If I were to ask people who know Faith what one of her favorite activities is, I am pretty sure they would all say the same thing: socializing. Faith absolutely loves people. She has been a social butterfly ever since she was little. She has always enjoyed going to therapy because she loves meeting new people, even those in the waiting room. Doctor appointments are also great because she gets to meet new nurses. She pretty much makes friends wherever she goes! Faith and friends blowing out birthday candles when she turned 7 During her first years in school, she easily made friends with her classmates. Sadly, though, as the kids got older and since she was limited in her mobility, these friendships faded. When we pulled her out of school altogether in order to homeschool her, the hardest part was not having any friends. Thankfully, we lived in a building that had a community room. Faith and I would often hang out there for a change of scenery. She would sit and wa...
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Faith's Epic 22nd Birthday Weekend
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A while back I had asked Faith what she wanted to do for her birthday. A concert? NDSU Bison game? A mini trip somewhere? Nope, nope, and nope. All she wanted for her birthday was to have a party at the church. She then started naming names of people she wanted to invite. And then she just kept inviting people. (And even recruiting people to help decorate). It was going to be a big party!
Birthday cookies!
Her birthday celebration actually began on Friday. Instead of sharing cupcakes this year with her day program peers and staff, she wanted her Auntie Dawn to make monster cookies for everyone. Faith was so excited to stop by Dawn's office on Friday morning to pick up the cookies.
That evening, I took her to adaptive dance at Northern Plains Dance and was surprised to learn she had a different helper for the evening - her good friend, Maddie! They had fun, but I think Faith just wanted to visit with her instead of dance! After getting home, Faith relaxed to watch Wheel of Fortune.
The next morning, she woke up so excited for her birthday party. Dawn came over to look after her while I went to the church to help decorate and set up. Our friend Jody had made the cake, cupcakes, and had all the decorations. Her daughter and another friend from church were also there and we had fun visiting, laughing, and decorating. When we realized it was 1:30, we made a mad dash to get the food all ready.
Everything's ready just in time!
Faith checking out her cake and cupcakes
Faith got there just in time and when Dawn rolled her in, we yelled, "Surprise!" (She had wanted a surprise party, even though she already knew about it!) Also, Faith requested Mr. Roger's Neighborhood for the theme, so I had asked that people wear their favorite sweater or the color red.
There was even a Mr. Rogers trivia game I had come up with. (The winner was our friend and respite care provider, Chris, who got 11 out of 16 questions right!)
The cupcakes had sayings by Mr. Rogers!
Faith with her beautiful cake!
Faith had so much fun conversing with all of the guests and getting lots of hugs. We tried to get pictures of Faith with each guest, but we didn't end up getting them all. It was really nice to see some people we haven't seen in a long time, which included friends from her homeschooling group and a friend of mine from college.
She also opened gifts and had not one but two rounds of birthday cake candle lightings and the "Happy Birthday" song. (During the 2nd round, Faith blew out her own candles, which is a skill she learned in occupational therapy!)
Faith's cake lighting (first round)
Faith and Rachel
She also opened gifts and was so happy to have her good friend Rachel helping her. (I was also happy that she had a helper, which meant I could just watch and visit!) The open house party lasted 3 hours and by the end of it, Faith was pretty tired and ready to go home and get out of her chair.
In retrospect, I should have only had the party for 2 hours instead of 3 as she got pretty tired. Plus, she had been so excited before the party, that she had already burned up a lot of her energy by the time she got there. Still, it was a very fun afternoon. Faith received so many nice cards, gifts, and some cash.
Family
Grandpa making friends with our neighbors
Some of our church family
Faith and her great aunt, Lisa
Faith with Nate and Shanna
Faith and her friend Maddie
So fun to see my friend Kristi!
Me and Jody with Faith
Faith with Pastor Jon
Opening more gifts!
Even though Faith was exhausted, she unfortunately did not sleep well that night. This kind of goes along with the territory of being out of her usual routine. I think part of it was that there was so much to process, and also in her excitement, her tone was pretty high, which meant it was harder for her to relax. We still made it to church the next day, where she continued to get a lot of birthday greetings.
At home, she also had a few fun video chats with her dad, and her auntie and grandparents in Canada. She wanted to show them all some of her gifts and we even opened a few gifts and cards that I had left at home. While on video, she opened the fun gift she got from Auntie Joh.
Thankfully, Faith slept a bit better last night, but she was still pretty tired today from her birthday weekend. That, along with the fact it was cold and raining outside, I just let her stay home to rest. Hopefully tomorrow, she will get back to her normal routine.
It was a pretty epic birthday weekend for my 22-year-old, and I am already thinking I might have to talk her into a smaller party next year. This one was fun but took a lot of time and energy. I am not much of a party planner, so I was very thankful for everyone who used their gifts to help Faith have a great party! It truly was "a beautiful day in the neighborhood!"
"I hope you're proud of yourself for the times you've said 'yes,' when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to someone else." Mr. Rogers
Last Wednesday I had my yearly doctor exam and when she said I should get my tetanus shot updated, I didn't think twice about it. The nurse said my arm would be sore for a couple of days, gave me a handout and stuck the needle in my arm. The next day my arm was sore and although I found it a little harder to pick up and carry Faith, I was glad the pain wasn't going to last long. Boy was I wrong! But not only was my arm sore, my whole body was. I felt achy and extremely tired. According to a medical site on the Internet, these were mild side effects of the Tetanus shot. If these were only mild side effects, I would really hate to have them at a moderate or severe level. My arm is still red and sore on day 2 after my tetanus shot. On Friday, two days after getting the shot I felt so tired that I took a four-hour nap after getting Faith off to school. Then on Saturday I took a three-hour nap up until 7 o'clock, but still felt tired and was able to go back to sleep around 10. ...
It was a little cool this morning, with the temp barely above the 50 degree mark and the sky was threatening rain, but that did not deter these Centennial first-graders from having fun at the Pumpkin Patch! Mrs. Reim's first grade class Sittin' on some big square bales The horses were so beautiful and gentle Who is that peekin' through the window? Going on a bear hunt... Hay Girls!
If I were to ask people who know Faith what one of her favorite activities is, I am pretty sure they would all say the same thing: socializing. Faith absolutely loves people. She has been a social butterfly ever since she was little. She has always enjoyed going to therapy because she loves meeting new people, even those in the waiting room. Doctor appointments are also great because she gets to meet new nurses. She pretty much makes friends wherever she goes! Faith and friends blowing out birthday candles when she turned 7 During her first years in school, she easily made friends with her classmates. Sadly, though, as the kids got older and since she was limited in her mobility, these friendships faded. When we pulled her out of school altogether in order to homeschool her, the hardest part was not having any friends. Thankfully, we lived in a building that had a community room. Faith and I would often hang out there for a change of scenery. She would sit and wa...
I've been wanting to get this post up since Friday night when Faith reached an exciting milestone. Unfortunately, however, Faith ended up getting sick. Besides being busy taking care of her, I have also been sleep-deprived as neither of us has slept well all weekend. This morning, I kept Faith home from school, and we are both exhausted. I decided to try and post this anyway. So, if it doesn't make sense, you'll know why! Friday was a busy day for us. I went with Faith to school so that we could meet her new instructional aide who will be working with her during summer school. We showed her Faith's feeding pump and how she would be connecting and disconnecting Faith's feeding tube to her Mic-Key button. We also showed her how to lift Faith and get her in and out of her chair properly. After being at the school for a couple of hours, I went home for lunch then went back to get her so that she could go bowling with all of the other kindergartners. Faith's team...
Beautiful and lovely pictures that tell a real story.
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