Mommy, for Real: Born With a Possibility

I'm so excited to have an essay published on Mommy, for Real this week! Stephanie Sprenger is Julia's amazing music teacher and has become my friend over the years. I'm so grateful to Stephanie for the opportunity to share my thoughts on how parents can talk to their kids about kids like Julia!

Here's an excerpt:

"The point is, I don’t know what your kid understands. But you do! You are an awesome mom. You know how to cater a message to fit your child’s developmental stage. So I can give a few suggestions, I can tell you how I hope the world will talk about Julia, and then I’ll let you take it from there!"

Check out the entire post here

8 Weeks on Weed

Tomorrow marks 8 weeks of Julia taking medical marijuana for epilepsy.

Julia Anne aka "Jules"

8 weeks on weed!

So far we feel she is doing awesome!

I've written previously about our decision to start medical marijuana - which was primarily driven by our concern for what seven years of pharmaceuticals were doing to Julia's little body. In the 8 weeks she's been taking Haleigh's Hope we were able to wean her off of all other medications. So, for about six weeks she's only been taking marijuana, nothing else, and while it is still pretty new and her dose is fairly low, we think we are seeing a really promising response.

(Side note: Some people have suggested to me that I not call it marijuana, that calling it something else would help people who are against it to be more supportive. But no, I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to call it marijuana. Partly because it's easier for me, but mostly because that's what it is and my whole point is that we shouldn't have to cover anything up or package it a certain way for the comfort of others. Reasonable people don't care if I call it marijuana, they don't care what I call it, they care that it is working, period!)

So, Julia has been doing really well overall!  In the past two weeks she had a few seizures - two were very clearly linked to her having the flu. She had a high fever and was throwing up all the medicine we were trying to give her to reduce her fever and so it made sense to us why she had the seizures and I honestly think she would have had them even if we had still been on Keppra.

She had another seizure last week in speech therapy which we actually believe may have been stress induced.  This is new for her and I think perhaps in the past Keppra might have been keeping this type of seizure at bay - I really don't know, I'm guessing. But bottom line, I don't necessarily view this as a negative because what we are seeing is a less doped version of Julia (ironic?) and perhaps as a result we are learning about some of her triggers we weren't aware of previously because the medication was dulling her response to life. So now we have a girl who is more in tune to her environment and we are, as a result, more aware of the risk that can come with her getting overly stressed. We may go up on marijuana at some point to increase the threshold of keeping this type of seizure away, but we can also do a lot on our own to try to minimize environmental stressors for her without just automatically going up, up, up on more and more meds.

At this point in our journey with epilepsy I feel like we have a healthy understanding of our situation. We know that because Julia was created with a uniquely formed brain she is always going to be at risk for seizures. There will never be a "cured from epilepsy" day for us this side of heaven. Even if the Lord blesses us with long stretches without seizures, like He has in the past, seizures will always be on our minds. It's not a lack of faith, it's a realistic understanding of our situation. And it is okay! We will keep trying our best to find that balance, that sweet spot, between enough medication to keep seizures away and as little medication as possible so that we can know Julia as best as possible! It's going to be our lifelong challenge.  And we are happy to do it because she is so very worth it!

And so for now we believe we are gaining some ground in our challenge! Since starting medical marijuana (and getting off of Keppra) Julia's agitation has decreased quite a bit. She has attempted some new communication strategies which have been exciting to experience, and she has been very attentive and in-tune to the people around her. For example, today we visited with friends who have a 1 year old. Several times I caught Julia stealing sideways glances at little Rosie. She shared her iPad (sort of) and when  Rose gently grabbed for Julia's hair Julia did not freak out at all, she just moved a little to the side and continued watching Veggie Tales! These are all really big developmental steps for Jules! Another example of this progress; last week we went to visit the four week old puppy we are getting for Julia and during our visit she let the puppy put his paw on her hand.  Seriously, the puppy put HIS PAW on HER HAND and she allowed it!!!!!  I cannot over emphasize the enormity of this type of development. The girl is getting the chance to be comfortable in her own skin and it is glorious to witness!

