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!

I was gently reminded by a friend that it is now officially fall and it is not prudent to have a picture of your child in a swimming pool under such circumstances. (what if we lived in Florida?)

I took that as a hint that it is time to update the blog. Fall has brought a time of transition for us. Both Brian and I are teaching at new schools which has been an adjustment in of itself.


Faith is doing tremendously well. However cliche it may be, she has exceeded all of our expectations. The girl who showed no understanding or connections to words six months ago is now continually adding to her repertoire of about 15 signs. She now knows words carry meaning and can follow simple directions such as, "Go give Elway a hug" (which is her favorite).

The girl who would make eye contact or acknowledge people in a room is now a social butterfly who demands the attention of anyone who steps inside our home.

The girl who we took home from the hospital who clinched her fists and whose high toned body became rigid at any source of external stimuli, recently put her hands in a tub of butter while we were cooking and rubbed it all over her body.

The girl who was not crawling at this time last year is now walking up a storm, falling down stairs, and forcing her parents to put up all of the unused baby gates (remind me every time we put one up and it chips the paint on the walls that the need for such a barrier is worth far more than the drywall.)

And the girl who did not breathe on her own for her first two years of life has not been hooked to a ventilator since June.

I have stopped diagnosing her. I've stopped marking time in terms of milestones unmet and I am simply enjoying my daughter. Perhaps it was not Faith who needed to make gains, but me. Once I finally accepted who for who she is and all that she is going to be, she proved me wrong on both accords.


Thanks for keeping up with us.

Hope your fall is as warm and cozy as ours.

Jen & CO.

"Hey Mom! Summer ain't over 'til the trached lady swims!"

Playing Catch Up....

Something happened. I don't know how, but it did. I might have involved a burger or two or maybe even a few watermelons thrown in, but somewhere somehow summer came and went.

Maybe it's because I worked while Brian worked on the house, or maybe it's because Faith was just as sick as she was during respiratory season but summer seemed to have flown by. Now that school is back in full swing it's time to put away the swimming pool (wait? did we even get it out? Oh no, I think the bathing suit we bought Faith last Spring hangs in the closet, tags still attached
-bad mom moment inserted her-) and get back to the grindstone.


Dramatics aside, it hasn't been all work and sickness and we have the pictures to prove it.

I know you were just inundated with pictures and videos, but I can't help but show you these "keepers." Please excuse the randomness of them all- just consider it a "catch" up from where we left off.

Four generations: This is a "once in a lifetime" (or perhaps in anyone's lifetime) photograph. Brian's mother and his grandmother came out for a visit a few weeks ago. Faith loved meeting her great-grandma from Buffalo (and playing with her other grandma!)

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Some of you have may noticed that Faith's hair has some...er..."special needs." Each quadrant seems to have it's own personality. Coupled with her ongoing thyroid issues and 2 year old hair pulling, she is bald in some spots and Alfalfa in the other. Because her hair has taken so long to grow we've been hesitant to cut it. Over the past few weeks multiple people have commented on how getting one's hair cut actually spurs growth (OK we got the hint). So last Friday we knew it was time. So we headed out to an over-priced, kid friendly hair cutting place to do the deed in hopes that we could channel Faith's inner Shirley Temple.

"I don't think I like the looks of those shiny things..."






"No...no definitely don't like them!"


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I am privileged to be a part of group of local families who have kid's with trachs. We get together every month or so to complain er...talk about what it's like to raise a neck breather. But we also just get together and have fun. This weekend we traveled to Colorado Springs (which is about an hour and a half from us- the longest Faith's ever traveled)to visit the Zoo. We've taken Faith to the Denver zoo before which was pretty useless- she couldn't really see the animals anyway, and seemed more interested in the people who were gaping at her like she was an attraction.

Needless to say our expectations were pretty low when we set out for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo- to our delight it turned out to be a wonderful experience. Faith really got to get up close and personal with the animals, which was such a hoot!





Faith showed no fear while she fed the giraffes. This was right up her alley as feeding the dogs at home is one of her favorite pastimes. She thought the whole thing was hysterical.

The giraffe's weren't the only zoo inhabitants to enjoy a snack...


"Hey, did you get to do Kangaroo care too?"

"Hey Milo-I can't put my finger on it, but there's something different about you..did you get a new hair cut too?" Many of you already know of Faith's buddy Milo- who was her neighbor across the hall at Children's. Milo spent over a year in the hospital, and went home just weeks before Faith. We were first introduced to him as a nurse from the PICU pointed to him and said, "he's a ticking time bomb, it's only a matter of time before he dies." Two years later Milo is a vivacious toddler who has beaten incredible odds (and just had his trach taken out a few weeks ago!) If you were to tell us two years ago that one day we'd be taking our kids to the zoo together, I'd think you were nuts!

And here we are- the Mile High Tracheosto-mommies (and a few daddies too). Less then half our group could make it this one, and I am so glad we did because it was a blast. L-R: Marissa and her family, Milo and and his mommy, and us. :)

And last but not least, all of this was made possible by the men and women who saved our daughter's life two and half years ago....

"Ok Mom- get over it already! It was like soooo two years ago!"

Sorry Faith, but we will never get over the gratefulness we have to the nurses, RT's and doctors from the place you spent your first six months of life- St. Joesph's hospital. We got to share our gratitude at this year's NICU reunion. (And boy was it neat to see Faith walking those halls!)

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I want to thank everyone for sharing the joy of Faith's first steps with us. I have no doubt in my mind that Faith is where she is today because of the multitudes of people who have prayed for her and supported us on this journey. We often talk about how Faith's is full of love- so full it could only come from the number of people who have poured their hearts into her.


Well, it's time to go salvage any part of summer we can. Thanks for checking in, even amidst our long periods of negligence.

Jen & CO.