Prayers, please...

Forgive my absence, lately. Have been dealing with some serious personal issues and really struggling. If you all have some time to lift me up in your prayers please do. Having a really hard time, right now.

Happy July 4th...What this "country" means to me...

I know I have said this before but I feel compelled, tonight, to wax poetically about our tiny town we live in. Our town is small...well...small isn't really the word. We don't have a stop light and only a couple of stop signs in the town limits. Let's just say, you could miss it if you blinked, it is also very rural. But our town has a host of "mis" conceptions attached to it. It is not "known" outside of the community as an accepting place but it is really a "mis" conception.

Tonight was our town's Independence Day Celebration. All the churches get out and set up tents and provide games, inflatables, food, drinks, snow cones, face painting...all for free! The street fills up around 5 or 6 with children, pets, families, strollers and everyone brings chairs to watch the fireworks at dark.

This year we took Faith, my sister and her oldest boy. The community is so close knit, everyone knows everyone. Even people I don't know...know me! Now this is the part that brings tears of joy down my face tonight, as I remember this magical evening. We decided to be brave and surprise everyone by bringing Faith's walker and let her walk the street. It was her first coming out party "walking" ever. Most of the people she knows have never seen her walk. She came tramping down the street and in moments we had a host of fans, followers and admirers trailing behind us...photographing, cheering her on, clapping for her!

Perfect strangers came up to talk to her and encourage her. This is a friend of ours who is mostly deaf who adores Faith and was kind enough to decorate Faith's cheek with...
"THE BEST TEAM IN THE COUNTRY'S" logo!
( Gamecocks Rule...that's for you, Carl!)
It is hard to explain to people who aren't from here or people who don't have special needs kids how isolated it can make you feel when you have a sick child. But this community.....
has welcomed her into it's fold.

This little girl is not a girl scout but she does know Faith through girl scouts. Ever since she met Faith she has gone out of her way to reach out to Faith. She is a rec cheerleader and every time I see her she comes running up to me and asks if I have decided to let Faith be a cheerleader this fall. She never misses a chance to ask me! She came running up to us and the first thing out of her mouth...."Can Faith be a cheerleader this fall? Have you decided?"
SO CUTE! She made Faith two bead bracelets and decorated her wheelchair with carefully chosen stickers.

This is my favorite shot of the evening. These girls LOVE her...really LOVE is not the word! When they saw her walking they were yelling and cheering and telling everyone! We saw lots of people we knew who had never seen her walk who were awestruck. We met about 15 new people from surrounding communities who had to come meet Faith and she charmed them all, blowing kisses, calling out to them as they passed by. When she got overheated and we needed a place to let her rest and get cooled down...women from the Methodist church gave up their spots in front of a fan to let her recover.
Her stamina was INCREDIBLE ....the longest she had ever walked. I would say maybe an hour! Up and down the street...up and down...waiving at her fans and marching along watching all the people. When she saw someone she knew she would say..."Awwwww" and point and head straight that way. Men, women, children, dogs all were fair game.
See what I mean...this lady we did not even know brought her puppy for Faith to see and the first thing she did was reach out and hug and kiss the puppy.

She was so happy and I could never begin to describe how my heart was swollen with PRIDE!


She didn't make it to the fireworks, Carl had to take her home but I got a mom's night out and stayed with my sister to watch them. They were beautiful but as I watched the evening grow dark and the lights grow dim...fireworks starting.... I turned to look at all the people lying in the grass, on the street....all gazing at the sky...I was thinking...MAN, forget the fireworks! Look at these amazing people! Look how they have accepted my daughter! What an amazing community we are so lucky to live in! Although it is TINY...it is full of heart and kindness! I have never been one to have attention drawn towards me but I tell you I walked straight down the middle of the street like the Queen of England, proud! It's so hard to explain without being here, being there to witness this tiny girl "OWNING" her community! I just don't have the words to describe it. Tears of happiness to know that she has a HOME in our town, she belongs, she is accepted, she is LOVED, she is encouraged, she is cherished. "
That is the what INDEPENDENCE means to me!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, Y'ALL!

I NEVER thought I would see this day...

Well, OK I lie. I did think that I would see this day but it has been MANY years since I believed it would REALLY happen!

Today, Faith stood up on her own for the first time with ABSOLUTELY NO assistance! It really is a miracle after all these years it's so hard to hope for things that seem so unattainable! Since her first "getting to stand" with just a tiny bit of assistance she has had spurts of attempts again and again but them slacking off and not trying for days ( I think from fear after a few falls). After that day I felt sure it really WAS going to happen. This week she has been trying everyday after finally figuring out that she could hold on to the couch. She can consistently get her right leg into kneel now with very little effort.

