Faith's Mom's Blog

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

I know I have said this many times before, but I can't reiterate how thankful we are for the Inspire homeschooling group that Faith joined. Not only has she made some wonderful friends, her social skills have improved, she has more confidence, and she has learned a lot in science and history. Besides all of that, she has gotten to take part in their annual Christmas program, which she absolutely loves. Last year, she played the part of an angel and had a few lines to say. This year, she played the one and only bright shining star. Not only did she get a narration part, for which she had to memorize and say an entire paragraph worth of words, but she got to say the best line of the play, "SO MANY STARS!" This year's program, Starry Night, Noisy Night , told the birth of Jesus from the perspective of the animals that were present in the stable that night. There were sheep, chickens, cows, and of course a donkey. There were also shepherds, wise men, and angels. Mary

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 other 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 pa