Love Speaks

Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

There is an old song by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band we Coloradans like to sing as our anthem this time of year. The chorus goes, "The closest thing the heaven on this planet anywhere is a quiet Christmas morning in the Colorado snow." And that exactly sums up our holiday. It was very calm, quiet and relaxing. Other then spending the first night at the hospital (pneumonia, of course) I can't even remember what we've done this past week, and that my friends, is a very very good thing.

And because life is too short not to watch little tikes waking up on Christmas morning....

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

If you would like to see more pics, click here


Now it's time for me to get all sappy and reflective (I'm due for one of those posts, don't you think?)

I digress...

If I had to pick THE highlight of Faith's year it wouldn't include her walking, or staying out of the hospital long-term. However monumental those accomplishments may be, her biggest victory was finding her voice. No, not audibly of course, she's still as silent as Ariel (The Little Mermaid), but she (or perhaps, once again it was US) has learned that the capacity of communication reaches beyond our expected norms.


This sounds like a give-in, but at this time last year it was something we were very concerned about. From the time we knew Faith would not be able to verbally communicate we began teaching her sign. Week after week we practiced the simplest signs with her. Many therapists shook their heads in frustration when at two years old, Faith was not taking to any signs. Thus began an evaluation at Children's where she was diagnosed with extreme communication delays. They recommended her for augmentative therapy, and ordered a communication device. We began talking her to Children's for the therapy (this was on top of her receiving speech therapy and occupational therapy, each twice a week).

Faith's inability to communicate was very frustrating for her. She was at the age where she wanted to tell us things but did not have any means to do so. The result was a lot of head banging and a lot of tantrums.

It wasn't until the following summer we learned that Faith was talking, we just didn't understand her language.

When Faith was hospitalized last June, we noticed that she was rubbing her face frequently. Did she have a rash? Was her teeth bothering her? We soon realized that when she did it she was happy. Then we discovered a pattern...every time Brian or myself would enter the room, she'd rub her face. Then it occurred to us- she's trying to say mommy and daddy! The actual sign for "mom" is signed at the chin, and dad is at the forehead. While she used the same motion for "dad" and "mom" we were just thrilled that she was talking.

A few weeks later we were reading, "Guess How Much I Love You." I told her how I loved her, and asked her if she could say "I love you." Her response was patting her chin like she does when she signs, "mommy." I took the gesture for what it was, and decided that one day I would hear those precious words, "I love you" from my daughter.

Yes, I was too thick headed to realize that she had been saying them long before I understood them. You see, every time we would tell Faith that we loved her, she would sign "dad" and "mom." Finally we realized that for Faith, the words "I love you" are synonymous with our names. Mommy and daddy are love. I don't think there is a spoken word in the English language that could have meant more to me then knowing what my daughter's interpretation of love was.


I no longer long for the day when I will those three words from Faith lips, because she tells me with her heart and that speaks volumes.



Seven months later Faith knows about twenty signs and uses about five of them on a day to day basis. While they are far from ASL, she has created her own language and uses it as a means to communicate. The use of her communication device has been slow, but that's more on our part than hers. The fact is, she is talking. And even more importantly, we are finally listening.

Jen & CO.

Hope you are all having a very merry Christmas.

Us. :)

Dear Santa, waiting to see if we made the list...

Would you believe me if I told you....

That they did this all on their own? Well, it's true. :)

If you haven't heard from us in a while it's because "all is calm, all is bright."

We've had a very uneventful transition into winter- just the way we like it. Last July Faith was put on a prophylactic antibiotic. This is what's kept her out of the hospital. Just when it looks like she is going to get really sick, she recovers. It's amazing! She even was exposed to the swine flu a few months ago, and other then coughing blood for a few weeks came out unscathed. In addition to the antibiotic, she is on an inhaled steroid which is also boosting her immune system.

As I posted last summer, this winter has huge implications for what this next year holds. If she has a "decent" cold/flu season she will be a candidate for re-constructive airway surgery this summer and if successful would mean decannulation.

Brian and I are looking forward to a two week break from teaching. We love what we do, but it will be nice to just hang out with our girl (btw, Brian's school was on the front page of the Denver Post today, neat little story here).


For those of you who have not done so already, you can sign up to receive e-mail alerts when the blog is updated. I always feel bad when people tell me they check the blog so frequently and I have not updated in a while. I will be sure to update more in the coming weeks...it's a much more manageable task when I am not working.

Hope you are all enjoying the Holidays!

Jen & CO.

I know I am a week late and a dollar short on posting Halloween pictures, but better late then never, eh?

We had a great Halloween night. We actually took Faith Trick-or-Treating! Always the social butterfly she enjoyed herself (and we enjoyed eating all of her candy!) ;P

Unlike the past two years, I had no agenda for what I wanted Faith to be for Halloween. We didn't have to think too hard about what Faith would want to be if she could speak for herself. In fact, sometime we think she things she is already one!



So without further ado may I present to you our third canine companion..

Ok, I know she looks more like Max from Where the Wild Things Are, finding a puppy costume was a little tricky this year (that and she had already outgrew one I purchased for her a month ago...)