Today, she was working for almost an hour, trying so hard over and over again. I was providing a little support on her left (weaker) side when she got up to keep her from losing her balance. I reached out and took my hands away just for a second to grab the camera and before I knew it....

She was UP! She wobbled and pitched and then leaned forward over the edge of the couch to catch her balance and stayed up! I couldn't believe it!
She only did it once but she kept trying....she just kept losing her balance and falling backwards. Once she fell backwards and missed the coffee table by about an inch and after a few tears she was right back up trying again. As of about 2pm today she can now get to kneel about 50% of the time without holding on!
My GIRL, I am so proud of you. Words are not enough to explain how much joy and surprise you bring to my heart! I love you the way you are but I love you more for your determination and persistence!

My new finds....

Took a trip to the Education Shack today, they were open all week with several new shipments.
I know this doesn't do it for everyone, but I was so excited! This place is a wonderland of boxes of all kinds of therapy and educational equipment and materials. Really they don't even know what they have or what it's for. I had two HUGE deals I found today...

We have been using these recorders in therapy with Faith for a while. They are little handheld recordable switches that fit perfectly in a child's hand. Our therapist suggested investing in one or two to use at home. At around $13 a piece, not bad for a primitive AAC device but I hadn't forked over the money for one. So while scrounging around in random boxes, today, I found one lying right in the bottom of the box! I was on cloud nine, so I asked a few employees if they had seen anymore and they said they had seen a few boxes of them but couldn't remember where. So we dug around and came up with 7! SCORE! I asked how much and the cashier says "I'll give them to you for $1 each." SOLD! Faith has been hauling them around all afternoon, I programmed one to say "Hi" and whenever someone would come thru the door at therapy she would press that button! She was so proud of herself.

My other cool find was this adapted walking sheep! We use adapted electronic toys with switches a lot with Faith and over the last few weeks her therapist loaned us a bubble machine with a small switch and a delayed response device. Got this little sheep that was already rigged to be plugged into a switch for $5! I had just brought home two books about sheep so we worked them together this evening while we read.
Found a few other steals...a bunch of Crayola washable markers in different color combinations for a $1 a pack, a 25# box of white sand for her sensory table- $5, a little plain apron to decorate while we work on letter A stuff-$1 and a decorate yourself pencil box-$1. I also saw a platform swing for $40, which I am told is a pretty sweet deal (soooo tempted) and they said they had a bunch of those canopy/bag swings at their other store for practically nothing!

I get a BIG rush finding good deals, so I walked around all day with a big smile on my face. I am so tempted to go back later this week when their new truck comes in. I think Carl would strangle me, though!

Beeeeeeees....

Last Thursday, Faith got to go to the library presentation on bees. A husband and wife who keep bees spoke to the children. There were only about 7 kids, this time, so it was not so distracting for Faith. They started off having the kids pretend to be bees. They sprinkled dried chick peas on the floor and the kids were supposed to pick them up (like pollen) and work the bee hive to make honey. Faith had a lot of fun, I picked them up but let her carry them to the bowl, then she got to stir the bowl. Finally the kids got to taste some of the honey on spoons. Faith had never tasted honey and she really liked it!

The couple showed the various equipment and tools used in bee keeping and had some of the kids model the protective gear. They also brought a small hive to show, Faith was particularly interested in the bees, themselves. She liked the buzzing noise they made and sat very still listening. While we were there we met a little boy who was in self contained class at the local elementary school. He was very shy but eventually warmed up to Faith because she kept trying to get his attention going...."Heh....Heh...Heh!" and waving her hand at him. It was so cute! My little social butterfly!

One really cool new thing she did was when the man asked some questions for the kids to answer...they all raised their hands and after a few times Faith did it too! She was doing just like the kids....leaning forward with her hand outstretched like..."Pick me, Pick me!"

On our way out we checked out some more books...she's now up to 140 books for the month of June! Pretty proud of her....(even if I do all the reading! LOL!) Really I am just kidding...I love reading to her and she is so interested in all books!

Parent perspective....

