Faith's Mom's Blog

Faith in her "new" van in 2011 It was back in August of 2011 that we got our first accessible van. Before that, we had a purple special needs car seat called the "Special Tomato." Eventually she got too big for her special tomato and we needed to graduate to an accessible van. We were thankful to have found one in Bismarck for a decent price. While it suited our needs, there were still some concerns. For one, the electrical system was really wonky, which affected the ramp.   Even with the weird electrical system, it got us to where we needed to go. We even had some fun family adventures like driving all the way to Toronto and back, and also to Winnipeg. The van also got us to some of Faith's medical appointments in Minneapolis and Fargo. Despite its quirks, the 2006 Dodge Caravan was a good van. Except for when it rained. It seemed the electrical system went super berserk when it rained. One day we were on our way home from a physical therapy appointment in th

As I'm writing this blog post, it is currently 25 degrees outside. With the windchill, it feels more like 12 degrees. That's cold for October. Even in North Dakota! Winter definitely seems like it's here. Earlier this month we had a historic blizzard that dumped 13 inches of snow on Bismarck and over 2 feet of the white stuff in other parts of the state. As a result, the public schools had their first official snow day. I was ready to give Faith the day off from her lessons at home, but she still wanted to do them! First major snowfall of the year - in October! (Thanks mom for the pic!) It could have been a snow day for Faith but she still wanted to do school! It did warm up soon after and all the snow melted but the October blizzard created quite a mess for farmers and ranchers who still had crops in the field and cows in the pasture. I was very grateful that we didn't have to go anywhere - for school or for work. I am still freelance writing from home. Rec

Grandma Dorothy holding me at 5 months of age In February, 1974 when my mom took me home from the hospital, she thought she had a perfectly healthy baby. But when her mom came for a visit five weeks later to see her granddaughter, she asked why my lips looked discolored. Grandma Dorothy also noticed I slept a lot, even for a newborn. Mom assured Grandma she would ask the doctor about it during my six-week checkup. Mom took me to the same clinic in Wolf Point, Montana, where I had been born. She and Dad were living in a tiny town called Luster, where Dad worked as a ranch hand. My regular pediatrician was unavailable. A young doctor, fresh out of medical school, examined me instead. Dr. Mattley quickly agreed the bluish tint to my lips was disconcerting and because of it dubbed me a blue baby. “Her body isn’t getting enough oxygen, which is why her lips and fingernails are cyanotic,” he said. He also detected a heart murmur. An X-ray confirmed a possible heart defect. F

At the beginning of 2018 I had come up with the idea to post an inspirational meme for every day of the year. I called it #365DaysOfInspiration. Part of the reason for doing so was because of all the negativity and bad news that seemed to be flooding Facebook. I figured my inspirational posts could be at least one positive thing people saw each and every day. Little did I know at the time how much my Facebook friends would come to appreciate these little nuggets of inspiration. One lady even told me that she wrote every one of them down in a little journal. Another told me these little blips of inspiration kept her going on some of her most difficult days. Many people shared that whatever I had posted for the day was just what they needed. After faithfully posting for 365 days, one of my friends said, "Thank you for the 365 inspirational posts. I enjoyed the variety of quotes, often feeling challenged to think more about it through the day. I know this took a lot of time and