lilleigh can open the muffin container for Adeline and herself to eat breakfast while Mom and Dad sleep in just a little bit. Winning. We've talked a lot lately about not having "best friends." (We are in THAT phase!) Inevitably we have friends we enj...

Lilleigh turned 5! (Which is so hard to believe by the way - 5 seems so old to me!) And that same weekend one of my sweet friends got married in Houston. Since all of our family is in Houston, this made going to Houston on Lil's birthday, and finding super fun birthday plans for her, an easy job!  We had a donuts at the playground birthday party Saturday morning!  Pappy and Marla took all the girls, Morgan too :), to Benihana to celebrate Lil's birthday Saturday night! It sounded like they had a blast! As for me and Brendon, we had wedding festivities pretty much the rest of the weekend! Since Blakely has always been more like a sister, it was really fun to watch her walk down the aisle and to celebrate with her.

After updating close friends and family from doctors appointments and blood tests a couple weeks ago, I'm now realizing - via your texts and emails - that many of you are wanting a health update too! Thank you for loving us well! Here's the cliff notes. My naturopath, Brenda, and my internist, Dr. C, both agree that my adrenals are fatigued. This showed up on my saliva cortisol test and on my Asyra reading. I also have some vitamin deficiencies - thank you to five years of being pregnant or nursing! (By the way, if you're nursing and doubting whether you really need to take all three of your prenatals, you do. You're welcome.)  My blood tests were really great! I was pretty much negative (in a good way) for everything I was tested for. And at this point I've been tested for pages and pages of tests, vials and vials of blood. No autoimmune diseases showed up - a huge praise! So what does all this mean? Basically vitamins, adrenals, thyroid, and progesterone deficienc...

We went to visit Brendon's grandparents in Colorado last weekend. Time with them was so special.  Adeline loves airplanes, so going to the airport and seeing planes, let alone riding on one, was super exciting! Then while we were there the girls had a blast with Grandma and PaPa. It was so sweet to see PaPa act like a monster and chase Adeline around as she screamed with delight. Adeline also managed to get Grandma to toss the balloon around with her. Both girls really enjoyed the half door and pretending to be Starbucks baristas. (The fact that they play "Starbucks" is slightly embarrassing. But hey, there's a reason everyone got me Starbucks cards for Christmas! Thank you, by the way!) The girls loved the snow! Brendon and Lilleigh made a snow slide that we all took turns sliding down with the trash can lid. Both girls loved making snow angels. Adeline enjoyed the snow but was ready to come in once she was cold. Lilleigh really loved playing in the snow though and s...