Faith's Mom's Blog

Faith's birthday always causes me to reflect on the events surrounding her "untimely" birth. Medically speaking, Faith was born eleven weeks prematurely. But when thinking about everything that happened eleven years ago, I'm more inclined than ever to say she was born in God's perfect timing. Faith wanted to spend a quiet day with her mom and dad for her birthday I've been working on writing my book, Having Faith. In doing so, I have spent hours pouring over all that took place before and after my daughter was born. Some of the details I had nearly forgotten until I went back to my journals and read my entries. I arrived in Rochester, Minnesota on Saturday, October 4th. After being there for a couple of weeks without going into preterm labor again, the doctors were actually thinking about sending me back home. I lived in Watford City at the time which is about 700 miles from Rochester. I was waiting to meet with my cardiologist and obstetrician one more

We just returned home a couple of days ago from our trip to Canada. In just 12 days, we drove about 3,100 miles traveling to Ontario and back. It was a wonderful trip and we are thankful our van ran great, we didn't get into any fender benders, we didn't hit any wild animals and we got to enjoy traveling during the most beautiful time of the year. We feel especially blessed we saw so many of our friends and family. October 13 not only marked Canada's Thanksgiving, but Rob's parent's 50th Anniversary. As if that was not enough, David baptized his only grandchild during our visit. Instead of describing our trip in words, here are some photos that portray our long but wonderful journey. It wasn't easy to get Faith out of her comfy home to drive 1,500 miles to Toronto but she did it! Our second hotel of the trip in Crandon, Wisconsin Driving along Lake Michigan Faith having fun on her very long field trip going over the Mackinaw Bridge The brid

It has been a truly amazing weekend! I am feeling tired but have so much peace right now. Today we had the honor of meeting Cal and Michelle Pierce, directors of the Healing Rooms Ministries. They were also the speakers at the Love Unleashed conference held by the Healing Rooms of the Northern Plains. Me, Rob and Faith with Cal and Michelle Pierce Yesterday, Rob, Faith and I ventured to the Belle Mehus for a couple of sessions of the conference. We knew it would take some coaxing to get Faith there as she generally isn't too sure about new ventures. It helped she's been to the Belle Mehus before so at least the venue was a little bit familiar to her.  Faith received a very warm welcome when we arrived. She was happy to see so many volunteers from the Healing Rooms all gathered together at the same time! She also seemed to enjoy the worship. That was familiar to her too since the members of the worship team were from our church! We were delighted to hear Michelle P

It seems the only time I've been updating my blog lately is when the seasons change! This time, though besides the season changing from summer to fall, there are some changes happening with us as well. Faith in her new chair - another recent change for us! Many of you know I quit my full time job in the spring. My last day of work as a customer service representative for a health insurance company coincided with Faith's last day of school. I have been focusing on freelance writing full time. It has certainly been a time of depending on God to continue to supply for our every need! As a new school year approached, we decided not to send Faith back to school. After praying about it all summer, we made the decision to home school her instead. As I dropped off our paperwork to inform the school district of our intention, I felt an incredible amount of peace. To me, this is a sure sign that we made the right decision. Faith and friends at a library event Faith with

Once again everyone in North Dakota is lamenting the near-end to another busy summer that is quickly fading away along with the hot summer sun. A couple of days ago we had an unusually cool late August day and I actually had to put a sweatshirt on Faith before going outdoors. I was reminded this would soon be the norm everyday and it wouldn't be long before we are digging around in the closet to find hats and mittens. Where DID summer go? This seems to be the question everyone asks each year as if there might be just one summer that lasts forever. I think most North Dakotans would relish at least one year-round summer considering winter weather lasts over half the year. But alas, it's never going to happen so we can either move to Arizona or grin and bear our near-approaching cold weather. Spending time with family - me, my sisters and dad at Perkins For us, we had a summer of transition as I quit working my full-time job at the health insurance company. Both my husband

We've been reading books to Faith ever since she was a baby.When she was little, she had to wear an eye patch for 30 minutes a day in the hopes it would help strengthen her eye muscles so they would no longer turn inward. Reading a book to her while she was wearing the patch was a great way to keep her distracted from having to wear it. Even after she no longer had to wear the patch, she continued to love being read to. Reading to Faith when she was little As Faith got older, we had hopes she would learn to read on her own. She is ten and that still hasn't happened. We continue to pray and try to find ways to help her be able to read. Her music therapist is trying to do all she can to help us with this endeavor. We know her vision is fine but we think her eye muscles might not be working properly to enable her to focus on seeing a word long enough to read it. Instead of reading, she spends a lot of time memorizing. For this reason, she likes shorter books and even thoug