I realized tonight that I have cried more tears of joy over Erin's hearing than I have tears of grief.
How astounding is that?
Today, Erin had her 6 month appointment with the ENT. Everything looks great. Her scars are healing well, the skin over the magnet site shows no irritation.
Toes generally does not respond well to the ENT. He is a nice guy and an amazingly skilled surgeon, but he is a little abrupt and not the type of person kids respond to well.
We really wanted him to see how well Erin is doing, so we asked her to sing her ABCs. She refused at first, so Dad to Toes started on his own. By the time he got to "G", she jumped in. Her head in his chest, she sang the rest of the song with him, the ENT repeating the letters in amazement.
I tried to sing along, but got choked up and had to stop. Then the tears came.
My baby girl was singing her ABCs with Daddy. :)
Later in the evening, Dad to Toes was putting Erin to bed. I heard her singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". I couldn't resist, so I stuck my head in the door, expecting to find her sitting on his lap, post stories.
But she was already in bed. No processors. Singing for Daddy. And she was even sort of on key!
What a gift she is.
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We are still unsettled on the IEP. We have received so much great advice from people in the CI World and we are working to digest it all.
Today the ENT surprised me. I told him about our struggle with the school, hoping he'd jump on it and write a letter to the school. Instead he said "What services are you not getting that you need? It seems to me like she may not need any."
*sigh*
I don't necessarily disagree with him... I just want her to be monitored to make sure she continues to make headway.
Why does this have to be so complicated?
8 comments:
Aww, how sweet! I, too, have cried tears of joy ever since I got my first CI. . .and have made others cry, too. Just this morning I was taking the mail out to the mailbox and heard a woodpecker off in the distance. I stopped and listened but couldn't see him.
Sorry to hear about your struggles with Erin's needs. The only "service" I got was speech therapy. A transcriber, FM system, or note taker would have been a great help in case I missed something in class. Hang in there!
I knew I shouldn't have read something called "tears" at work.. but alas I did, and I am now crying :O)
What a gift indeed - Toes is a special little lady, isn't she
Oh my gosh, now I am crying....she IS a gift.
Keep fighting for services!!!
How beautiful. I love it that she sings even without the processors on.
Oh, that sounds just amazing! What beautiful moments...
(Good to hear all is now well with the IEP, too: and at that point you, too, will have a more concrete sense of what she needs there.)
Thank you for the tears of joy! I've been struggling with tears of grief lately and I know when I look back on all this, there will be so many more tears of joy! It helps so much reading about other successes, so THANK YOU for sharing your precious little girl's story with us! She is amazing and provides so much hope & faith to us new moms of deaf/hoh children out here!
Oh this was such a joy to read first thing in the morning!!!
Iike the way you said that ... "Shedding more tears of joy than grief."
That's Absolutely right. It's not because we have our expectations low, but because we see the joy in their lives, and with that a confirmation that we made the right choice.
Funny - isn't it - we knew we made the right choice from the start but actually witnessing it is very emotional.
Me signing off to wipe some tears ;-)
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