As a stay at home mom of a EXTRA special little girl, I know that my perspective of things is a lot different than my hubby's. He has a job that he goes to everyday, friends he works with, people he deals with. Much like "normal" people. I, on the other hand, spend 99.9% of my life with a six year old little girl who can barely talk and understands only simple things in life. My concerns are...is she safe, is she happy, am I setting a good example for her, am I leading her on the right path, am I providing her with the right stimulation/learning experiences, did I spend enough time stretching her. Not the things that most people worry about.
My life is consumed...but I am NOT complaining. It's my responsibility! I am OK with it.
But for Carl it's different. He sees himself as other things besides the dad of a special needs child. He still wants to go do things that we used to do before she was born. Hiking, camping, overnights at the beach, swimming at the lake until late at night.
It's hard for him to NOT be able to go do those things. He is a GOOD sport, believe me, but sometimes I can see him wearing down under the monotony of our days.

I do miss those things, but I don't ache to do them like he does. So this weekend, he has gone camping with his best friend from school and his little boy. They are planning to do some fishing, something that Carl really misses.

I am happy that he is getting out and having carefree fun...but I miss him and worry about all kinds of potential problems. I hope this gives him a little boost and gets him refreshed to come back to life.

Not enough hours in the week...

Since we started homeschooling with Faith at the beginning of the month, I have had so little time to sit down and blog. I have been trying to keep up with everyone out in bloggie land but that's about all I can do, lately! I have been going from about 7 am til around 9 or 10 at night. Good news is we have 14 days under our belt, now. My goal is to have at least 40 days by the time public schools go back to school, so I can keep ahead. Faith is having lots of fun with "school" although it's just an amped up version of what we have done for years. We have spent HOURS reading. HOURS, people! Like over an hour almost every day! We have already read 115 books since the first of the month! I think we have logged about 10 hours of reading time since two Fridays ago. I have found out that my evenings are now my only time to get all the housework done. Well, at least most of the housework done! HE HE HE! If anyone has some extra prayer space could you remember me and pray for strength and fortitude?

Things I can't live without...

Here are some of my new favorite gadgets that we can't live without, here in our house. Don't know how we ever lived without them. This was my greatest new find at the Education Shack that I talked about a few weeks ago. An activity table for water, sand, beans and the like. I always wished for something like this for Faith but they are ridiculously expensive! Found this, last Saturday, for.... $20, people! I was soooo stoked! She has been spending hours playing at this thing. It is the perfect height for her to stand on her knees and she will stay there forever. We have been putting little people animals in there and when she picks them up we say what they are. This is her favorite new toy and it's so cute to see her go into her playroom and stand there going "peeeeeeeese" for me to bring it into the kitchen and put water in it. Freakin' darling! I looked it up on the computer and the cheapest place I found it was $80! Score!

Her other new piece of wonderful-ness is her activity chair. Here in SC we have an organization called Family Connections that pairs parents of special needs kids together with other parents of similar kids. They keep a loaner closet (house) that parents can come and borrow/use equipment that people have outgrown/donated. It's a wonderland of old, new, crazy equipment from the last 20 years! I have been on a hunt for a chair with a tray that we could use for h.s.ing but no luck for two months. So I put in a call and went over a week ago, they said they didn't think they had anything that Faith could fit into but we went into the building outside and right there in the front was this perfect activity chair! It fits her perfect and she LOVES it, asking daily to get into it. I love it because it's adjustable, has a tray, an abductor pad and a seat belt. It was exactly what I was wanting. And I get to keep it as long as she needs it! Who could ask for anything better?

This last one is the wonderful gift from our new friends, T and his momma. (Don't ya love our cat, thinkin' she can get a ride?) This is called a Kaye wagon walker and it is the apple of Faith's eye! I know it's as old as the hills but it's in perfect shape. She had been using one of those baby push walkers to get around at home but it was way too small for her. This bad boy is made for bigger kids and adjusts! The family who gave it to us had replaced the front wheels with casters for easier turning and when we got it we moved the hand bar back because she was getting stuck in the middle. I have had my toes run over so many times, I think they are all broken! She loves the basket in the front and gives all her precious belongings...babies, books, hello kitties, bottles even her baby cousin the other night...rides everyday!

Lunch...