Julia and Macaroni aka "Mac"

In the past eight weeks our story has been shared and we have received so much support for which we are very grateful! (And some constructive feedback as mentioned above, but mostly support.) One supporter repeatedly encouraged us not to give up! Don't give up! Don't give up! I found this to be so sweet and I love the encouragement, but it was also a little confusing because we have absolutely no intention of giving up! We are thrilled by what we have seen so far and this is only the beginning. We have so much hope for what is ahead with Jules taking marijuana. If anything we are more determined than ever to spread the word about how this is working for our family in hopes that more families will get the chance to try it. More families, in their own home state or country, without having to disrupt their lives, leave their people and become medical refugees in Colorado, will be able to give their loved one this chance at life with fewer seizures - we can do this!

Please get involved, please spread the word, please help us legalize medical marijuana on the federal level so our friends can return home and we can go to the beach!  Thank you!

#legalize #cannabisismedicine #marijuanaismedicine #legalizemedicalmarijuana #haleighshope #illegallycured

If A=B and B=C

I'm not the first parent of a child with special needs to write about ending the R-word.

I've seen many beautiful, touching and vulnerable posts from parents and loved ones of a person with special needs appealing to the world to stop using such a hurtful word. Almost every one of these appeals brings me to tears because I love these people and I know the pain they are talking about, the pain this word causes.

The other thing that nearly brings me to tears is that undoubtedly there are people who continue to defend their use of this word even after hearing our pleas. People who don't care about the personal stories being shared, who refuse to hear that for some of us this word truly does bring pain, people who continue to defiantly use this word with pride. 

I've never experienced the type of attachment to a word these people apparently have for the R-word. It baffles me. It saddens me. It infuriates me.

So, because of people like that, I am NOT going to write a heart wrenching plea to the world about the R-word.  I am NOT going to tell you about my amazing daughter and how using the R-word perpetuates a negative stereotype about the most beautiful and vulnerable people among us.  Nope, I am NOT going to do it.

Instead, I am going to SHOW you how using the R-word is lousy using basic math. 
That's right, I'm not going to do anything, math is going to do the work for me.

The transitive property of equality (sounds fancy but it's not, I'm not that good at math) tells us that:

If: A=B and B=C, then A=C.   

There you go! That's it. Math just showed us why we should not use the R-word.

 Let me explain further in case you aren't following. 

For this particular equation:

A= A Person with Special Needs

B= the word Retarded

C= bad, stupid, dumb, messed up, mistake, undesirable, etc...

Soooo, according to the transitive property of equality (I like saying that, it makes me feel smart):

If:

(A) A person with special needs = (B) Retarded (I know some will argue this isn't used anymore, but the whole point of this equation is that this WAS at one time the meaning of this word)

And:

(B) Retarded =  (C) bad, stupid, mistake, undesirable, etc... (how it is most often used now days)

Then:

(A) A person with special needs = (C) bad, stupid, mistake, undesirable, etc.... 

Is this making sense?

Here is a picture for visual learners:

See how that works? See what math is saying to us?

It is not ME asking you not to use the R-word because it insults people with special needs, it is math showing you how using the R-word insults people with special needs. 

It doesn't really matter if you continue to think using the R-word is okay, because math is telling you it's not. Math is telling it is kind of a crummy thing to keep doing.

And it doesn't really matter if you claim you didn't "mean it" like that, because the transitive property of equality is math, it doesn't care about what you mean! 
It exists outside of intent.   

Math can be brutal right?!?!

A cool thing about this equation is it can be used for other terms as well, not just the R-word! I made this handy table to you show you what I mean, I'm helpful like that, I want math to make sense for all!

If A=B	And B=C	Then A=C
If a person with special needs = Retarded	And if Retarded                         = Bad, stupid, mistake, etc.	Then a person with special needs  = Bad, stupid, mistake, etc
If a person who is homosexual = Gay	And if Gay                                = Bad, stupid, mistake, etc.	Then a person who is homosexual = Bad, stupid, mistake, etc
If a person who cannot walk   = Lame	And if Lame  = Bad, stupid, mistake, etc.	Then a person who cannot walk  = Bad, stupid, mistake, etc

I hope this is making sense now... I find examples and tables to be very helpful. 

So what have we learned from our math lesson today? 

Well, we've learned that if A=B and B=C then A=C 

and we've also learned that

If you keep using the R-word after reading this blog, then you are a douchebag!  

Plug that into the table above and see how it works out. Thank you!

#spreadthewordtoendtheword #rword #respect

She Doesn't Need Healing

We stopped going to church when Julia was a baby.

