Faith's Mom's Blog

After agonizing and praying over the decision to send Faith to school for half days or full days, we finally agreed that half days would be more than enough. I am finding that even only with half days at school, her schedule is full. She is quite the busy little bee. While she's at school from 8:30 to 12:30 five days a week, Faith has two occupational therapies, two physical therapies, two speech therapies, four sessions with her special education teacher, library time, music, recess and physical education. Not to mention a full one-hour feeding and time in her stander. I can understand why the school's recommendation was to have Faith in school for five full days a week. With all that she has to do at school, she is also there to learn academically. But it was ultimately her parents' decision and I believe we made the best one. When Faith comes home from her busy day at school she has her second feeding of the day and then after that she can finally get stretched and r

There's a song we used to sing in elementary school called "Up Up With People." Amazingly, I still remember all the lyrics. Up up with people, you meet them wherever you go. Up up with people, they're the best kind of folks you know. If more people were for people all people everywhere, there'd be a lot less people to worry about and a lot more people who care. I know that since the beginning of our journey of having a daughter with special needs, there have been many people who have been 'for us'. They have wanted what we wanted, the best for Faith. If I were to begin naming names, I know I would forget someone because there are just so many people that God has put in our path to help Faith grow and develop to the best of her ability. This list includes doctors, therapists, interventionists, teachers, teacher's aides, case managers, caretakers, counselors and even receptionists. Besides, professionals, however, there are also those who have prayed

Everytime I take Faith to school and then bring her back home, I am reminded of how God arranged for all of our needs to be met. Last spring, we were getting concerned about where we lived and how it was going to work for getting Faith to Kindergarten in the fall. The apartment we lived in, which was not handicapped accessible, was close to downtown and was close to Faith's preschool. During most of the time at this address, my husband stayed home to take care of our daughter. I worked in Mandan and had to take our only vehicle to work everyday. This wasn't a major problem for my husband because he simply walked Faith to her therapy sessions, walked her to preschool and was able to carry her and her chair up and down the stairs of our apartment. Things changed last November when Rob got a job and I was able to stay home with Faith. It was more difficult for me to carry Faith up and down the stairs and because of the winter we had, it was much harder getting her to school an

"First day of school, first day of school!" This line from the movie, Finding Nemo, resounds through my head. Little Nemo was so excited to go to school and begin a whole new adventure. His overprotective father, Marlin, not so much. His father tried to tell him he could always wait another year before going to school but Nemo heard none of it. I felt like Marlin this morning, thinking we didn't have to do this yet did we? Couldn't we wait another year? Was she really ready? I got my answer shortly after stepping through the front doors of her new school. "Faith, are you ready to go to your classroom?" "YESSSSSS!" She had a big smile on her face all the way to the elevator, down the hall, around the corner to her classroom door. I held on to her wheelchair not wanting to let go just yet. I wanted to take her into her classroom, get her settled in and just make sure she was going to be OK. But when Faith's teacher's aid asked Faith if

Faith received her immunizations yesterday for Kindergarten. On Thursday, she starts school. I, like moms everywhere who have kids reaching certain milestones, am asking, "where or where has the time gone?" One of my facebook friends wrote on her wall that it seems like she just gave birth to her kindergartner. Her message brought me back to Faith's seemingly untimely birth. Instead of being a joyous and happy occasion, Faith's entrance into the world was one of the most stressful and scary times of my life. When I was just 26 weeks pregnant, Faith was doing her best to come into the world - way too early. Since we lived in Watford City, a community of about 1500 people, we doctored in Williston, about 45 miles away. My husband and I drove there thinking my little bit of spotting was no big deal. I remember feeling relatively calm, until we got to the doctor's office and they strapped a fetal monitor around me. I was having contractions eight minutes apart. I wa