I am so thankful you have a chance to hear from my friend, Lynsey today. Lynsey and I met three and a half years ago when I walked into my first group speech therapy room with Cole. Cole had just received his cochlear implants and begun this crazy, wild, miraculous journey of hearing for the first time in his sweet little 18 month old life. We walked into the room and my heart was racing as my hands shakily held onto my darling bionic boy. All I wanted to do - more than anything else in the world, was to protect him....to simply fulfill every need he had, was my single highest goal. I love that God knew that, saw my heart, and agreed. For, in that moment I meet two women, sitting with their sweet children with hearing loss, who immediately became like family to us as we entered onto their world. It was a world where we were immediately unified through the common need our children shared...the need to hear and be heard. God not only gave me a friend in Lynsey that day, but a sister-in-Christ, who came alongside me, and opened her heart to my family and my boy. I pray you are blessed as you hear from her heart today. It's one that beats passionately for others to see what God sees when He looks at our children with hearing aids and cochlear implants...a boundless world of possibility! And by the way...that's how He sees you too :)
***
Danice asked me if I would be willing to share my story with
other families with children who have
hearing loss. The first thing that popped in my mind is, "Where do I begin
and is there enough space to share it all?" Our journey began the first moment I found out I was
pregnant with my first son, Lucas.
That is the moment when all the dreams of the white picket fence, three
children, and a dog really started to seem like a reality. It didn’t take long for me to
understand that my dreams and plans are not always the dreams and plans that
God has for me. Even though I had
trouble seeing it at first, God had an even better dream and plan than I could
discover!
Lucas my first son, was born a healthy baby boy 8lbs.
14oz. He was perfect in every
way. Lucas soon began suffering
from chronic ear infections.
Unfortunately, it took a long time for him to be referred for tubes and
as a first time mother I completely trusted my pediatrician. My grandmother was the first one to
notice that Lucas didn’t seem to react to noise appropriately at 8 months, but
the doctor said everything was fine. "His ears look good!" At
the age of two years Lucas was unable speak or understand speech. Finally he was referred to Early Intervention and the speech pathologist took 5 minutes to agree with us. Lucas wasn’t
speaking because he couldn’t hear.
After two years, we found ourselves at Carle Hospital (Urbana, Illinois) in April 2007 having Lucas
fitted with his first pair of blue hearing aids. Lucas immediately began speech and language therapy through
Early Intervention services, while we dually worked with Carle Auditory Oral School.
During this time I was also pregnant with our second child. Myles was born on June 4, 2007. He passed his newborn hearing screening, or so we thought, but at two
and a half months of age we noticed him not responding or startling to
noises. We immediately called our
audiologist at Carle to have him tested by ABR (auditory brainstem
response). I remember sitting, holding Myles while he slept and the test ran, looking at the face of our sweet
audiologist. I could tell that the
test wasn’t looking very good because she was trying to not make any type of
facial response. All I remember
asking was, “How bad is it? Just tell me how bad.” She responded, “It isn’t as bad as Lucas, it is about 10dB
better.” In two weeks Myles was in
his first pair of red hearing aids.
It is easy to talk about now because our journey started almost
5 years ago now. I get a lot of
questions about how I felt during this time. At first I felt numb, I didn’t really know what I felt, but
I just knew I had a job to do and I had to do it. I definitely went through a time of denial, just going
through the motions of what had to be done without really grasping the reality
of the whirlwind I was lost in.
Once the reality of the situation set in, I did struggle with questions
such as: why me, why my kids, and the bitterness I felt about it all.
I began driving the boys to Carle three times a week - a one
and half hour drive one way. This
took a huge toll on me and Myles especially with him being a newborn. It took us sometime, but after many
unsuccessful IEP meetings in our district we decided to sell our home and move
to Urbana. Everything we needed
for our boys was in Urbana so nothing was holding us back.
Our move to Urbana transformed not only our lives as parents
but the future for children. The
growth they've experienced in all aspects was and is phenomenal. We were introduced to a beautiful world we didn’t even know
existed. Our boys’ days were
filled with the best speech and language therapists and deaf educators that a
family could ever ask for. In
addition we were introduced to families with similar experiences that offered
unbelievable support. Every day
watching not only our children, but our children’s friends grow and learn was a
miracle! There were times that it
seemed hard to see the growth in my own children because I was with them every
day, but I was able to see other children who started school only able to
repeat one syllable at a time begin talking in clear spontaneous sentences. Watching the growth of my children and
others was the most inspiring thing! To
be able to see older students graduate and mainstream successfully, continued to
inspire me and show me that anything is possible for kids with hearing
impairments.
Each year our school has a graduation and the older students
give a speech that they write, read, and perform! Each year it brings me to tears. Many people will be sure to tell you what your child with
hearing loss can’t do, or the limitations they must have. Of all the lessons that I have
learned through our challenges, is that KIDS WITH HEARING LOSS CAN DO
ANYTHING!!! Our oldest son, Lucas,
has been mainstreamed since kindergarten. He is a straight A student and in enrichment for reading. He participates in sports such as:
baseball, basketball, soccer, swimming, and JFL. Myles will mainstream for kindergarten this fall and he is
so excited to be going to his big brother’s school. Myles also participates in sports such as: swimming (his
favorite), soccer, baseball, and he absolutely loves music and to sing.
This month is a celebration of the success our kids can, do,
and will make every day! Never
allow anyone to define the limits of success for your child!! Take baby steps and before you know it
you will be running! Have a great
month celebrating success!
