Faith's Mom's Blog

As Rob was putting on his tie, he asked, "how did I get roped into this again?" He was referring to his and Faith's first ever Daddy-Daughter dance. A friend of ours who also has a little girl in a wheelchair has gone for the last four years and has asked Rob in the past if he was going or not. I was so excited when Rob decided to buy tickets for this year's dance called the Butterfly Ball, which is a fundraiser for a local music school. When we got to the venue, we were a little surprised at how packed it was. Not only were there 299 other dads with their little girls, but there were also moms, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, neighbors - all of them taking photos of the dressed up dads and daughters. What a handsome husband and beautiful daughter! Rob and Faith with our friends, Tracy and Paige Most of the dads were sporting suits and ties and most of the 5-12 year-old girls were dressed in mini prom dresses. I'm not sure where yo

Faith loves surprising people. There's only one problem - she's not very good at it. She starts giggling and laughing and sort of gives the surprise away. Sometimes when Rob is working in the office, we like to surprise him with cookies. Well, we try to surprise him but he hears us coming down the hallway long before we even get to the door. She yells, "Surprise!" anyway. Because Faith likes surprises, she was very excited for her uncle Todd's surprise birthday party. Unfortunately it didn't work out that she was there when Todd walked in the room and we all got to yell Surprise! She had been a little nervous beforehand so she and Rob ended up coming a little later. After she warmed up to the new environment, and all the unfamiliar faces, she couldn't wait for us to put the candles on the cake and sing Happy Birthday. Due to Todd's rigorous rig schedule, we had his party a little early Todd, Barbara and family The cake was a huge hit! Fa

Today we celebrated Easter, or as I like to call it, Resurrection Sunday. We started our day by attending church with Faith's auntie Barbara. Faith had never been to this church before - I had gone once before with Barbara. Though the music was a little loud, Faith did great. At one point, Rob was concerned about how she was doing so he took her out into the lobby but she wanted to come back in and sit by Barbara, who held her hand the whole time. The whole service ended up being about two hours long but Faith very patient through the sermon and at one point was repeating the words the pastor was saying. The pastor gave a great message talking about  the Resurrection of Christ being the foundation of Christianity - without Jesus rising from the dead, Christianity would be just like any other religion - completely man-made.We ended the service singing the great song "Because He Lives." After church, we had dinner with our two terrific friends, Bob and Lola. There were

Guest Post by Russel Kelfer You are who you are for a reason. You're part of an intricate plan. You're a precious and perfect unique design, Called "God's special woman or man." You look like you look for a reason.  Our God made no mistake. He knit you together within the womb, You're just what He wanted to make! The parents you had were the ones He chose And no matter how you may feel,  They were custom-designed with God's plan in mind, And they bear the Master's seal. No, that trauma you faced was not easy; And God wept that it hurt you so. But it was allowed to shape your heart So that into His likeness you'd grow.  You are who you are for a reason. You've been formed by the Master's rod.  You are who you are, Beloved, Because there is a GOD.

I guess after Saturday's wheelchair soccer game in which Faith took part, I could easily see myself as a wheelchair soccer mom. She had such a blast and with the help of a soccer player from the University of Mary, she made some great plays and even scored some goals! And the faster her helper pushed her chair around up and down the gym, the bigger she smiled. Her dad watched from the sidelines praying her driver wasn't going to crash her into the wall. Faith goes flying across the gym to help her teammates on the other side check out the gigantic "soccer ball" are soccer balls supposed to go up in the air like that? While it was called wheelchair soccer, it was sort of a toss up between soccer and beach volleyball. The kids couldn't use their feet but instead used their hands and upper body to get the ball up and down the "soccer field." And the ball wasn't a soccer ball, instead it was a huge blow-up beach ball. The kids were divided a

It seems we have been having a bit of our own March madness with so much happening this past week. Last week Faith and I were both struggling with colds and sore throats which caused me to miss work and her to miss school. I was hoping she would be up to trying wheelchair soccer this past weekend over at her school but she just wasn't up to it. As for myself, I wasn't sure if I would be up going to a Christian concert in Dickinson, but I went anyway. Me and my friend Sandy had front row seats and I even got autographs from the artistis themselves - Big Daddy Weave, MikesChair and Kerrie Roberts! I also saw another friend at the concert who recently moved to Killdeer - it was so cool to see her there! While I went road-tripping to Dickinson, Faith spent the whole evening with her dad. I didn't get home until 1:00 a.m. and by 10:30 a.m. the next day, Faith really wanted her mom. I was sleeping in the bedroom with the door closed and all the sudden I heard Faith knocking

This past week, Faith did something for the first time ever at school - she ate lunch. She tried everything on her tray, which included a turkey sandwich, glazed carrots (which she ate the most of), strawberries and a few bites of a breadstick. Because Faith still needs help eating solids, her occupational therapist had Faith and a few other girls eat lunch together in a separate room. Faith has made the comment when we feed her that "that's for babies" meaning she knows that this is how babies eat - being spoon-fed by someone else. Since we know she is sensitive to this, we decided not to have her join her classroom at lunch for the time-being. But the fact that she actually got to have her lunch replace one of her tube feedings at school was very exciting. The next day she got to eat one of her favorite foods - mashed potatoes and gravy. Each day the kids at school get a choice between a chef salad, ham or turkey sandwich and a hot meal. Each of them comes with diff