Wednesday, we had lunch with our beloved PT, at the bakery/deli that Carl recommended. We both had sandwiches that were good (but crazy ridiculously expensive). After lunch, she invited us over to her house, which turns out, was just half a mile down the road! She is awesome, have I mentioned that before? She took Faith outside and jumped her on the trampoline, let her drag all her kid's toys out of their toy bins, and generally get into trouble all around her house. She followed Faith around on her hands and knees almost the whole time! When it was time to go to therapy she asked if we would like to come back after therapy and play with her kids. So we did! It was lots of fun, the kids were so good to Faith. They shared their toys, read her stories and even diligently wiped her mouth when she drooled! They were just as attentive as their wonderful momma, they come by it honest. And they are such good kids!
I felt a little awkward because I didn't want her to feel like she was doing therapy for Faith when we just came over to spend time with her. I felt like we didn't get to sit down and chat much, but I did have a great time. I asked her about coming up to the house and she said she would love to and didn't mind the long drive. So if I can get my house cleaned up I think we will try to get them up to the house. It was a good time for all of us. I really hope that we can spend some more time with her and her family.

Reptiles....

On Monday, we got to go to the Reptile show in our town. I was excited to take Faith to let her get up close to some unusual animals. I grew up with all kinds of critters like these so NO we aren't scared of snakes, here, in the Hudson house. When we came into the building, the gentleman who was doing the show came right up to Faith and started talking to her. Turns out he retired several years ago from our local residential facility for adults with disabilities, where Faith goes for one of her therapies! He worked there for 27 years! He put us right up in the front row so Faith could see all the animals!

He was so nice and when he started bringing some of his animals around for the kids to touch, every single time he started right with Faith! The first animal he brought her was a huge iguana that he put right in her lap! She was totally excited! Then he brought her a python...

Faith was very interested but she had a hard time sitting still during the times he was talking, she got bored, so I had to do a lot to get her attention.
Then he brought her a HUGE albino python and she tried to grab a big chunk out of the poor snake!
And finally she got to touch an American alligator, which she really liked!

We both had a lot of fun, I could have listened to him speak all day. We got to see about 20 different species of snakes, turtles, alligators and other reptiles. It turns out that this gentleman was retiring from his rescue/business this week, it was one of his last shows. And all these things fell into place that we went to the library at that day at that time and just before the show started, then to meet this man, days before retiring who worked with special needs people for years! It was a perfect day with Faith standing, getting her library card and this wonderful man!

Another childhood milestone...

Yesterday, was a wonderful day in more ways than one. After all the excitement of therapies, we headed to the library to get Faith her first library card!

Our library is tiny, I mean really tiny, like about 5 rows including the side walls! The librarian was so nice she gave us the paperwork to fill out and once it was done I let Faith hand it to her.

And here we are, Faith's first library card! All grown up, she is! She chose four books about horses, a book about guide dogs and three videos about horses and zoo animals.

While we were checking out when the librarian told us that they were having a reptile exhibit show in the community building, next door. So off we went to check it out...
More on that tomorrow.
Faith was so proud of her books in her little book bag, she carried it out to the car (see, Dr. Boucher, we remember what you said about carrying stuff!). Of course, five books doesn't go very far in this house. I started keeping a log of all the books we read and in 5 days there were thirty books! So we read all of them last night, LOL, I guess we will be visiting pretty often!

Some unbelievable news and 200....

OK my lovely friends out there in bloggie land! I am pretty sure I have some lurkers out there and after this post I sure hope that you will take some time to leave me a comment! First off, today is my two hundredth post, and I am exactly one month away from an anniversary of my blog. I know, I know, sooooo exciting!
Here is the big news! Drum rolls, please...

dum, dum, dum, dum, dum...

TODAY, FAITH STOOD UP!
YES, FOLKS, SHE STOOD UP!

She has been able to stand if someone put her into stand in her walker or held her up but she has never been able dissociate her legs, lift a leg into kneel and then stand up!
TODAY SHE DID...
with a little assistance in the form of a chair and a therapist to help her keep her balance. BUT, she did all the work! After six and a half years, I had almost resigned that she would never gain that skill, that we would always have to put her in those positions.
But once again, she proved me wrong!

It all started with her OT, trying to introduce some simple yoga moves and for some weird reason she seemed to pick right up on them, attempting about six moves! So she went with it and pulled out her yoga book. Her OT was performing the moves then saying "Faith do it" and she would try. So eventually, it came to a chair and a kneeling position. So D. did it and when it came to Faith's turn she sat on the chair to keep it upright and low and behold...
SHE DID IT, but she kept going into a stand!
(These pics are the actual first time standing for Faith, some aren't so good but I had to show you all anyway!)

Needless to say, we danced, we screamed, we cried, we acted like a bunch of fools as we celebrated a HUGE milestone that was a LONG time coming!

So, then she decided to get smart with us and attempt it using the tripod leg!
Little Miss Smarty Pants did it, with D. supporting her!

