Faith's Mom's Blog

In the past when Faith and I have done her annual Thankful List, I would write down the items as she told them to me. This year, I thought it would be fun for Faith to be sitting right next to me so I could show her how to do a blog post. So here we are again giving thanks to the Lord for His abundant blessings, which is the whole point of Thanksgiving!  One reason I like this tradition so well is because since Faith has a feeding tube, it's hard for her to get excited about turkey and all the other food that accompanies this special day. This year, Faith says she is especially THANKFUL for the following people and things in her life: Good Friends  Faith has made some wonderful friends at a faith-based homeschooling group she attends once a week called Inspire.  This year, she invited the girls from her class to the park for her birthday. (It was near miraculous that we had a 60-degree day with no wind at the end of October!) She had such a wonderful time. As her parents,

Despite the fact summer officially began only a few days ago, for us, it feels like it actually began in May. Since we've begun to have such wonderful weather, Faith has been wanting to get out and about, which has been fun for the whole family. In early May, the three of us ventured to the river where the boats, dandelions, and motorcyclists were out in full force. Enjoying the great outdoors! The banks of the Missouri River - one of Faith's favorite places! Besides going to the river, the library, and elsewhere, Faith has also enjoyed spending some quality family time at her Grandma and Grandpa's. On Mother's Day we enjoyed our first official barbecue of the year. Faith enjoyed getting to know my sister's dog, Snickerdoodle, aka Snickers, a little better. He is such a good dog and quiet too, which is why Faith likes him! Happy Mother's Day to me! My sister Dawn and I along with our mom! Faith's new favorite dog is Snickers! Towa

At the end of March, I found myself heading east on I-94 with my parents, leaving my husband and daughter behind. An hour into our trip, my husband called because Faith wanted to talk to me. In near tears, she asked if I was going to be home soon. Oh my breaking heart. The last time I had been away from her for more than a day was probably about 9 years ago. The reason for my departure had started back in January when I began fasting along with our church. In my journal on that first day, I had written that I wanted God to reveal any internal problems or heart issues I needed to deal with. I was speaking of spiritual issues, but in His goodness, He also revealed some physical problems that needed taken care of. During the fast I became extremely fatigued and didn't feel well at all. I began having chills and my husband encouraged me to start eating solid foods. I began eating soup, oatmeal, and other easy-to-digest foods, but none of it made me feel any better. Eventua

In my immediate family, my birthday in early February used to kick off the birthday season which would last through May. That's seven birthdays we celebrated in just a four-month time span! By the time we got to my mom's birthday, she was so tired of eating cake that she often opted not to have one.  Now that we have a larger family with in-laws, nieces, nephews, and significant others, there are many more birthdays to celebrate, all throughout the year. For those of us who live here in Bismarck, we have a great time getting together (usually at Mom and Dad's) to celebrate.  It's kind of funny because after we get done celebrating a birthday, Faith will ask, "Who's birthday is next, Mom?" Unfortunately, this year on my birthday, I wasn't feeling the best, but it was still fun to get together with family. One of the reasons I still wanted to go ahead with the party was because Faith had been looking so forward to it. I'll be the first to admit

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. 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 our hottest day was 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! Having fun wi

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 ou