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...
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Faith the Graduate
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I can't believe I am the mother of a graduate! It seems I have waited a long time for this. At the same time, however, it has come very quickly.
I still very vividly remember the days of walking her to school from our apartment building to Centennial Elementary. She had some wonderful teachers, but when she was in 4th grade, we decided to homeschool her.
There were definitely a lot of positive things about homeschooling. One was that she didn't tire so easily so she could focus more. The other is that she didn't catch everyone's germs, which meant she was sick less often.
Another benefit of homeschooling was that I could give her one-on-one attention. Faith's biggest goal was to learn how to read. It took a long time, and although she can only read simple words and very simple sentences, she exceeded expectations
One major drawback of homeschooling is that she missed being around other kids. It didn't help that she is an only child. When I found out about Inspire Collective, I thought it would be perfect for Faith! Unfortunately, at the time it started Faith had some medical stuff that we needed to resolve. But finally in October 2017, Faith was doing better and we decided to give it a go.
There were two girls, who were sisters, that she automatically clicked with. Those two girls remain her best friends. She made other really good friends as well. Many of these girls have invited Faith to their birthday parties and they have come to hers. I love that her disability was never a barrier to making new friends in this group!
Besides making great friends, she studied history, science, STEM, music, and arts, she has participated in Christmas programs, field trips, and other special courses. We are so thankful to Nicole Elliott, for founding Inspire and also to
Mandi Wilhelm for taking it over. All of the teachers made learning so much fun. Even I learned a lot from them over the
years!
Because Inspire played such a huge role in Faith's homeschooling education, it seemed appropriate to present her diploma there. I must say, that as I gave the presentation, I was overcome with emotion. I felt so grateful that God had provided everything throughout the years to help us in this endeavor.
I was so thankful for my "Inspire family" and their love and support. They truly went out of their way to make the day very special day for Faith. Some of her classmates showered her with cards, special gifts, and even the perfect balloon! I was also thankful my parents could come to the event, even though we all made each other cry! As we rolled out the door when it was all over, she yelled, "Yay!! I did it, I graduated!"
Since Faith is already 18 and has graduated, the next step will be attending a day services program for adults with disabilities. She is excited about this opportunity. However, she is also feeling a bit anxious. She knows I am going to have to leave her there.
Since she was homeschooled, this is going to be new for her. I have never really just dropped her off and left her somewhere. She has had respite care look after her while I'm gone, but that is in here home, where she feels safe and secure. Even when we go to therapy twice a week, I am there with her.
It will definitely be different for both of us. I know, though, that this is the right thing to do and that she will probably end up loving it! I'll most likely be the one having a hard time with it!
I am still going to do a graduation open house for her, but it won't be until spring. Maybe by then, we will be done with the cold, snow, and sickness that seems to be hitting everyone we know. For now, I'm going to process the reality that my daughter is all done with school and that she is taking the next big step in her journey!
Keep scrolling to see pictures each year of school!
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...
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 ...
This past week marked a huge milestone in Faith's life - she has been at her day program for 4 years! I well remember how excited I felt when I found out that in order to qualify for the program, all she needed was to be 18 and have a high school diploma. I know that is not the case in some states. And in many cases, parents choose to have their special needs child in school until they are 21 and then after that they can attend a day program. For Faith though, since I homeschooled her, we were both ready for her to move on to her adult life when she turned 18! Faith at the Science Center with one of her day program staff After a few meetings with her case manager and day program staff, she was ready for her first day. But was I? She was excited when I dropped her off, but as I drove away from the building, I began to cry. Would she really be okay here? Would staff know what to do if she looked uncomfortable or seemed like she was in pain? Faith is verbal, but she canno...
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 ...
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