Hitting the streets w/Grandma by her side (and yes, all of that snow melted the very next day...something you'd only understand if you lived here).

Hmmm..perhaps this is why our approach to Faith's feeding therapy isn't panning out.
Faith's favorite part of the evening was greeting the trick-or-treaters who came to our door. Every time the doorbell rang she would run to the door (little did I know learning all about Pavlov in college would apply in such a circumstance).

These aren't the best pictures but they do capture her adoration for her "brothers"- I just couldn't resist.
Hope you all let your LIGHT shine this Halloween!

Jen & CO.

A Not-So-Spooky Tale

'Twas the day before Halloween when all through the Reming abode
Not a machine was alarming, not even the heater set on invasive mode.

The g-tube extensions were hung to dry by the sink.

due to our little girl who will still not take a drink.

No one was nestled all snug in their beds,
for life with a toddler brings an early wake up call instead.

When out on the lawn there arose a clatter
As Faith sprang from her chair her tube feed went splatter

Away to the sliding glass door we flew like a bird
We opened the blinds and saw something truly absurd.

When what to our wondering eyes should appear,
but two feet of snow, alas, Faith’s final frontier.

With a little toddler at our feet, so lively and quick
We knew that her first time in the snow would be a kick.
More rapid than doctors running to a code,
We knew that our girl was ready to hit the road.

“On Elway! On Buffalo, let’s go,

it’s only October and I've never seen so much snow!

As we stepped outside we thought she'd want to flee

but to our surprise, her face lit up with glee.
We had not a sleigh in sight, but the laundry basket would do,
We pushed on the boons, and her oxygen tank too.

She spoke not a word, but we knew what her smile meant,
We knew if she said "no", she’d surely relent.
With her fists in the air she signed, “C’mon, let’s Go!”
So her daddy pulled her through the mounds of snow.



Her mommy stood there documenting everything in sight
For Faith’s first experience in the snow was a pure delight.

Oh what a day, oh what heaven!
How far she’s come from room 827
For this is what boots and jackets are for,
Not collecting dust as a child lives on a hospital floor.

While the pumpkins may have gone rotten on the front porch due to ice,

This year's Halloween has turned out really quite nice.

For in life we have learned to take each day with stride,

even if there is snow, hop in and enjoy the ride.

So whether this year brings you ghouls, goblins or a vampire bite....

Happy Halloween to all and to all a good night.

October just wouldn't be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch, nor would our blog be without the traumatic pictures to show for it.

Enjoy.








Still traumatized from last year's "mom-forcing-me-to-sit-on-a-pumpkin" debacle, Faith was not going to make that mistake another year.

Oh thank you for saving me daddy, you are always the voice of reason in this relationship.

The highlight of it all, of course was the petting zoo. Faith lights up whenever she sees a furry friend. She is completely trusting, and laughed when the animals gave her some nibbles.

da-na. da-na, da-na-na-na, da-na-na-na. Faith's proximity to animals should come complete with an alarm playing music from Jaws- a warning that the animal torturer is near.

"Hmmm...you know they make g-tubes so you don't have to deal with that sort of thing Mr. Cow"

I could probably come up with some cheesy "seeing eye-to-eye" pun for this one, but I'll spare you the cheese.

Yes, we let our 2 year old daughter stick her hand in a horse's mouth (no, there was nothing to feed them, just fingers) And they say we have a hard time "letting go."

And yes, as we made plans for the patch that morning I had a fluttering of hope that I could finally get the "perfect" hay bail picture we failed to capture last year.... Yes, perhaps without lugging a ventilator around (I still cannot believe we did that) this would be the year we'd capture our little pumpkin sitting poised perfectly on top a hay bail.....

Turns out, the ventilator had nothin' to do with it.

Sera, sera.

October takes the cake (or should I say, pumpkin pie) for being is busiest month of this year. In the past few weeks we've battled H1N1, job loss (and then job-gain), car woes, and multiple weddings. The latter of course, being the highlight of it all.

This past weekend my brother Josh married his beautiful bride, Noel.
This was Faith's first wedding and will surely be her last (well, OK not for a long time.) Simply put, toddlers and weddings do not mix. With the help of Brian's sister Kristen, and my cousin Margie, who helped out tremendously by corralling Faith (carrying an oxygen tank and chasing a toddler in heels is no easy feat), we had a lot of fun.

Per usual with these type of events I got home realizing I did not take enough pictures (especially of the actual wedding) but here are some snip-its from the evening:

The happy couple.

Dancing queen. All Faith wanted to do was dance- even into the late hours of the evening when her droopy eyelids were giving way, whenever we stopped dancing she'd point to the floor demanding more.





Run Faith, run!

MMm'mmm...who needs wedding cake when you can have frigid glass?

And speaking of weddings, five years ago today, Faith's daddy and I pledged to love each other through "sickness and in health" on a blistery October day. Never in a million years would I have imagined facing such adversity with my husband. Never in a billion years could I have chosen a more perfect partner to walk down this path with. Today I was strolling down memory lane and came across a song we had played at our wedding. At the time, we thought we'd already been through a lot, little did we know how prophetic these words would be.

Luv ya hun!