Dance, Dance, Dance All Month Long

-
Image
Faith has had a super fun month with many opportunities to dance! At the beginning of April, she began her last session of adaptive dance at Northern Plains Dance. There are 5 sessions throughout the year, and then they take a break over summer and resume in the fall. Faith at an adaptive dance class  The adaptive dance classes take place Friday evenings. I pick her up a little bit early from her day program so that she has a chance to rest a bit before heading off to dance. Then once she gets home, she likes to watch the whole week of Wheel of Fortune, which we record every night.  On the second Sunday of April, Faith participated in the Northern Plains Dance student showcase where all of the students demonstrated the skills they have acquired throughout the year. Faith was excited to be on stage again at the Belle Mehus!  This year, the adaptive dance class performed to the song "Golden." They were able to do the 4:00 show instead of the earlier one, which made it pos...
Post a Comment

Rough Nights for Faith

-
Well, she caught it. It was probably inevitable but still I hoped. Faith caught my cold. Kids get colds every day though, so why am I making such a big deal out of it? When Faith is sick, she doesn't sleep, which means mom doesn't sleep. Another thing about Faith - she doesn't nap either. She has never been a napper. Oh, how I envy my sister with her four-month-old who sleeps through family reunions and Cornhusker football games. (Live football games, that is.)

So last night, there we were. After sleeping for about an hour, Faith woke up crying. Was it her tummy? Her throat? Her ears? No answer, just more wailing and lots of tears. Finally, she calmed down and we slept for another hour before she was up crying again. This time she fell back asleep relatively quickly. 

A couple of hours later though, she was up again. I asked her if I needed to vent her tummy. Sometimes, when she cries a lot or when she's swallowing extra saliva it gets into her tummy. I vented and it helped. Then I heard lots of toots. Hoping we had solved the problem, we fell back asleep, only to be up a few hours later. I took her into the living room and sat with her and she decided it was time to be awake. It was 4:00 a.m.

I put her on the floor and let her watch a video on her portable PlayStation. I laid down next to her and tried to sleep. Around 5:30 we finally went back to bed. I figured we would sleep until about 10, which meant we would miss church. I was surprised when she was ready to get up for the day at 8:00, runny nose and all. And even though she didn't feel well, and we were all exhausted, Faith still wanted to go to church.


Nights like these are really tough on someone who needs at least six hours of good sleep to function. Nights like these are usually agonizing and I find myself begging God for sleep. But last night, there was something different going on inside of me. Instead of the usual agony and frustration, I felt...joy? Yes, I felt joy. It's not that I was happy to be awake instead of sleeping, but the joy I felt was the joy of the Lord. I had heard about people feeling the joy of the Lord through tough circumstances, but I know I've never experienced it myself. Until last night.

This past weekend I went through some classes that taught what the Bible says about healing. Going through the classes helped me have a different perspective for what Faith and I were going through last night. Jesus has already bore our sickness when He died on the cross. He bore ALL of our sickness, including this cold that was causing my daughter to suffer.

When I was praying for her last night, I was able to pray with a thankful heart for what Jesus had done. Focusing on Jesus instead of my lack of sleep allowed me to be filled with hope and that God's grace would be sufficient for us to make it through the next sleep-deprived day and every sleep-deprived day after that. I am learning more and more that the joy of the Lord truly is my strength.

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

A Topsy-Turvy Month of March

-
Image
Topsy-turvy...that's the only word I can think of to describe the month of March. It's been disorderly, chaotic, and a bit out of joint. There have been ups and downs. Highs and lows.  It all started out well enough. My dad celebrated his 75th birthday. This was an especially big deal as he gave us all a scare last month when he came down with a staph infection, which entered his bloodstream. He was very sick and his doctor said if he would have waited 1 more day before going to the ER, the outcome might have been different.  Celebrating my dad's 75th birthday!  On his birthday, we just had a small party as he was not yet feeling 100 percent. A couple of weeks later, when Dawn was here with Faith and I stayed with my parents, I noticed he seemed like he had more energy and was feeling better. I am very thankful for that!  Another person in my family (my sister Tesa) also had a milestone birthday this month. She turned 50! We were all hoping it would work out to have ...
Read more

Dance, Dance, Dance All Month Long

-
Image
Faith has had a super fun month with many opportunities to dance! At the beginning of April, she began her last session of adaptive dance at Northern Plains Dance. There are 5 sessions throughout the year, and then they take a break over summer and resume in the fall. Faith at an adaptive dance class  The adaptive dance classes take place Friday evenings. I pick her up a little bit early from her day program so that she has a chance to rest a bit before heading off to dance. Then once she gets home, she likes to watch the whole week of Wheel of Fortune, which we record every night.  On the second Sunday of April, Faith participated in the Northern Plains Dance student showcase where all of the students demonstrated the skills they have acquired throughout the year. Faith was excited to be on stage again at the Belle Mehus!  This year, the adaptive dance class performed to the song "Golden." They were able to do the 4:00 show instead of the earlier one, which made it pos...
Read more

A Plethora of Appointments

-
Image
Upon reflecting about the month of July, I have come to the conclusion that Faith has never had more appointments in one month than she did last month. She had over a dozen chiropractic appointments, eight ABM lessons, two visits from the Easter Seals coordinator, one occupational therapy consult, one optometrist appointment (and a partridge in a pear tree!). The Easter Seals visits were merely a formality as Faith has a new case worker and we needed to update some paperwork. Her disability case manager came along on one of the visits. Her optometrist appointment was her annual routine eye exam, and we are glad to report that Faith's eyes continue to remain the same and she still isn't needing glasses. We are thrilled about this as Faith had glasses at one time and we also had to do patching on her eyes, but her vision and her eye muscles continue to function normally! (Praise the Lord!) Faith getting a chance to relax! In June, Rob took Faith to see a chiropractor for ...
Read more

Christmas Festivities Galore

-
Image
This season is known as the most wonderful time of the year and probably the busiest time of the year as well. Along with starting Christmas shopping, putting up our tree and thinking about getting our Christmas cards ready, we have taken part in some great Christmas events. Faith checking out some of the ornaments on our Christmas tree! Last Monday we kicked off the week with Faith's program at school called "Old Man Winter's Icicle Follies." Faith's music teacher had given us a CD with all of the music on it so Faith could learn the words better.  I must say, when Rob and I both heard the fast-moving music with all of the tongue-twisting words, we both thought the songs were a little ambitious for third graders. We really impressed when they pulled it off! All of the third graders did great!  The best part was seeing Faith in the front of the gymnasium alongside the kids in her grade looking relaxed and singing right along with the rest of them. Although,...
Read more