Faith's Mom's Blog

We are involved in a really good program through the University of Mary called, "Families as Trainers." Through this program, students who are pursuing majors in careers like social work and physical therapy can engage with the types of families they might be working with in their futures. Each semester, we get assigned such students. We have been involved in this program for two semesters and both times I have been impressed with the students we have met. I believe they learn a lot by physically being around a child with special needs as opposed to just learning about these kids in the classroom. This semester, we have had a group of three girls meet our family. Faith loves meeting new people and she especially likes hanging out with "the girls" as she calls them. Faith doing Easter crafts with "the girls!" Faith working closely with one of the nursing students Yesterday we had "the girls" come to our apartment where we did some East

This week Faith had two appointments at Medcenter, one of which consisted of getting her fitted for new orthotics, which by the way are also called AFOs or SMOs. The whole process took over an hour and Faith did great the whole time! She loved seeing her physical therapist again, whom she doesn't see on a regular basis anymore because she gets all of her PT at school. As the therapists worked hard to get the molding on her feet just right, they asked Faith what color of  padding she wanted, what color she wanted for her straps and if she wanted a picture on the back. Faith responded, "You can never have too many accessories!" Jackie and another physical therapist work to get the molding just right for Faith's long, skinny feet. The therapists have to repeatedly fit Faith's foot in the mold, make some adjustments and fit it again. They did this several times before finally getting it perfect. Next, it's time for Tate from MedEquip to come and do his

We recently received Faith's report card of sorts called, "Annual Goals, Short-Term Objectives, and Periodic Review of Services." Which basically lets us know how Faith is doing with her therapies and special education/academics at school. These are the goals that we set up for her at the beginning of the year when we did her Individual Education Plan ( IEP ).   Getting ready for school  I was so happy to see that in each area, she is making " some progress ." In Occupational Therapy, they have been working on self-feeding. This has been a challenge for her as it involves fine motor skills. She does have some high tone in her arms so she has to work through that in order to bring the spoon directly to her mouth. Her therapist in this ares says that Faith does fatigue during this exercise but that she is really motivated to work hard. One of our goals is for Faith to begin to read. I am so proud of her that she knows all of her letter sounds and a

I must say, after the long weekend, I am feeling a bit guilty. We didn't have too much going on so we mainly stayed indoors and I let Faith watch way too many videos. When Sunday finally rolled around, she was bored and a bit cranky. Before having kids, I always told myself I would not be one of those moms who lets the TV babysit their kids. Things sure turn out differently when you actually have kids! When Faith comes home from school, that is all she feels like doing. She is so tired from her long day, which not only includes classroom time but also working hard with her special education teacher, driving her power chair and any other therapies she might have for the day. By the time she gets home, she is spent. I don' feel as guilty letting her watch so many videos after school but over the Thanksgiving long weekend, I am going to try hard to limit her video-watching time and find other things for us to do. Last Friday I took her to the doctor because her nose had been s

It's that time of year again - time to make major decisions regarding Faith's school year. Last year we had to make the huge decision of Faith attending Kindergarten for half days or full days. We decided half days would be enough for her, considering she still had therapy sessions at MedCenter in the afternoons. Looking back, I think we definitely made the right decision. This year, we are looking at Faith attending school full days. With that decision made, it opens the door for many other decisions to be ironed out. Some of those have been very difficult decisions and as we make them, I find myself wondering if we're doing the right thing. For instance, Faith has been seeing her physical therapist at least once a week since she was six months old. I have always dreaded the day that we would not have Faith see her anymore. Well, that day is coming. We decided to for-go physical therapy at MedCenter, until January anyway. We hope that by cutting PT from her schedule at

I honestly don't think people believe me when I tell them, yes Faith does get mad and yes, she does throw tantrums. They look at Faith and see a sweet, well-behaved little girl who can do no wrong. HA! Yesterday, though, Faith herself told everyone in the therapy waiting room that she had to have a timeout. Of course they had to believe her, because Faith is too good of a girl to lie about something. (Or so they think!) It all began when I told Faith we had to get ready to go to therapy. She was really into her DVD she was watching and didn't want to leave. "I'm not going to go, I'm not going to go," she yelled at the top of her lungs. I struggled to get her out of her chair because she needed to be changed before we left. She cried the whole time I was changing her. Then I attempted to get her back into her chair. She recently learned this new little trick that if she kicks her tone in as hard as she can, she becomes stronger than her mom. It is impossible

I don't usually use the old cliche, Thank God Its Friday or TGIF but today I really am thanking the Lord it is Friday. This week has been a bit of a rough one for the whole Bousfield family. Monday - Faith had the day off from school for an unused snow day or something and thank goodness she did because she woke up at 6:30 a.m. throwing up. After getting her changed, me changed and her bed cleaned up, she did a repeat about 30 minutes later. She continued to do so until mid-afternoon until there was absolutely nothing left in her poor little tummy. Later that afternoon, she seemed to be feeling better so a gave her a mixture of pediasure/water and she kept it down. Tuesday - Faith and I woke up to find Rob at home on the couch. Now he was throwing up and had called in sick. I kept Faith home from school to make sure her feedings were going to continue going okay. Although tired, she did make it to occupational and speech therapy in the afternoon but ended up having a diarrhea

I was very proud of Faith yesterday. She was so patient as she was fitted for her new SMO's. SMO stands for Supra-Malleolar Orthosis and are actually a type of AFO (Ankle-Foot Orthosis). These types of orthotics are designed to help the child maintain a vertical heel and support the arches of the foot. They are necessary for her foot because with her hypertonia her feet get pulled at a different angle than what is normal for the foot. It's sort of like trying to re-train the muscles to go in the right direction. It took about an hour and a half for her to get fitted. The hardest part was keeping Faith relaxed so that her physical therapist (PT) could get the best fit for her foot. When Faith gets excited, her legs shoot up and out and her tone is so strong that it's hard to keep everything in place. Which is exactly what happened every time someone came into the room to say hi to her. Her PT started off by finding a plastic piece as close to the shape of Faith's foo

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