Faith's Mom's Blog

Ever since I began this blog (back in 2009), I've always had the faith verse from Hebrews 11:1 on the header. But as of late, I feel the passage from 2 Corinthians 5:7 better reflects our current season of life. This past year has been one of the more challenging ones we've had in light of caring for our daughter. As she has gotten heavier, I found lifting her has presented opportunities for straining my back. Thankfully, I’ve been able to receive healing through both prayer and the hands of a wonderful friend who is also a massage therapist. At the same time, I know I can no longer lift Faith as I once used to. Faith hanging out at the eye doctor. She received a good report and still does not need glasses!  Another huge change is that this past spring, Faith officially became a woman. While this is usually something for girls to celebrate, for us it provided a new set of challenges, including major PMS symptoms. Her sensitivity to loud noises heightens during this t

It's almost the last day of August and I think pretty much everyone I know is asking, "What in the world happened to summer?" It seems like summer whizzes by faster and faster every year. And at the end of every summer, I find myself feeling sad about not doing the things I had wanted to do once the warmer weather approached. But now as I think about it, there were some very hot days that I was content to stay inside! I think on our hottest day it reached 106 degrees. Meanwhile, as summer passes us by and my favorite season quickly approaches, here are some fun things we did over the short summer.  We kicked off the summer celebrating my niece Justine's graduation from high school We saw an unusual number of rainbows this summer after some very crazy storms While we didn't go on the Riverboat this year, we at least made it to the river to enjoy the scenery! Faith was so happy to go to the 4th of July parade this year in Mandan with Grandpa!

This Father's Day weekend here in North Dakota started off a little rough with a major storm that swept across the state on Friday night. Faith and I were home alone when it reached Bismarck around 9:00 p.m. Rob was still at the office working and I was on the computer finishing up a few articles. I decided to check Facebook and the first thing I saw was a picture my aunt in Arnegard (8 miles west of Watford City) had posted. Her garage had just gotten demolished in a storm that had passed through. The storm was quickly heading east towards Bismarck. One weather warning I saw stated a possibility of wind gusts up to 80 mph. This tree went down a block from our office in downtown Bismarck It's hard to see but this is a traffic light that also went down I figured Rob wasn't paying attention to the weather so I called him at the office to warn him. I'm thankful he didn't try to come home because the storm hit very quickly. One minute it was still light out

Normally around this time of year, North Dakotans are nearly dying for spring to come. This was the case early last week when the temperature dipped to six degrees below zero. But then a small miracle took place - temperatures soared to over 70 degrees! My only complaint was that our apartment, which is warm anyway, became a heat box. There was even one day I came home and my husband had turned on the air conditioner - in March! The nice weather was the answer to many prayers though, as many ladies involved in JOY International had been praying for weeks that the weather would cooperate for their annual event, the JOY Breakfast. Jennifer Beckham This year's speaker, Jennifer Beckham had come to Bismarck from her home in Jacksonville, Florida. She said she had been amazed to find when flying into Bismarck there was absolutely no snow on the ground. She wondered if the two states had swapped climates because when she left Florida it was only 30 degrees. Seriously, this i

Once again everyone in North Dakota is lamenting the near-end to another busy summer that is quickly fading away along with the hot summer sun. A couple of days ago we had an unusually cool late August day and I actually had to put a sweatshirt on Faith before going outdoors. I was reminded this would soon be the norm everyday and it wouldn't be long before we are digging around in the closet to find hats and mittens. Where DID summer go? This seems to be the question everyone asks each year as if there might be just one summer that lasts forever. I think most North Dakotans would relish at least one year-round summer considering winter weather lasts over half the year. But alas, it's never going to happen so we can either move to Arizona or grin and bear our near-approaching cold weather. Spending time with family - me, my sisters and dad at Perkins For us, we had a summer of transition as I quit working my full-time job at the health insurance company. Both my husband

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

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