Faith's Mom's Blog

Once again everyone in North Dakota is lamenting the near-end to another busy summer that is quickly fading away along with the hot summer sun. A couple of days ago we had an unusually cool late August day and I actually had to put a sweatshirt on Faith before going outdoors. I was reminded this would soon be the norm everyday and it wouldn't be long before we are digging around in the closet to find hats and mittens. Where DID summer go? This seems to be the question everyone asks each year as if there might be just one summer that lasts forever. I think most North Dakotans would relish at least one year-round summer considering winter weather lasts over half the year. But alas, it's never going to happen so we can either move to Arizona or grin and bear our near-approaching cold weather. Spending time with family - me, my sisters and dad at Perkins For us, we had a summer of transition as I quit working my full-time job at the health insurance company. Both my husband

This past year has held many challenges, many changes and some breakthroughs as well. We have met some new people who have helped Faith make forward progress but have been discouraged as certain prayers continue to go unanswered. Through it all though, there is one truth that remains - God has been with us and He has been faithful. He has placed many people in our lives who have kept us encouraged and who continue to inspire us each and every day to to "walk by faith not by sight." As I think about our past year, I can't help but feel hopeful that the New Year will be better than the last! JANUARY - Me and Faith spent the tail-end of last year and the beginning of 2013 recovering from the flu. In fact, she was at the walk-in clinic on New Year's Eve. We recovered just in time to celebrate the NDSU Bison winning their second straight national championship. This year they are once again headed to Frisco, Texas to defend their title as they take on Towson Universi

Faith's birthday didn't start out so well as the day before she came down with a cold and did not sleep very good two nights in row. She missed Thursday and Friday at school. Friday was her birthday and she had been looking so forward to going. Not only was she going to be doing a special birthday activity at school but it was also her school's fall festival party. I had serious hesitations about going forward with her birthday party on Saturday but thankfully, she had a good night sleep and felt much better. Faith celebrates with her mommy, grandma, cousin and aunties Faith with our dear friend, Joann We had her party at our apartment building lobby which worked perfectly for the number of guests that showed up. It was so funny because she said when she came downstairs to the lobby, she wanted everyone to say, "Surprise!" Rob left shortly after bringing her down when he discovered it had turned into an all-girl party. (I really didn't plan it tha

Over the last week, we have had a chance to see and visit with some very special friends. Our string of visits started last weekend when we traveled to Hazen to visit with some friends that Rob and I have both known since before we were married. While living in Watford City, there was just Tuck, Greta and their son Kaden but since then, their amazing family has expanded to three more boys and a girl. It was a beautiful drive and it was great seeing the haying season in full swing with lots of golden hay bales dotting the thousands of acres of farmland. While visiting and seeing their new home (they just moved there from Washburn), we found out that they are now attending church at New Life in Beulah, which means we are all part of the same church family! (The New Life church in Bismarck is an extension of the church in Beulah.) It was great hearing about their Junior Bible Quiz adventures including driving all the way to Texas for the national competition. It was obvious that Aubry

Every year I am disappointed because neither Faith nor Rob wants to go to the 4th of July Parade in Mandan with me so I end up not going at all. This year was going to be different though. This year I would have a parade date - my dad! Also, I was going to be meeting up with my friend Kristi and her family who sit in the same spot every year. I was so excited to go to the parade! The night before the big event, Rob and I asked Faith if she wanted to go too. She has only gone to the parade twice and didn't seem to really enjoy it either time. So I was totally expecting her to not want to go again this year. But then she said she did want to go and started asking all sorts of questions about what we were going to see at the parade. Even though she seemed excited, I didn't get my hopes up too high. Sometimes she acts excited about something but when it comes down to actually going through with it, she changes her mind. Whether she went or not, I was still happy to be going w

Our church service (along with many other services throughout the area) was canceled today because of our spring blizzard. So while I didn't get to go to church, I was still thinking about it! The photos from this post were actually taken from last week's church service.  Finding “the perfect” church is not an easy thing to do. Especially when you are trying to find one that works well for each member of the family, one of which has special needs. For me the perfect service consists of charismatic praise and worship, an inspiring, truthful message followed by fellowship with other church attendees. For Rob it is different though. He could give or take the praise and worship and get right down to the sermon – the more intellectual the better. Rob likes to take a message he hears and chew on it for days thinking, pondering and mulling it over. And then there is Faith. She does not like loud and she does not like microphones, sudden clapping or spontaneous "Amens

It seems we've been celebrating Valentines Day all week as we spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday making our homemade Valentines boxes and cards. Faith's class had a party today and we had our own "old school" Valentines Day party at work. Faith normally doesn't stay at school on Thursday afternoons so we decided to give her the choice of whether or not she wanted to stay for the class party. I was a little disappointed when she said she didn't want to stay for it because I don't like her to miss out on doing fun things with her classmates. I do think though that the parties can get a little chaotic (especially with all that sugar intake) and I know it's hard for her to relax in that kind of atmosphere because her startle is constantly kicking in. Still, after dropping her off at school I couldn't help but feel a little sad that she was going to miss out on the party. We did have fun making the boxes and cards and looking at all our Valentines

This year in review is a little belated - I had wanted to do it before the New Year actually began but both Faith and I fell ill with the flu and I had zero energy. It's hard to be creative with no energy! While I became sick shortly after Christmas, Faith got sick on New Year's Eve. On Friday, she finally felt well enough to go to school. Thank goodness for the miracle drug, tamiflu, which helped decrease our symptoms and the flu did not last as long as it might have without it. I am also thankful that although Rob had mild symptoms for a few days, he is already back to being well. So while we did not end 2012 very well, the New Year started off great as on January 5th the NDSU Bison won their 2nd straight football championship! Here is how 2012 went for us: JANUARY - Although last winter was pretty mild for us here in North Dakota, January still got pretty cold which kept us indoors a lot. One of Faith's favorite things to do is SKYPE with our friend Kimberly in