I am thankful they are deaf

If you had asked me eleven years ago if I was glad my first born lived in silence, I would have said no. The experts told me he would learn to speak though it would be limited and at a much slower pace, and that I needed to narrate everything I do. When I woke in the mornings we put his prosthetic "ears" on knowing he would only hear certain parts of my words but we were to spend our day talking...about everything. If I walked to the kitchen I sang, "walk, walk, walk," with every single step in hopes that one day, he would learn that everything, even motions, had names, sounds, labels. By the end of the day, I rarely even answered the phone and had to force myself to speak to a tired husband when he came home from work, because my words had been given to my child.

There were days I thought would never end and when he finally got his cochlear implant, we had to start over again. Sister came along, and we were blessed to start it once more for her so words became part of our life. I learned to describe feelings and emotions, we stopped at every tree, we smelled every flower, we listened to every bird. Eleven years have passed now and I can honestly say that I'm thankful my children are deaf.

My busy world slowed down for years as they began to grow and learn. Each day, I'd step outside my door and wonder if there was anything else left that I could give my children and something new would appear. Their little face would light up with excitement and tears would run down my cheeks as The Blessings poured in day after day.

I had no idea that The Lord was crafting me all this time. HE was teaching me how to see HIM, how to feel HIM, and how to teach my kids about HIM. HE was teaching me to write with the same words I taught my children only they became more than just words over time. HE taught me to notice everything and then translate what my eyes and heart could see. Today, I am thankful HE lets me feel. If my world had not slowed down a few years ago to absorb HIM, I would not have the relationship with Christ that I do today. He took something very close and special to me, my children, and had them teach me how to hear HIM.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Blakely Updates

I think my child blogs more than I do now. That's what happens when you have two jobs, two kids, a husband and a wonderfully fun place to live! I keep extremely busy these days between all of that and PTO and church so I have my excuses for not blogging.

We finally have Brook's FM working again on both ears. She's back on track. Even though she's only in third grade, I never have to tell her to do homework, she just does it. The other kid is a different story and his grades reflect that! He just got his ears MAPped again so he's hearing better for now and will go back next month as usual. His nose bleeds have picked up once again. We were supposed to get that cauterized before, during another surgery, but we never had it written down for the surgeon to do, just a verbal thing, so with Gman's complications it got overlooked. We may end up having to take him back one of these days for a little procedure to fix that. He hates nose bleeds.

We are excited about Thanksgiving this week, and look forward to family time. I've actually been put in charge of two casseroles for the first time ever so let's hope they are edible. I'll be gone ALL DAY LONG on Friday for my annual shopping trip and we plan to put up our Christmas tree this weekend! I have so much to be thankful for and everyday is kinda like Thanksgiving for me so say your prayers, and let HIM know what you are thankful for this year!

Trunk or Treat

Our first Trunk or Treat at our church and the picture of my trunk decided to do a disappearing act on my phone! It wasn't that special but we had blue and white lights all in the trunk with snakes and candy everywhere. I did capture some other cute trunks though and Brooklyn being a rock star. Gage was too mature to dress up at the church event (lol) and he was too busy running 90 mph with his church buddies so I never got a shot of him.

I will tell you that even at close range, it is still to this day harder for Gage to "hear" in the dark which means he uses lip reading quite a bit. I don't mind I assure you in fact I encourage it with him. He's had way too many surgeries and although there was once a time he didn't rely on it at all, he needs the visual. Brooklyn is actually a better lip reader now than she used to be. She used to not be able to read speech at all, I could say watermelon and she's say shoe??? My mother actually pointed out that she was doing better (I didn't believe her at first) after Brook had spent the night with her, and sure enough...she is. However, during the day with her ears on, she doesn't need it at all.