Not because we had lost faith, in fact, for me at least, this was a time of intense faith and closeness with God, but just not in a church building, and not surrounded by a lot of Christians.

It was the Christians we stopped going to church because of. Specifically the Christians who kept offering to pray for Julia to be healed.

We seemed to make them uncomfortable with this baby of ours who was different, this baby who wasn't perfectly healthy, wasn't just "fine."  They didn't seem to know what to do with us. Our presence was causing them to have to think about their God and their faith in a way they were not comfortable with - so instead they did the one thing they knew how to do, they offered to pray for healing.

"We are praying for her to be healed."
"We are praying God heals her."
"We have faith God will heal her."
 On and on and on, heal, heal, heal.

You would think these offers of healing prayer would have brought us comfort, but they did not. They brought pain and confusion - because it felt like rejection - like we were unacceptable "as is" - we needed to change, or she needed to be changed, before we could be embraced.

These offers also made me uncomfortable because somewhere deep inside my reeling, confused and sleep deprived newborn-mom brain, I knew Julia's healing was not what we needed.

You pray for healing when the diagnosis is a disease.

But Julia was not diagnosed with a disease.

Basically Julia was diagnosed with "this is just how she was made."

I didn't know exactly what you pray for when the diagnosis is "God made her this way," but  "healing" didn't feel right.

What would we be asking she be healed from?  The very blueprints God used to create her? Would we go before God and ask that he change her very being to make it easier on us? I cringe even now at the thought.  I didn't know much in those early days, but I knew I did not want her changed.

I also knew I needed more from my God then a "fix."

I needed a god who does more than just take away hard things, more than a "genie" god randomly granting wishes. I needed a god who would help me IN this hard thing and WITH this hard thing, not just out of it. If all you believe your god can do is take away pain then that isn't enough for me, that isn't my god. Because I found myself experiencing for the first time a pain I didn't want taken away. So how does that work? God has to be more than a fixer of pain or nothing makes sense - because I see a lot of pain in this world that hasn't been taken away. So what does that say then about God if your faith in him and his goodness depend solely on the removal of what we think is hard or wrong?

That's just too simple for this beautiful heartbreaking life.

I'm not a biblical scholar, but I KNOW my God did not promise us a cake walk in this life (John 16:33). So why is a cake walk exactly what we beg Him for the moment hard things appear for ourselves or others? It doesn't add up.

When Julia was about three years old we cautiously started going to church again thanks to the recommendation of friends and family who loved us and knew what we were wrestling with in regards to other Christians. We found a church where the motto is "Me too" - basically a general statement of acceptance for everyone - come as you are - you don't need to get better to be here - we are all the same - we all need grace.  It felt like the kind of place where they might say "Hey, Julia is pretty awesome!"  Rather than "Hey, Julia needs to be healed."  It's been a good home for us.

I remember one Sunday morning in particular, our pastor referenced a verse from Romans chapter 8 where Paul writes about being more than conquerors through Christ. That phrase "more than" - why did Paul write that? Why not just conquerors? Conquering seems pretty good to me. Because, our pastor explained, you are a conqueror when your challenges are gone, but you are MORE THAN a conqueror when you live victoriously with your challenges still present.

There it is!!!!!!!!
That is my verse!! (Romans 8:37)
And that is my God!!!!!!

That Sunday morning our pastor gave words to what I had been trying to figure out all of these years about how I understood God. That was why I was so uncomfortable with the "healing" stuff: I don't need (nor want) these challenges removed, I have a God who makes me victorious with my challenges, while I am still very much in the hard stuff.

So, this is what I have come to understand about Julia and healing over the past seven years:
It isn't Julia who needs healing. It is the rest of us.  Julia is a precious catalyst for God to heal some of our deep brokenness. The brokenness that causes us to fear and reject what is different and weak and vulnerable.

Please know that I am not against prayers for healing. I do it all the time. I've just learned that often we are too specific in what we are asking God to heal, too specific and usually off base.

Don't pray for her to change, pray for us to embrace her as she is.
Don't pray for her to change, pray for the community to shift how they view her.
Don't pray for her to change, pray for yourselves to change how you understand hard things.

