Faith's Mom's Blog

First of all, I feel totally guilty for neglecting my blog and I cannot believe it has taken me so long to be able to play catch up. We recently drove our van all the way to Toronto and back home again - and logged 2,885 miles in doing so.  When I told Faith's teacher that she would be missing school for eight days as a result of our vacation, she asked if we would do a travel journal so Faith could share it with her class. Here is that journal that she got to share with her class on her 8th birthday, which was this past Tuesday. On Saturday, October 8, 2011, me and my mom and dad left from Bismarck, North Dakota and drove in our van all the way to Toronto, Ontario Canada.  Faith is all settled in and ready to do some serious traveling! Canada is another country and is often called “our neighbor to the north” but to get to Toronto we always kept driving east. This is where my dad is from, so we went to see my grandparents who live there along with other friends and rela...

Faith did great yesterday with getting her x-rays taken. She stayed nice and still so that the technicians could get three good pictures of her hips. Shortly afterwards we headed upstairs to talk to the doctor and to see the pictures we had just taken. When the doctor pulled them up on the computer, even I could tell it wasn't good news. Faith's left hip has proceeded to come out of its socket. We had been hoping and praying for no changes, as the last two x-rays have shown. This time, though we could clearly see this was no longer the case. Her hip is about 40% out of its socket. At this point, we know we have to take action. If not, Faith's hip will, over time, become completely displaced. We set up a consult with a surgeon for November 1. From there we will set up another date for Faith's surgery to get her baclofen pump . This will be the first procedure for Faith where she will have an extended hospital stay - most likely 3-5 days. Thankfully, this can all be don...

Lately I've been inundated with paperwork so that Faith can continue to receive SSI and Medicaid. Just recently I had to fill out forms to prove to the good  people at Social Security that Faith still has a disability and is still eligible to receive funds. It was a lot of paperwork considering I had to verify all of her doctor's appointments within the last 12 months and also to prove she had been seeing a physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech therapist.  Faith went to the SSI office with me on Monday since she didn't have school. The little waiting room was packed but we thankfully didn't have to wait long. When we left Faith yelled out, "Bye guys!" She was pretty happy to get out of there. Most people who know Faith knows she has a slight obsession with cupcakes. She always wants cupcakes for her birthday and for Christmas we make and give out Happy Birthday Jesus Cupcakes . She has had a pair of pink cupcake pajamas and now has green on...

Had it not been for the one fateful day that I had a craving for Little Caesar's pizza, I might not ever have known that Barney was coming to town. But there I was at the counter waiting for my medium pepperoni pizza when I noticed a flyer with a picture of the big purple dinosaur. He was coming live to Bismarck with his friends, BJ, Baby Bop and Riff - I couldn't wait to tell Faith. Barney and friends appear live at the Bismarck Civic Center I don't know how old Faith was when she saw Barney for the first time. A receptionist at pediatric therapy gave us a Barney VCR tape and Faith loved it. I started letting her watch Barney on PBS and then we started collecting the DVDs.  All the while, I couldn't believe I was letting my daughter watch Barney - me and my friends made so much fun of him when he first came out on TV. But as I watched along with Faith, I discovered all of the cute songs and some of the good things that Barney had to share. I will admit though tha...

Second graders at Centennial Elementary get to enjoy a program called SPLASH that gives them a chance to go swimming once a week in September. Instructors at the YMCA teach the kids different swimming strokes, water safety and survival skills. The kids are in the water for about one hour. Since Faith loves swimming, I thought she would be very excited. Unfortunately, though she seemed more nervous about it than anything. We skipped out on the first week but made it this week and she had a blast! It was hard to tell who was having more fun - Faith or her instructional aide that was with her in the pool. Faith kicking her feet up in the water Faith tries to touch the bottom Faith tries to do a back float