Faith's Mom's Blog

For the past couple of years instead of making New Year's resolutions, I have instead chosen just one word to focus on throughout the year. (I got this great idea from my friend, Fran Dwelle of JOY International.) Last year my word was strength and my corresponding scripture was " The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1). This year, without even realizing it rhymed with the age I would be turning, I chose the word, "RENEW." The corresponding scripture the Lord gave me was this one: Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me . (Psalm 51:10) First and foremost the one thing I wanted to renew was my relationship with the Lord. Not that I felt I had fallen away or anything but because I wanted to have a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him than ever. I have a strong desire to hear Him more clearly and to operate more in the realm o

I think North Dakota forgot all about spring this year and just went right into summer. As our pastor said in church last week, "I guess North Dakota likes quick transitions!" It seriously seemed like one day the ground was still brown, the trees still bare and there wasn't a robin in sight then the next it was like the exact opposite. While everyone was certainly getting tired of old man winter, we sure weren't ready for 90 degrees! Faith enjoying being outside at Michelle's with her ducks! Besides it feeling like summer, I am thankful that it really is summer vacation and that Faith is done with school this year! She did so well the first half of fourth grade and somewhere along the way around Christmas vacation she seemed to really be struggling. We chalked it up to her high muscle tone protesting the frigid temperatures. When it started warming up a little, though there were days she still struggled to get to school. In February she came down with a sin

The book, In Sickness and in Health: Lessons   Learned on the Journey from Cystic Fibrosis to Total Health  by Mandy B. Anderson, is the author's personal story of what life is like living with what doctors call an incurable disease. In reading her story, I felt like I could completely relate to her. Although my diagnosis of a congenital heart defect is much different than hers, all the ways in which being a sick kid can take an emotional toll, is very much alike. For instance, most kids don't ever have to think about dying an early death or having doctors put an expiration date on your life. This cannot only be emotionally devastating but spiritually devastating as well as "words of death" are constantly being spoken over you. As a kid, you can feel the fear and anxiety in those around you so you take it upon yourself to be the "brave" one. You learn how to mask and hide your true feelings and inadvertently start pretending to be someone you are not.

This is my first post of the new year and it is already March - I guess I have some catching up to do! As you can tell by my new blog header, I am ready for spring. It has been a very cold winter here in North Dakota with several days below zero since December. I know though that much of the country has had a tough winter too so I know we are not alone in being anxious for spring and the warmer weather that comes along with it. Faith especially seems to be struggling with the colder temps - it most likely affects her already high tone. It hasn't helped that it is more difficult to transport her since we can't use our van's ramp due to our door needing to be replaced. Rob has had to get her into the other side of our van which entails him sort of lifting her chair up into the van. We are looking forward to finally getting it fixed this week.  Now that I've gotten our weather-related issues out of the way, here is an update on what the rest of this New Year has been