Faith's Mom's Blog

 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...

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...

When I had asked Faith a while back what she wanted to do for a graduation party, she told me, "a day at the park."  I knew it was a little risky planning an outdoor event in North Dakota (even in May). It wasn't all that long ago we still had snow on the ground. Also, it had snowed a tiny bit, and the temperatures hovered around freezing just the weekend before.  I planned for the park anyway and prayed for perfect weather. I figured if it was cold or rainy we could move the event indoors somewhere. I am so glad we didn't have to do that, though, because the park was a great place to have Faith's graduation open house. I wasn't anticipating, however, just how perfect it was going to be.  The weather was amazing without any humidity or more importantly, without any wind. Even when it did rain for a brief spell, it came straight down, and we stayed dry underneath the shelter. The cake was the perfect size and was all eaten up (along with the extra dozen cupcake...

Oh. My. Goodness. What a month! It's certainly been challenging, but thankfully there were a few bright spots to help us through. At the very end of September, both Faith and I came down with colds. They would not go away!  Faith was really stuffed up and seemed pretty miserable. I thought she might have a sinus infection, so I took her to the walk-in clinic. Although I didn't think we had COVID, I asked to be tested just to give me a peace of mind.  They only had the nose swab available. I was nervous about it being traumatizing for Faith. As we waited for the nurse to come back in the examination room with the test, I prayed for Faith that she wouldn't have a tough time. I should have remembered to pray for myself!  I told Faith I would go first so she would know what to expect. When they stuck the swab way up my nose, I nearly started crying. It gave me flashbacks to when the breathing tubes got pulled out of my nose following open heart surgery. It was sort of the sam...