This year has certainly been a mix of blessings and challenges. Faith kicked off the New Year by getting another UTI. Along with that, she somehow managed to break a bone in her wrist and had increased anxiety due to some staff changes at her day...

Some people start their Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving. Not us! We actually wait until about the second week of December, when we go to the Nutcracker, put on by Northern Plains Dance. (Plus, this year, both of us were still recovering...

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...

This past weekend, Faith and I both got to experience the Medora Musical together - for the first time ever! We went with my dad and sister. The singing and dancing definitely met our expectations. After the National Anthem, some of the first...

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...

Faith and I had the best 4th of July ever! We started the day bright and early to go to the parade in Mandan. We haven\'t been there for many years, so I was surprised that she wanted to go. I think maybe it was because she heard everyone at her...

Faith loves going to plays, musicals, ballet performances, and other events in which her friends perform. When she was younger, I thought attending these things would be too overwhelming for her as she has a strong startle reflex. Usually, it\'s...

It\'s hard to believe that Faith is 19 years old and has never had a major illness or extended hospital stay since she was in the NICU. The only other time she had to stay in the hospital was when she had her g-tube placed when she was two years...

Yes, it\'s true that Faith has been celebrating her birthday ever since last week! I mean, a girl only turns 19 once, right" And this is the last official year of her being a teenager! Last Tuesday when she woke up she said, "I can\'t believe...

Here it is the first day of August and one thing is certain: last month was a busy one! Both Faith and I had some important appointments, plus she had her 6-month evaluation for her day program. It\'s so hard to believe she\'s been there for...

Today I thought it was quite fitting that on my one year anniversary of my new pacemaker, I was wearing a 24-hour Holter monitor! It\'s not because I\'m having any issues with my pacemaker. Instead, I\'m just preparing for my upcoming...

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...

A snowy Century Ave. Last Tuesday at this time, most of North Dakota was getting blasted with a historic blizzard that lasted 3 days. We have experienced blizzards before, but this was probably the worst most people in the state had ever gone...

Just recently I was able to go away for the weekend - for fun! For the first time in 18 years, I was able to travel to another city, stay overnight, and not have any doctors appointments or procedures. And what made it even better was going with my...

Every year in May, Faith and I run into the same problem. It\'s hard to focus on school this time of the year! I know most families are probably in the same boat. What makes it extra hard for us is that Faith\'s homeschooling group, Inspire...

Finally, on November 4th, the day the elevator in our building was fixed, I was able to take Faith downstairs so she could check out her new van! It happened to be a beautiful day, close to 80 degrees, which is rare for North Dakota in November. We...

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...

Faith in her "new" van in 2011It was back in August of 2011 that we got our first accessible van. Before that, we had a purple special needs car seat called the "Special Tomato." Eventually she got too big for her special tomato and we needed to...

As I\'m writing this blog post, it is currently 25 degrees outside. With the windchill, it feels more like 12 degrees. That\'s cold for October. Even in North Dakota! Winter definitely seems like it\'s here. Earlier this month we had a...

Grandma Dorothy holding me at 5 months of ageIn February, 1974 when my mom took me home from the hospital, she thought she had a perfectly healthy baby. But when her mom came for a visit five weeks later to see her granddaughter, she asked why my...

At the beginning of 2018 I had come up with the idea to post an inspirational meme for every day of the year. I called it #365DaysOfInspiration. Part of the reason for doing so was because of all the negativity and bad news that seemed to be...

I know I have said this many times before, but I can\'t reiterate how thankful we are for the Inspire homeschooling group that Faith joined. Not only has she made some wonderful friends, her social skills have improved, she has more confidence,...

In the past when Faith and I have done her annual Thankful List, I would write down the items as she told them to me. This year, I thought it would be fun for Faith to be sitting right next to me so I could show her how to do a blog post.So here we...

Summer. It sure doesn\'t last long in North Dakota. And since Faith started school earlier this week, I figured it was a great day to reminisce about the summer we had. In June we took a trip to Fargo and somehow ended up at Tim Horton\'s in...

This December has definitely been a fun and festive one for our family! Normally we don\'t get too crazy over the holidays, but this year we did a few things that we normally don\'t do. I have probably mentioned that Faith is in a homeschooling...