Tears : Sorrow to Joy

We started our pasture based farm partly because of Doug’s personal health issues. Over the past eight years of raising and selling pasture grazed beef, we have had hundreds of folks try our beef during their own personal health crisis and journey to healing. Below, one of our customers, Alina, was gracious enough to share her recent journey to healing.

Doug met Alina about a year ago when she introduced herself through tears of sorrow. Read on, and we hope that her message will encourage us all with whatever issues we may face in the year to come.

Alina’s Story

In December of 2021, my husband and I found out we were pregnant. The following February of 2022 we had miscarried that baby. That was the most painful, both emotionally and physically, experience I have ever gone through in my life. At the time I did not know anything about pregnancy or miscarriages. All I knew is I had the best thing happen followed by the very worst. I did not know how common it was and how many women go through miscarriages. Beyond what I could understand at the time, I had an even less awareness for those battling infertility. These are all things I never in my life thought that I would go through, but to my rude awakening, it has become a part of me that I will carry for the rest of my life. 

We were given the go-ahead to keep trying again, right away if we wanted to. Which, of course, I did. We tried for several months with no success before bringing it up to my doctor. She tested me one time for a handful of things and told me I wasn’t successfully ovulating. The doctor put me on medication to force ovulation and told me that our chances were now great! Those medications did nothing for me. Fast forward, after nine months of meds, along with many different procedures, still no luck, only to be diagnosed with unexplained infertility. According to the best of conventional health care, my body was doing great and there was no explanation why I was unable to get pregnant. We were told that we had basically done everything and if we wanted to keep trying, our next steps were Intrauterine Insemination and/or In Vitro Fertilization. I was in no way, shape or form ready to proceed with those treatments. I didn’t understand how I could be told I was “healthy” but not able to get pregnant. I knew there was something they were not looking at.

At this point we are about a little over a year into our infertility journey. I had several people in my life I knew who worked with functional doctors, and I began my research in finding a natural fertility treatment. I began to learn that food is medicine and how much our lifestyle can affect our overall function, going beyond infertility. I dove deep into researching an ancestral nutrient-dense diet, toxic-free living, and finding a doctor who would be willing to test my body as a whole and not just a handful of random labs. I began with eating organ meats, drinking raw milk, making bone broth, and fermenting foods along with cutting out all processed foods. Unless something came from the ground, I was not willing to eat it. The hope that I could start ovulating again, by nourishing myself, gave me so much motivation.

Shortly after making diet changes, I began working with a functional doctor in Lincoln Nebraska. My new doctor specializes in running full panel labs to look at the body as a whole and not a handful of random pieces. Through him, we learned I had a lot of things going on in my body. My thyroid wasn’t functioning, I had bacterial overgrowth in my gut (Small Intestine Bacteria Overgrowth), my immune system was weak, I was deprived of key nutrients and minerals, my adrenals were not functioning well, etc. My functional doctor explained how all of these things work together and my body was currently struggling to survive.  It makes sense, that when your body is struggling, those things that aren’t necessary for survival (in my case reproduction) quit working. After about three months of working with my functional doctor, my body ovulated for the first time naturally since our pregnancy. We could not believe it. We didn’t have to force anything but it all happened naturally through supporting my body and giving my body what it needed.

Along with the positive ovulation test, we learned two weeks later that after a year and a half, we had finally conceived and now are expecting our little girl in March of 2024. It was incredible to me because looking back it was so simple, but with the way our world lives, it feels almost impossible to be able to get to this place. The way we nourish ourselves matters so much more than we give it credit for. It is absolutely amazing to me the way a body can change when you give it what it needs. Our bodies really are made to thrive.

With all this being said, it would not be right for me to not also acknowledge the One who gives life. It was by God’s grace and kindness to my husband and I for hearing our prayers, providing us the knowledge to follow this path, the people He put in our lives and the means to do what we needed to do. To God be the glory. He gives and He takes away but blessed be His name. We are so grateful and hope we can use our story to help others going through the same trial. 

Thank You Alina

Doug added the emphasis above to point out how Alina’s message echoes many of the points we have written about in our blog over the years. Stories like this encourage us to continue our mission of raising animals in nature’s image that results in soil health, land health, human health and our overall community health.

The last couple times Doug has met Alina, it has been with tears of Joy! We did very little in Alina’s journey. We provided encouragement, prayers, some organ meats and bones for broth. Beyond that, Alina, her husband and God get the credit. In Alina’s concluding thoughts above, she speaks the TRUTH. We do not create children, they are a gift and a blessing from God. After reading her closing comments, it reminded Doug of our past post about our Firstborn Calf back in 2015.

We hope Alina’s story provides hope for others. If you would like more details from Alina about her healing journey, please reach out to us and we will help you make the connection.