Bittner Family Portraits

I am nominating my mom, Kim Bittner, because she is hardworking and puts her family before herself. The last family picture she has is when her youngest (now a junior in high school) was about 3 years old….

She works from 7am to 5pm every day running her own child care business in her home. But her day does not end at 5pm. It is then that she has to switch gears to being a mom and wife. If she isn’t taking her youngest Jenna to the barn to ride her horse or to work, then she’s preparing a healthy dinner for her family. By 8pm she’s exhausted so she goes to bed to get ready for the next day. I know this is what is expected of her as a wife, mother, and employee, but her exhaustion is a daily battle due to her Lyme Disease.In spring 2012, her youngest, Jenna, was diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease. She worked to pay for Jenna’s medical bills – numerous prescriptions, monthly lab tests, and bi-monthly doctor visits. She struggled with explaining to the 14 year old Jenna that she may never ride her horse again, or she may never drive, or just comforting her when the struggle and frustrations got to be too much on her teenager’s body. In spring 2013, she got herself tested for Lyme and not only found out she too has Chronic Lyme Disease, but that she had passed it on to my sister through her pregnancy. Since the time Jenna was diagnosed in 2012, she has spent any free time she has researching, learning, and educating friends and family on Chronic Lyme Disease. It’s her most passionate topic, well that and child development. As tired as she may be some days, if you ask her about Lyme Disease it’s as if there’s a spark of energy and she becomes enthused to share all that she has learned. She is now working long days to pay her own monthly lab tests, bi-monthly doctor visits, and numerous prescriptions. She is still battling her Chronic Lyme and she uses a spoon analogy to explain her days to her family. In short, everyone starts off with 10 spoons in the morning and events throughout the day will use a spoon, ideally you have no spoons remaining when you go to bed at night. She explains that with Chronic Lyme, she often wakes up only 7 or 8 spoons, which means she has to conserve her energy and efforts throughout the day, or sacrifice family time in the evening by going to bed early because her spoons are used up.