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Showing posts from October, 2023

August Was Moving Month

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It's been a while since I have put up a blog post. I also haven't been very active on Faith's Mom's Facebook page. That's because the month of August was dedicated to moving!  About 4 years ago, Faith and I moved from the apartment she grew up in, to a different one in northeast Bismarck. The primary reason for the move was to have underground parking so that getting her loaded into the van by myself during our cold, snowy winters would be less of a challenge. We also needed to find a place in which the elevator didn't break down on a regular basis!  One of our last sunsets at our old apartment  That place served us well, but the drive to her day program, which is located across the river in Mandan was time consuming, not to mention, expensive. I drove about 45 miles a day and used up a tank of gas a week!  Searching for a New Place  Before our lease ended, I began praying about finding somewhere else to live. A condo would have been nice, but surprisingly not a...

Faith Is No Longer a Teenager

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Last week on the 25th, Faith celebrated her 20th birthday, which means she is no longer a teenager! That morning as we drove to her day program, she asked, "Mom how did I get to be 20 so fast?" In some ways, the time has crawled by, but in other ways, it has gone so incredibly fast.  Faith turns 20!  When it came to planning something for her birthday, she told me she didn't want a party. I knew though, that as soon as I didn't plan one, she would change her mind. And that's exactly what happened! A few days before her birthday she was asking me who is coming to her party. I was like, "What party?"  I had decided to just have a small gathering at our apartment. I'm glad I didn't opt for a bigger one at a larger venue, mainly because of the weather. Up until last Wednesday, we had been having the most beautiful fall ever. The colorful leaves were still on the trees and the grass was still green. We had gone to the pumpkin patch on October 19th and...

Quick Trip with the Parents to Pembina Gorge

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When my dad told me he'd like to see Pembina Gorge sometime, I told him I had never heard of it. (I don't feel bad as I know many other North Dakotans who hadn't heard of it either!) In order to help make his dream a reality, I tried to schedule a weekend that my caregivers could come here to look after Faith.  We settled on the first weekend in October. My mom decided to come as well. She said it would be the only nonmedical trip the three of us had taken together! We all hoped the fall foliage would be out in full force that weekend!  In preparing to go, I had typed up 3 pages of instructions for Faith's caregivers, one of whom was a loyal respite care provider who has been with us for over 3 years and also my sister.  Both of them are very experienced and resourceful, but I printed out the instructions, nonetheless. Faith has been trying a new kind of food so that was a bit of an adjustment for them.  After dropping Faith off at her day program in the middle of a ...