Don't pray for her to be healed, pray for my healing and pray for your own:

Heal me from my selfishness.
Heal me from my insecurities.
Heal me from my need to control.
Heal me from my fear of hard things.
Heal me so that when hard things come I will stand firm, I will move towards, 

and I will be MORE THAN.

"In all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through him who loved us." - Romans 8:37

Is It Working?

Two weeks ago Julia went green and started medical marijuana (Haleigh's Hope to be exact) to treat her seizures.

First and foremost, we've received TONS of support - mountains, mountain ranges of support for this decision - and for that we are incredibly humbled and grateful and super boosted up! Thank you support!

In the past couple of days many of our mountains-of-support have been asking us the million dollar question: So, is it working????

And my answer, which, because I am a pleaser, I so desperately want to provide is... Ummm, I think so?

I hate being vague, but this is a tough question to answer at this point.

Tough for a few reasons:

1. Julia is non-verbal. The non-verbal issue doesn't get a ton of air time from me, sometimes I even forget she is non-verbal because she is so great at finding ways to communicate her needs. But in moments like this when I would so love to pick her brain and ask her "HOW DO YOU FEEL????" I am reminded (frustratingly) that we don't have this avenue of clear communication and understanding available to us. So we do our best to decipher and interpret her behavior to determine how she might be feeling.  For example: She seemed calm today. Oh that's great! Calm is great! Wait, unless she is calm because she is sick. Do you think she is sick, did she act sick?  Or was it a good calm like calm because the marijuana is working? What kind of calm are we talking about????
And well, it's an imperfect science to say the least.

2. It's only been two weeks and she is on a tiny, tiny dose.  I think we will need more time and possible tweaking of both the amount and CBD:THC ratio to land on the optimal dosage for Jules - and well, you can't do much to rush time, trust me, I've tried. So the plan is we will call her MMJ doc (I don't know if that's what this doctor wants to be referred as, but in our house she's the MMJ doc), we will call her on Monday, give her all of our impressions and observations, and see how she wants to proceed. (Side note: a few people have asked me how this whole thing works with our other doctors - and all I can say is that both our pediatrician and neurologist work for large health care companies and are not allowed to give much feedback on our MMJ journey - so we are just keeping them informed but not getting any sort of guidance from them - I hope one day that will change.)

3. Julia doesn't have a ton of seizures (thank you Jesus!). I wrote about this before, but Julia is a little different than most of the kids currently using medical marijuana for seizures in that she doesn't have uncontrollable seizures - nor does she have daily seizures, even off of medications. Basically she is prone to having seizures because of her unique brain and she has them frequently enough to need to be on something to try to prevent them. But she does not have them frequently enough that I can tell after two weeks whether or not there has been a decrease in seizure activity.  We have chosen to use medical marijuana as a treatment option because we don't like the side effects of other pharmaceutical anti-seizure medication she has been on for the past seven years AND because it is an option for us here in Colorado. We wish this was an option for every family in every state to decide upon.  Many families have packed up their lives and moved to Colorado to give their kiddos a chance on medical marijuana - mostly because nothing else has worked.  We hope that through our pursuit of this option and in sharing our story, we can play a tiny part in making this option available for ALL families to try - no matter what state they live in!!!

So those are the reason it is hard to say for sure if it is working or not. But here is one more thing I can say for sure: It isn't making things worse!

Last month when Julia had her scary seizure that landed us in the ER and started the chain of events that led us to Haleigh's Hope, we had to temporarily re-start her on Keppra. One day on a very low dose of Keppra and she was a wreck. She could no longer walk - she lost all of her balance and couldn't take two steps without crashing. And her agitation skyrocketed. She was hitting herself and pulling out her hair, acting like it was painful to be in her own skin. It was heartbreaking to watch.

Two weeks into Haleigh's Hope (with Keppra gone again - yay!) she is walking like a champ, balanced and confident! And her agitation seems to be down. Oh and no seizures (which like I said before, doesn't tell us a ton, but no seizures is a heck of a lot better than some or many).

So that is how we are getting to our answer right now about if this is working for her... We think it is working because we aren't seeing awful side effects. We think this is working because we are maybe even seeing some positive side effects. And we think this is working because she is off all her other medications and hasn't had a seizure!

We can't know what tomorrow will bring, but for today will take that as a victory my friends! Indeed we will!


#haleighshope #marijuanaismedicine #legalizemedicalmarijuana #cureepilepsy

Why God? Why?