I felt like the Heavens were opening up and a chorus of angels were descending on our little therapy room! She did it, folks!


Today was a wonderful day for many reasons besides this amazing new skill but it would take me all night to write about it! Another post, another day.


Upon arrival at home, after a long day out, she went scooting over to her little wagon walker and I saw her trying to lift her leg up to a kneel position. She got to it a few times but both times she lost her balance and fell over but she wasn't about to stop! So she came walking on her knees over to me and lifted her leg, I slowly put out one finger to offer her some support and she reached out...
took my finger and STOOD UP!
I almost fainted right on the spot! She did it three more times before she got too tired and started whining like she was in some pain. So we stopped. I tell you, friends, there was no momma more happy or proud or amazed or joyous than me, today! Six years, people, we waited for this! SIX YEARS! Oh and one more small miracle, she crawled reciprocally today in therapy too, for the first time! She always has bunny hopped, but today, she was rockin' it and decided to start moving her legs and hands in the proper fashion! She was so proud of herself, re doing it over and over again to practice! Just when I try to accept how things are for her, she always knocks my socks off! What a day for a two hundred post! I will be posting a few more awesome things that happened today, in the next few days. Lots of good stuff!
Off to dance myself to bed and dream sweet dreams of my girl, running through a field of wildflowers!

Six months post-op....

Today, was Faith's six month follow up from her gastrocs surgery at Shriners.

We had an incredibly busy day...8 am Shriners, 1pm double therapy and 2:45pm meeting at supply closet. So we got to Shriners early with a letter in hand from our PT, discussing our current concerns about her orthopedic issues. We have seen a new crouched gait in the last month (where as before her surgery, she was hyper extending her knees) as well as some changes in her pelvis alignment in turn affecting her gait, creating a "windswept" step. Also we had seem quite a bit of muscle atrophy in her lower calf, just where her braces start. You could see and feel a distinct line where they started and the muscles went from normal feeling to very soft. So first off, they got us in with the PT to have a look at her structure and how she was walking and all the good stuff. She told me that Faith's crouching was a result of the new range of motion in her ankles and calves as well as shortening of the muscles around her hips. Although no one wants her to walk crouched, crouched is better than hyper extention. She also said it was a functional gait for her that also provided her with a measure of stability. She was not worried about the tibial rotation that we were concerned about because she said that it was coming from her pelvis also not her leg. She did say that Faith had Patella Alta- where her patella (knee cap) rides too high in her knee area from the muscles pulling. Apparently very common in kids with CP, but yet another issue that I had never heard of or even thought of!
Of course, after all our concerns and worry and all the effort our PT went to to send a letter... Faith did almost none of those things while we were there! Actually, she made a BIG FAT LIAR out of me! When they asked me to put her in her walker, she walked out into the hall and proceeded to walk up and down the hall for over half an hour...until the doctor finally came to see us! She had never walked that far or that long...EVER! I stopped briefly to chat with a nurse we knew and in about 30 seconds, she had made it to the double doors at the end of the hall about 50 feet away! She walked straight without pulling to one side and she did not do her soldier march that she usually does! I know, I know, A LIAR!
All in all, they seems thrilled and very happy with her progress. They gave us the go ahead to take her braces off at night as well as her knee immobilizers and to take them off during therapy! WOOOOPEEEEE! As well as taking them off when she is playing in the floor. They said she needs to stay in them about 80% of the time now...(although, I can't figure out how keeping them off for therapy, play on the floor and sleep equals anything less than 80%) but I guess we will figure it out! We went to therapy afterwards and started right away with working with no braces. They told me today that the next six months need to be muscle building time. And you can tell she needs it when those braces come off. She is soooo weak.

So tonight our girl went "commando" no braces no knee immobilizers...just SOCKS!

FYI: for those of you who gave me all the good advice about inviting our PT over, I made a preliminary move and invited her to lunch, next week. She seemed really excited and asked how early we should meet so we would have time to talk before we went to therapy! LOL! So we are going to a local dessert/sandwich deli that Carl says is really good. Can't wait! She is so wonderful! She got lots of compliments from the folks at Shriners for her dedication and commitment to Faith! WHOOOOOO, E, we sure do love you!

School....

