Hot Hot Hot

It is hot hot hot here in Alabama. Might be 104 or so today and the next few days as well. We need rain rain rain!!

The kids stayed in the pool for like 3 hours yesterday. No kidding, that's the only way they could play outside! They communicate just fine without their devices and quite frankly I think they enjoy the quiet.

We've been at revival all week at our church. They LOVED it. And they behaved so well! Brook went to work with me each day for about three hours during the mornings, then Gage had a dentist appointment on Monday. He has one tooth that is very loose but he agreed to pull it himself. Then he has two more in the back that his mouth just won't let go of, so he's scheduled for the 9th to have them pulled by the dentist....laughing gas here we come...lol

He also had mapping this week. We made it through that appointment and have NOTHING scheduled for next week but good ole family time (and one b'day party)!!

When I Am Deaf

As we get the news that our children are deaf, many of us sit back and try to figure out how in the world they could mistake our child who obviously can hear, as a deaf child. One day, as reality floods in with the tears, the sadness, the heartache, the worry, the guilt, we accept the news and move on...because we have to. We educate our ignorant minds and realize that we are never going to be like other families, other parents, other mothers. Some of us eventually realize that what they were born without, can be the biggest gift of all...

Throughout our early years of parenting, we are forced to place ourselves in our children's shoes. We enter a grocery store and realize that our voices can get lost in the wide open space so we move in close to our children when we speak so they see or hear us. We know that midnight storms will not wake our kids because of the loud howling wind, but we pull their curtains tight so the flashes of lightening won't startle their little eyes and hope the deep booming thunder doesn't shake their cribs. We repeat questions for them when their big blue eyes roll over to our direction without them even asking because we know they didn't understand. Also parents of deaf children, we learn to feel, in more ways than one...

When we started going to our little country church, one of the first things I did, was feel for the service. I knew that if I could feel HIM, without seeing or hearing Him, it would be the right place for my kids. Some of THE BEST church services have been when I am deaf...

There have been times, when I am deaf, that I need to close my eyes completely to simply absorb what's around me. If you keep very still, that preacher's voice can reach right up through the bottom of the pew and grab you by the gut so hard your back arches over to slump as you begin to pray. Sometimes, when I am deaf, I am led to Altar, only to find it so crowded that I stop right beside the piano. On bended knees I'll reach up and with outstretched fingers, I'll feel the music as the pianist pounds ivory keys which seem to strum right into my heart. Sometimes, when I am deaf, He begins to show me things that may not matter to anyone else...but to me, it's Pure, it's Golden, it's Richer than anything I've ever received...yet the only price I paid for it was Believing.

Being deaf sometimes can be a true Blessing, and I am thankful for the times He lets us feel. I don't always listen despite having two functional ears and I don't always see though my vision is clear. But I know how to feel.

Gulf Shores Beach

So we just got back from the beach here in glorious Alabama. Even when it rains 85% of the time, you are still at the beach! We barely had any time to actually get down there in the sand...maybe 5 whole hours the entire trip. However, as long as it wasn't lightening, we let the kids swim in the pool, even during downpours. We sat there under the shelter of the building which had tons of chairs and we just pretended it was perfect weather.

I have waterproof containers (like Otter boxes or waterproof cell phone boxes) that I use to put the kids' implants in while they are swimming, but Gage wore his most of the time down at the ocean. He likes to catch fish in a net and he tapes his "ears" on really well so I don't worry too much about them falling off. As the rain picked up though, he did come to me and turn them in, because they were getting quiet. I always bring a dry n store down there with us so I'd simply put them in the machine for a an hour or so when we got back to the room (and then again all night long at the end of the day) and they were perfectly fine.

this looks sad...all that rain

Cousin Kendall went with us



Cuz Kendall, Brooklyn, Gage

There was one episode where Brook locked herself in the bathroom to take a shower...I needed to get in there to wash her hair (she had an earache) but we are so used to the switch being on the outside of the door rather than inside, there was no way I could alert her. Beating on the wall was out of the question due to being in a condo w/neighbors above and below and all around (they can usually feel a good door pounding, lol). But she finally opened the door and everything worked out...

MAP Day

Whew. That's all I have left to say about the MAPping appointment. Besides, I've already blogged it all HERE.

But Summer Break has started here for the Blakely kids and aside from the little incidences with today appointment, we are enjoying our time away...from almost everything.

At our appointment, we met a cute little dude from The Bell Center who had just graduated but is attending the summer program AND we saw a little girl and her mom who attended one of our PEEPs in the Park events last year. We have been wondering about her all this time. She is a cochlear implant candidate but the family still isn't convinced or ready to make that type of commitment. Loved catching up with her. We had hoped to run into another family that blogs, but we missed them, darn.

Little man is hearing better and should be good til next month while Brook will probably get a quick tune-up before school starts but she only needs a once a year MAPping these days. Fantastic. We discussed going back to the Geneticist office who may or may not be able to determine a cause or link between the two kids' hearing loss now.