How to Overcome like Kitchen Vixxen
Part III
It’s a Foster Friday; my favorite day of encouragement to overcome.
Today’s inspiration demonstrates how a wonderful foster family helps a young teenage girl’s overcome. Although Marilee’s life has real struggles, she has certainly overcome the statistics. Marilee has been given tremendous support through a continued relationship with her foster family in addition to extended relatives.
Here is Marilee!
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Life After Mom
After my mother passed, I finished the school year in the care of my foster parents. They had graciously agreed to take me until the school year finished so I would not have to move to a new city and school halfway through the year. Once I moved in with my Aunt and her family, things were not very easy dealing with the loss of my mom and having to adjust to a new life. I made some friends and got into some school activities. Despite all of that I felt like the odd one out with my family and everyone else for that matter.
After I graduated high school, I went on to the local junior college for a while. My family had broken up at this point due to divorce, and I had to go out on my own as an adult for the first time. I moved back down to the desert and stayed with my foster parents for a little while. It didn’t last too long though as we didn’t necessarily see eye to eye at that point in my life.
After a year I came back home and managed to survive on my own. I didn’t have a lot of direction in my life at this time, so I got a job as an administrative assistant working with engineering firms. This lasted for about 5 years before I changed paths and went to school for massage therapy. Graduating from massage school in November of 2005, my efforts and profession changed to working at a spa and chiropractor full-time. Bodywork, advancing in sports, deep tissue and rehabilitative massage is a rewarding job. For the next 6 years, this job paralleled a first step toward healing which then led me toward another path in the legal field. I went to school full-time while working full-time for a law firm.
At the time I was dealing with Hashimoto Hypothyroidism, managing it as well as I could. When I went back to school to pursue the legal field I didn’t realize I would be doing more harm to my body. I was killing my adrenals again, and I didn’t even know it. I performed at a high level for three years before my body just burned out.
A New Healthier Start
A couple of years before a friend of mine had told me about the paleo lifestyle. It sounded interesting, but I didn’t understand how much it would really mean to me. When my body finally burned out, I didn’t understand that it had to with my adrenals. All areas of my life were affected because I wasn’t able to function like a normal human being. First, I couldn’t keep a job because of my erratic behavior and spending my days in a complete mental fog. Nothing made sense so I felt like I was going crazy.
Beginning the research, and seeking medical professionals, everything pointed me to adrenal fatigue. It was then that I started to follow a paleo lifestyle. Trying to manage one’s own health without the right medical practitioners is not easy. It’s especially frustrating when the doctors you do have access to won’t listen to you. Becoming my advocate for my health has since become my biggest passion and biggest battle.
As a result of my journey dealing with my health issues, I started to follow all the popular paleo bloggers. Eventually, I started working with some of them on the side as a virtual assistant. I never expected any of this to happen, but I was definitely intrigued by it all. As I began helping them with their Facebook pages and blogs, I found myself wanting to start a blog of my own. Kitchen Vixxen was eventually born and now I am slowly entering the paleo blogosphere.
Giving Back!
As intriguing as blogging is, it’s only one part of my life. I mentioned before that I am 38 years old, single with no children. Often I think about whether I will meet someone amazing, have children, have a life bigger than what I have lived thus far. And of course, I wonder if I will foster a child/children myself. It seems natural given my experience. Hopefully, one day that will be an option for me. Until then, I will try to live the best life I can, and continue to love the family that I have.
And I hope some of my story can help you in some way. Please feel free to ask questions if you have any. I would be happy to answer anything anyone would like to know.
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I love how Marilee has overcome and reaches out to help others! Be sure to check out my friend, Marilee on her page, Kitchen Vixxen.
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