Tomorrow we embark on an exciting journey! Really just an extension of what we already do with some record keeping and lots of research thrown in. Tomorrow it the first day that we can begin home school for the year! I have to say, I am truly excited. I have been researching and reading for about three years now trying to prepare myself as much as possible and now here we are! After all that reading and a lot of good suggestions and some examples given by families here on the web and friends I have met...I think we are leaning into the Delight Driven or Ecletic Style of schooling, at least for the next couple of years. My new friend who home schools her s.n. son showed me a lot of what she did with him the first few years when the major focus was still on life skills, functional abilities and self help. The first years they did lots of field trips to community service places like the post office, police dept, fire dept etc. She also did a different approach to help him learn to read...she began with sight words showing him lots of words by labeling everything (in their home, on pictures, in therapy) she used post its on everything! And you know, her son can read really well! So, I am stealing that one, too, since Faith doesn't even understand ABC's yet, I figured at least she could begin to learn to recognize simple words, eh? She also picked from anything that he was interested in and focused on finding things related and made them into math projects or simple science experiments. So I have been collecting LOTS of horse related items...my favorite find, Monday's trip to the Goodwill, a 360 page illustrated horse encyclopedia, in perfect condition for..... $.49! Near where we live there is a store called the Education Shack that has all kinds of random educational supplies and therapeutic equipment on the SUPER CHEAP! And you all KNOW how I love a good deal! So Saturday, we ventured out, here are some of my great deals...pretty proud of these finds, especially the last one!

One cartridge of my kind of printer ink in magenta...(I just saw this at Staples for $20) my price
$1.00! And it's not expired!~

Record book with attendance and other needed items, I plan to disassemble this and use different pieces of it ( saw a newer version of this at the education store, around $10.00) my price $1.00!

Thought about you, Katy, with this one! A dirt worm cup dessert kit (made with pudding and gummies) my price $3.00! This one is going into my first science set, exploring plants, that goes hand in hand with my next find of the millennium!

Found this science curriculum kit for K-2cd grade, with hands on materials like seeds and cups for growing, teacher resource book, flip chart with diagrams an d charts of plants and animals in pretty simple terms, beans to soak in water, journals, soil and the like. I know Faith isn't ready for a lot of this stuff but she would like to plant some flowers in some dirt! So I spotted this kit in the window and asked about it. It was the only one, no price on it and the box was a little sun worn from sitting in the window. I asked the girl how much and she says..."how much do you want to pay for it?" Hmmmm...I was gonna go for a cheap toss out of $15 but since she asked...."How about $8?" SOLD! Yes folks, I snagged this $75 science kit for eight dollars! I checked it out on Amazon just out of curiosity! I walked out of the store with two walmart bags and this kit for $20! Got tape dispensers, highlighters, huge flip books, ink, planners, paint, misc. office supplies, pudding kit...all for a measly $20!
My home school planner is pretty much all set up and ready to go, and we can officially begin on June 1st. My plan is to try to get a jump by starting early so we can be sure to get our 180 days in. I found out that we can count a lot of Faith's activities toward our days, so I am happy about that. Of course, a lot of our work is going to continue to be on life skills but I want to get her out into her community more. So I plan to start out next week at the library and get her own library card. Big step, huh? I called the library the other day to ask how old a child had to be to get one (stupid question, BTW) and was informed that we could get one for a newborn, that kid's just link back to a parent's card! But another important milestone, none the less!
So here we are on the cusp of a huge new experience for Faith and for me. As of tomorrow, our little girl is in first grade! WOW....
Freaky!
HERE WE GO....

Graduation.....

Sunday, was Faith's Girl Scout graduation. She was bridging from Daisies to Brownies, even though she still should have been a Daisy, so she could stay up with her friends. We had seven girls in our troop, who were bridging, four Daisies and three Brownies.

Faith's little friend was so kind to push her up to the front and help her when she got her certificate and bridge bar.

These are our daisies, aren't they so cute?

This was my favorite pictures. Just love seeing her little face!

Faith gets a flower from her troop leader.


They were supposed to walk over the bridge so her friend just improvised

Then she got her bridge bar and a pin on a little ribbon.


Faith's bridging certificate...

Faith was more fascinated with the ribbon than anything else that she got. She understood that it went over your head, so she decided that she should put in on Daddy's head!



Here is her little uniform and all the patches she earned, this year! Pretty impressive, huh? The patches on the left are going on her Brownie uniform, as they have been working on these just recently. She already has NINE for it!

We were so proud of her! I would never have thought that she would have done all those things and participated in so much stuff! It's pretty amazing but really it's just physical proof of LOTS OF FUN! So our little Daisy is now a Brownie!

Congrats, Faithy, we love you!