Faith's Mom's Blog

When I received my niece, Sydnee's graduation announcement in the mail, I thought it might be the perfect opportunity to visit my brother and his family for the first time at their home in Spearfish. I also thought it would be the perfect opportunity to see Mount Rushmore, which I had never seen before!  My nephew in Nebraska was graduating that same weekend, and my sister Dawn and I tried to put together a plan where we could go to both of their graduation receptions. I knew though, that Faith would feel left out and would want to go, too. I also knew it was going to be difficult to find someone to look after Faith over Memorial Day weekend.  Our finalized plan involved Dawn traveling to South Dakota with me and Faith and then her flying to Nebraska by herself. Faith and I would then drive back to Bismarck by ourselves.  3 adventurous travelers  I must admit, as the trip got closer, I started to get a little anxious about how Faith was going to do with so much drivi...

When one thinks vacation, they probably don't think about Nebraska, especially in November! But when I heard that a friend of mine was going be having surgery in Omaha, I began thinking about how great it would be to go down that way. That, and the fact that my sister, Tesa has lived in Lincoln for 17 years, and I have never had the chance to visit made me seriously consider the possibility.  Lo and behold, my dad had also been talking about heading South to Texas in November to hunt wild pigs. My two respite care workers were available to look after Faith starting on a Friday morning through Tuesday evening. All I had to do was book a flight so I could get back home.  Despite all the details falling into place, I was still anxious about it. I haven't flown since Faith was a baby, so I was especially nervous about that part. I prayed about it and believed that everything would be okay.  On the morning of my departure, Faith woke up just in time and her respite care staff ...

Earlier this year I decided it would be fun to do something extra special for Faith's 21st birthday. Ever since I went to Bon Jovi a couple of years ago with my sisters, Faith has been telling me she wants to attend a concert, too.  When she was younger, I knew she could not have handled all the noise, and that a concert would be way too overstimulating for her. I did, however, take her to a NDSU Bison game a couple of years ago and she handled that like a champ! Because of how well she did with that, I began searching for concerts coming to the area.  The only one that I thought Faith might be remotely interested in was the Zach Williams Revival Nights Tour . The best part was that it was going to be held in Fargo just a few weeks before her birthday! The tour also featured Matt Mahar and CAIN, who both perform songs that we sing in church.  First time ever at Scheels Arena in Fargo!  To make it even more exciting for her, I asked her dad if he could meet us ...

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 ...