Tuesday, October 30, 2007

It's more and more real everyday

Our Early Intervention team came today, and Christian was in his typical happy, flirty, and SILLY mood. It was a really good visit--we talked alot about what he's hearing right now, things that we can do to continue to emphasize his communication skills, and what to expect once the hearing aids come next week.

We also talked about how I, as his Mommy was doing. I cried today trying to explain to the EI folks how I was struggling with Christian's diagnosis. I tried to explain how I want him to be a part of our hearing world, but I also don't want him to not feel a part of the deaf community either. I expressed how we wanted to be sure that Christian was exposed to other children with hearing loss, but how we also had our goal of mainstreaming him to other schools. I also reiterated how important it was to our family that Christian use spoken English as his primary form of communication, but also have ASL as a back-up second language as well. Since Christian will rely on technology for the rest of his life to communicate and hear, he'll need it.

Since we've received Christian's diagnosis, I've gone through the typical stages of grief. I finally feel like I am at the acceptance stage. Today was the first day that I referred to my son as "Deaf". Is it the term I want to be used on him? Not yet.

3 comments:

Mom to Toes said...

This one brought me to tears.

You are an amazing mom. Christian is a lucky little boy!

And a total monkey!

There are still days the reality of this hits me and I find myself momentarily overwhelmed.

But the feelings are more bittersweet these days. Because there isn't a thing I'd change about Toes.

Emilie said...

Ditto...tears is all I can say! Christian is extremely lucky to have the two of you as parents, as you are to have him! He's gorgeous and we love his monkey costume.

We can't wait to see you guys...only 2 more days!

We love you guys,
Em and John

MB said...

We are having the same struggles ourselves right now. It's still over a year until we have to make a decision of which preschool to send our daughter too (oral or total communication) and it's just a lot to think about!