Advocate like a Mother
In 2006 I moved back to Utah from spending a year playing soccer for Iowa Western Community College. While attending IWCC I became friends with Becky Pulham on the Women's soccer team. One day I was hanging out with Becky in her dorm room and I started looking through her MySpace account. Yes, MySpace. :) I am that old. I was going through all of Becky's friends checking out all of the girls pictures. I had the idea before Mark Zuckerberg. :)
Well I spotted this hot blonde that jumped out at me. Her pictures were from when her and her family had gone on a cruise in the Caribbean. She had olive skin and golden blonde hair, a beautiful face and smile. She was gorgeous. I was imprinted.
I went ahead and slid into her DM's before that was even a thing. She didn't respond the first time. So I tried a second time. Still no response.
Once I knew that I was moving back to Utah. I begged and begged Becky to give me her phone number so I could reach out to her. I begged for like a week before Becky finally relented and called Angela and asked if it was ok to give me her number.
Just so happens, that was the day that I was making the trek from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Salt Lake City. That is a 13 hour drive. About 5-6 hours into the drive, I worked up the courage to call her.
To my surprise she answered the call and agreed to hang out with me that very night. She told me to go to her Grandparents in Lehi, Utah. She was house sitting while her grandparents were out of town.
I recruited a couple of friends to go with me that night because she had one other girlfriend that would be there. We had planned on playing board games, but Angela and I just ended up talking most of the night. I don't remember what else was happening with my friends and Angela's girlfriend.
I just remember that Angela showed right away how empathetic she really is. She had an open mind and she cared about others. She showed me her heart that night and she has always been this ray of empathy and love for others.
When Theo was diagnosed with Autism, Angela started to reach out on Instagram and find other Mom's that had kids being diagnosed at the same time. She created a Mom's group where they could all work together to problem solve for each other.
I have been playing catch up for the last few years trying to learn things systematically through institutions and organizations of what Angela already learned through this Bio-Medical Mother's Group.
I fought Angela at first against going gluten-free, dairy-free, casein-free for Theo. My argument was that Theo and Eva needed to be kids. I grew up on Doritos and fruit snacks. Kids need to be kids. What a moron I truly was. Theo showed huge progress when we put him on a restricted diet, and slowly I started to become a believer. Fast forward to today where I now am over half-way done with my Functional Medicine Coaching Certification and everything that Angela and her superhero mom group have learned is 100% true.
I chose this picture because it depicts Angela perfectly. Theo's Functional Medicine doctor calls her a "Tiger Mom". She is fierce. She is strong. She will fight and claw until her dying breath for the people in her life. I hope the world will start listening to these Mom's. A mother's intuition is stronger than any medical history or knowledge. A mother's intuition is a direct line to the Universe and to Source.
Angela Blymiller is a giant and powerful soul on this earth. She loves with so much energy and force.
I love her for her fight. I love her for her beauty. But most of all, I love her for her Love. Nobody on this Earth has shown me and my kids greater love than she has.
Happy Birthday Babe. We love you.
Shawn