Faith turned 13 on October 25th. We celebrated her milestone birthday a week ago today at my parents house, which has become the official family party place.
It still has sunken in quite yet that I am the mother of a teenager. Despite exhibiting some telltale signs, like hormone overload and emotions running rampant, she is still in many ways my little girl. I'm not sure if that will ever change.
She has had to endure a lot during these past 13 years and every time we are faced with a new challenge, and wonder how we're going to overcome it, it's always her tenacity and warrior-like attitude that completely amazes us.
Though she may be feeling discomfort, she's still able to laugh. Though she might get frustrated by something she can't do, she still has hope. Though she experiences disappointment, she still finds joy. Both Rob and I have learned so much from her, and as we continue to move forward in our journey, I look forward to seeing God's plans for her life continue to unfold.
Here are some photos (and a video) from her 13th birthday party. We are so grateful she had a such good day, and that she was able to relax and enjoy herself while being surrounded by so many loved ones.
Our birthday girl!
Faith visiting with some of her guests!
Faith's auntie Dawn and her cute cousin Marla!
Faith's amazing Wheel of Fortune cake
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for hosting such a great party!
Faith and Rob with some wonderful friends of the family!
Faith with Auntie Barbara and Uncle Todd!
Faith was super excited her "big" cousins were there along with Haley and baby!
Faith was blessed with many beautiful cards, gifts, and flowers!
Today marks Faith's 8th day of school and we are all adjusting to a new schedule. Faith has made huge strides this past summer in sleeping better and having more energy so we decided to have her go to school from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 5 days a week. This is a change as last year she did not go Tuesday and Thursday afternoons due to how tired and worn out she would get. Faith's first day of 4th grade School starts at 8:30 a.m. but we asked if it would be okay for us to get her there at 9:00 instead. This allows us to more time to get her first feeding into her before she even gets to school. Her aides noticed last year that when we brought her to school without any food in her tummy, she was pretty sluggish and tired upon arrival. Sometimes, after getting her to school she wouldn't start getting her feeding until after 9:00 a.m. which meant, that because she gets a feeding every 3 hours, her last feeding of the day didn't end until 10:00 p.m. Another advantage to
Last Wednesday I had my yearly doctor exam and when she said I should get my tetanus shot updated, I didn't think twice about it. The nurse said my arm would be sore for a couple of days, gave me a handout and stuck the needle in my arm. The next day my arm was sore and although I found it a little harder to pick up and carry Faith, I was glad the pain wasn't going to last long. Boy was I wrong! But not only was my arm sore, my whole body was. I felt achy and extremely tired. According to a medical site on the Internet, these were mild side effects of the Tetanus shot. If these were only mild side effects, I would really hate to have them at a moderate or severe level. On Friday, two days after getting the shot I felt so tired that I took a four hour nap after getting Faith off to school. Then on Saturday I took a three hour nap up until 7 o'clock but still felt tired and was able to go back to sleep around 10. On Sunday, finally the fatigue started wearing off and I didn
Today we said goodbye to our Special Tomato adaptive car seat. And special it was. It helped Faith stay safe and secure in our Hyundai driving her back and forth to therapy appointments, shopping excursions and many other activities. It also helped us through our time of not being able to afford an accessible van. Like all adaptive equipment , the special car seat was expensive and although it is the law that a child is secured in a car seat while traveling in a vehicle, neither health insurance nor Medicaid would pay for it. Thankfully, we were able to receive funds from the fundraiser, the Great American Bike Race ( GABR ) which helps families pay for services and equipment that insurance doesn't cover for kids with cerebral palsy and related disabilities. After doing research on the Internet and talking to Faith's physical and occupational therapists, we decided to go for the Special Tomato adaptive car seat. You would think something with that name would be r
Happy birthday! I love Wheel of Fortune.
ReplyDeleteThank you! That is one of Faith's favorite shows - she loves Pat and Vanna!
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