Is there anything sweeter than being snuggled up with your babies? Feeling their little bodies wiggle around in their sleep, listening to their every breath? It’s such a beautiful experience that I almost missed out on.

I had every intention of sharing our bedroom with our baby when our first baby was due in 2008. We had no plans to set up a nursery; I constantly joked that the newborn could sleep in a dresser drawer in our room – after all – it was bigger than my womb. As a baby gift, my parents built an addition on our home to make room for a nursery. When I was 36 weeks pregnant, my sister came to visit bearing gifts – one gift was a crib, which her husband was kind enough to set up for us.  At 41 weeks, my mother put all of the sheets and bumpers in the crib and showed me how to drop the sides. The rocking chair was set up, curtains were hung, clothes were neatly arranged in the dresser. The dresser, by the way, was a handmade gift from the...

Bringing ADIO (Above, Down, Inside, Out) Home

When I’m asked to share about the bridges that brought me to my convictions and passions about the chiropractic lifestyle, I can only point to my personal story and the many pieces that knit together what has become my life’s work.

Having been raised by a mother who found her passion for midwifery during the years of my childhood I remember most, I learned to trust my body. Her courage and passion took us hundreds of miles from “home” to study and earn her CPM. As a single mom whose social network became her classmates, her children (myself and younger brother) tagged along to her “grown up gatherings” where birth videos were the centerpiece, shared and discussed. In the same way I heard men talk about sports, with great interest and energy, I heard my mother and her friends talk about birth. Birth, our bodies, and the design of our bodies was always portrayed as “normal” and...

“If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters very much.”  Jackie Kennedy

I knew I wanted to have children when my husband and I married.  I just wasn’t sure how good a mother I would be. When I was 12 I had my first babysitting job and by 13 I retired from that career.  I hated babysitting. I proved Einstein’s theory of relativity then. Time did truly slow down. I’d count the minutes until the parents returned.  It amazes me that some women have their babies, raise their babies, watch their babies fly from the nest (if they ever do) and then count the moments until the first grandbaby is born.

This is not me.  I didn’t do PTA. I didn’t do my boys’ school projects.  I didn’t do their homework. I was there for my sons. I loved them immensely.  They would attest to that. I just wasn’t ‘that’ kind of mom. There are those kinds of mamas and...