The other day my mom shared with me an interaction she'd had the night before with a friend at church. This friend, who knows about Julia, was telling my mom about another woman she knew who had a son with special needs and about how difficult life had been for this woman because she never was able to accept her son's challenges. She seemed sad and in a state of regret throughout her sons life, continuously asking the question "Why God? Why? What did I do to deserve this?"

I asked my mom how she responded to this story which sounded very sad and her answer surprised me, "Well," she said, "I told her, 'I understand, we ask the very same question: Why God? Why?'"

This threw me off for a second because this did not sound like my mom or the way my mom usually talks about Julia. But she went on...

"But I told her, we ask 'Why?' for a different reason. We ask 'Why God did you pick our family to receive such a blessing? Why God did you see us as worthy of your beautiful gift? Why God did you chose to change our lives in such a magnificent way through Julia?  Why God? Why? What did we ever do to deserve her?'"

"Mimi and Jules" photo by Steve Stanton

My heart nearly stopped beating.

Here was my precious mom, the woman who raised me and prepared me for this role, standing in her kitchen in front of me, speaking the most beautiful and important truths into me about who God is and how He cares for us. And reminding me, once again, that God is so good at loving us in far better ways than we could ever imagine, but we have to be willing to adjust our eyes to see it.

And I can imagine as I write this, how to some stranger's ears my sweet mom's words could sound like super religious, "church-y" jargon, or perhaps they could sound arrogant, like "look at how good we are doing with this whole thing, do it like us." But I promise that is not the case. Her words were genuine. Honest words from a humble and wise woman who feels blessed beyond her wildest imagination through the life of her little granddaughter. And she is grateful. Nothing more. Simply grateful.

Her honesty and gratitude are the result of realizing that being needed is not the burden our culture makes it out to be. And that dependency is not a curse. To be needed gives us purpose. Caring for another is when we are most alive. God gave us Julia and in doing so made all of us more fully alive.

How can that be anything but a blessing?  

Why God? Why? What did we ever do to deserve her?

Julia is Going Green

If all goes as planned, Julia will start medical marijuana on Monday. (Say that seven times fast.)

Medical marijuana on Monday. This is really happening.

Julia started taking anti-seizure medication when she was seven months old following her first seizure and diagnosis of Infantile Spasms. In the seven years since then she has tried 13 different pharmaceuticals and various combinations of those 13 different drugs to hold the seizures at bay.

I am not an expert on medical marijuana. If you have watched any of the CNN specials you know about as much as I do. I am an expert on Julia though, and what I know is that these pharmaceuticals are hard on her. Yes, in many cases they have done their job, they have controlled her seizures - and for that we are blessed. But at a cost. They have delayed her development, they make her clumsy and agitated, and we really don't know what they are actually doing to her little body now and in the long run. As much as the medical world would like you to believe the drugs they are prescribing our kids are safe the reality is we don't really know. There are no clinical trials for seven month old babies taking varying cocktails of anti-seizure medication for seven plus years... that data doesn't exist.

So as parents, the only true experts on our kids, we do the best we can.  And right now, in this particular case, that means giving Julia marijuana.

Most of the families who have preceded us in this decision to try medical marijuana have done so because other drugs have not worked and their child's seizures have continued uncontrolled, hundreds a day - it's no exaggeration.  In that desperate place you will try anything, literally anything - including moving your family across the country to Colorado, knowing you won't be able to leave once you start this drug - but you don't care, because when you watch your child seizing the only thing that matters to you is making it stop.

We are in a slightly different situation than most of the families I just described.

First, we already live in Colorado. We don't have to uproot and move to try this drug. We are here and it is a fairly easy option to pursue.

Second, Julia's seizures technically are under control with pharmaceuticals.  When she is on a medication, specifically Keppra, we don't see seizures.  Last fall she had a long stretch without seizures so we decided to wean her off of all medication due to our concern for what it was doing to her body. It was great to see her off all meds - her development flourished and her agitation went down - but after two months the seizures returned and we realized she will have to be on something to help hold them back.  We temporarily re-started the medication she was formerly on (Keppra) and right away saw her agitation and frustration increase.  We decided now is the time for medical marijuana.

