Faith's Mom's Blog

This year has been an amazing year of blessings and lots of changes for our family. As you can see by the photos, 2014 was a fun year in which we truly enjoyed life, being with family and friends and having new adventures.  JANUARY - We rung in the New Year by going out for Chinese with members of our church family. I also celebrated by cheering on the NDSU Bison football team as they won their 3rd National Championship in a row and will be going for their 4th in 2015! Fun with friends! FEBRUARY - As with every February, Rob and I both celebrated birthdays but this year I reached a milestone when I turned 40! I can honestly say I feel truly blessed making it to the 40-year mark considering at one time doctors didn't think I would live past my 20s.  My mom made my day extra special by taking me shopping, going for lunch and relaxing while getting pedicures. I kept trying to tell her she was doing too much to which she responded, "You only turn 40 once!" Alas, mom...

Last year, Faith began a new Thanksgiving tradition of writing down everything for which she is thankful. Since she could care less about eating a huge turkey dinner, I thought it would be great for her to have her own little tradition. Here are nine things she says she has been especially thankful for this past year: 1. Daddy being her teacher - Faith is enjoying her first year of being homeschooled and although she and her Daddy butt head sometimes, she really likes him being her teacher. He is doing a great job at teaching her how to read. I'm thankful he is her teacher too because although I am usually the "patient one," he is better about not jumping in and giving her the answer when it's taking a long time for her to get it.   2. Grandma - Although Faith loves her Grandpa Mike, she is especially fond of her Grandma Deone. While she isn't always too crazy about going to Grandma's house, she loves to have Grandma come over to visit, go the lib...

Faith's birthday always causes me to reflect on the events surrounding her "untimely" birth. Medically speaking, Faith was born eleven weeks prematurely. But when thinking about everything that happened eleven years ago, I'm more inclined than ever to say she was born in God's perfect timing. Faith wanted to spend a quiet day with her mom and dad for her birthday I've been working on writing my book, Having Faith. In doing so, I have spent hours poring over all that took place before and after my daughter was born. Some of the details I had nearly forgotten until I went back to my journals and read my entries. I arrived in Rochester, Minnesota on Saturday, October 4th. After being there for a couple of weeks without going into preterm labor again, the doctors were actually thinking about sending me back home. I lived in Watford City at the time which is about 700 miles from Rochester. I was waiting to meet with my cardiologist and obstetrician one more ...

We just returned home a couple of days ago from our trip to Canada. In just 12 days, we drove about 3,100 miles traveling to Ontario and back. It was a wonderful trip, and we are thankful our van ran great, we didn't get into any fender benders, we didn't hit any wild animals, and we got to enjoy traveling during the most beautiful time of the year. We feel especially blessed we saw so many of our friends and family. October 13 not only marked Canada's Thanksgiving, but Rob's parent's 50th Anniversary. As if that was not enough, David baptized his only grandchild during our visit. Instead of describing our trip in words, here are some photos that portray our long but wonderful journey. It wasn't easy to get Faith out of her comfy home to drive 1,500 miles to Toronto but she did it! Our second hotel of the trip in Crandon, Wisconsin Driving along Lake Michigan Faith having fun on her very long field trip going over the Mackinaw Bridge The br...