So rather than doing this because nothing else works, we are doing this because we want to see if this works BETTER for her.  Could this be more than just a last ditch effort of desperation and instead just be a really good treatment option for us to explore? I'm thankful we have the opportunity to do this - I am hopeful we can be a part of leading the way for more families to have this as an option for their loved ones.

When we've talked about this decision with family and friends, we have received 99.9% positive responses. People are becoming more educated about marijuana as a treatment option for epilepsy. They are hearing the positive stories through the news and social media.

People who know our story and have watched Julia battle epilepsy respond to us with an enthusiastic "of course!" "That makes sense!" "Why wouldn't you try it?"

These are all reasonable people who know that:
1. Seizures are scary.
2. Pharmaceuticals are scary.
3. Pot isn't any scarier than seizures or pharmaceuticals.

To you 99.9% I say thank you!  Thank you for supporting us and other families in trying to find better and safer options for our kids.

To you other .01% out there, like I said, I'm not an expert, but let me try to respond to a few of the objections I've heard from you:

1. Has marijuana been researched?
Funny you would ask about research.

Have you also asked about the research on a 7 month old taking multiple anti-seizure medications? Have you asked about the research on a 13 month old taking the cocktail of keppra, topomax, and sabril?   How about keppra, zonegran, and banzel?  Keppra, valium, prednisone?

What does the research say about those combos neurologists put our kids on?  What does the research tell us about the long term effects of being on 13 different anti-seizure meds in the first seven years of life?

Nothing. The research says nothing.  It's a bit of a crap shoot to be honest.

Are you really concerned about research or are you just trying to block us?  Because if you really care - then join our cause and become an advocate for more research to be done on the effectiveness of medical marijuana and epilepsy. Start a movement, raise money, write your congressmen -you could be a hero!!!

2. Doesn't marijuana slow down the brain?
Well, that's kind of exactly the point.

Do you know what a seizure is? It's a bunch of neurons in the brain pulsing too fast.
Do you know what anti-seizure medicine does? It slows down the brain.

So naturally any type of treatment for a brain with neurons pulsing too fast would be to slow down the neurons in the brain that are pulsing too fast.  Brilliant!

The balancing act comes from trying to slow down the brain enough to avoid seizing but not so much that it creates a zombie child.

If what you are actually asking me is am I worried about what this drug could do to her in general? Then yes. Of course yes. And actually the question is insulting.

I'm her mom, I worry about everything.

I worry about her lips when they are dry, I worry about the fingernails she won't let me trim. I worry about wrinkles in her socks, wet diapers giving her a rash at night, and milk giving her gas pains. I worry about everything.

Most of all lately though, I worry about her dying during a seizure.

So yes, I am worried about starting a new medication - but welcome to parenthood where every decision you make haunts you because you love your kid so flippin' much.

3. I wouldn't take it.
Great, you don't have to!

But don't vote against it - you not wanting to take it isn't an excuse for you to block other people from having that option. That's just mean.

One day it could be you or someone you love asking for the support of the community so you can have access to a potentially life-saving treatment - you won't like people like yourself very much when that day comes.

4. I don't think teenagers should be smoking pot.
Great, neither do I.  But that's a different conversation now, isn't it? And if you can't see that it is a different conversation then I'm not sure I can help you.

5. I don't want marijuana to be legalized in my state.
Fine, but again, that's a different conversation isn't it?

If you want to clump legalized together with medical treatment then you are being ignorant - which is your choice, but your ignorance does hurt others.

You will keep voting against it because you think it is all the same. You will keep your arrogant mindset thinking it won't ever be you on the other side.

6. Is it safe?
SAFE? SAFE? Seriously you are asking me if this is SAFE?

None of this is SAFE.

We left the safety-zone seven years ago when she had her first seizure.  Seizures aren't safe.

Don't talk to me about safe, we don't have that luxury.

~~

I'm guessing the .01% won't even read this, but there you go anyway. That's what I have to say to the naysayers, it felt good to get that off my chest!

Back to the 99.9% of support out there - thank you for being with us on this latest phase of our journey. Your support means so much.

When I think about it we have so much to be thankful for right now.
Thank you God for Colorado.
Thank you God for voters who voted to approve this treatment option.
Thank you God for politicians I'm pretty sure I didn't even vote for who have made this a possibility for Jules.
Thank you God for this little green plant you created that is changing lives.

Medical marijuana on Monday - here we go.