I was waiting for the boys to come out of school today and a lady came up to me and asked me if I was the mom of the triplets. I said yes and she said "oh, I saw one has the implants". I said yes. She tells me she has a nephew who is nine years old who is deaf and the family just moved to another state so he could be at one of the best schools for the deaf. I asked "does he have an implant?" She says no. His Mom (her sister in law) won't do it. She doesn't think he needs it. She says "did it change his whole personality when you got him implants? That is what my sister in law is afraid of".
At that moment, Cormac comes barreling out of the building yelling "hi, mommy, I missed you today. I had so much fun at school. Guess what we did today? We got to go outside for recess and play with the other class and I saw my friend Kristen" (she is in sixth grade LOL). The look on her face made me so sad. She had obviously never met a child with implants and had no expectations of it actually working because of what she had been told by her sister in law. I asked her if they sign and she said she really doesn't know much and feels like most of the family can't communicate with him and feel very detached. Her sister in law and brother both fully sign at this point.
She explained her sister in law's parents are both deaf but the sister in law is not deaf.
I realized it's a personal choice for everyone. But to see this woman look so sad when I guess she realized her nephew could be hearing her voice broke my heart.
And this makes me happy...I will leave you with the cute quote of the week. This week it comes from Colin. Here is the back story to why he said it.
While the boys were at school I made it my mission to get there room organized. Since we aren't fully moved out of our house yet and not fully moved in the new house it has been very chaotic. Their room was very unorganized and was starting to make me crazy. Keep in mind, the boys have had this room since they were babies but only used it in the summer. I got all the clothes put away. I hung their pirate hooks, I put their rug in. I made the beds with their stuff. When they came home it was all done. They went upstairs to get changed out of their uniforms and Colin says "Hey, Mom, our room looks so good. Thank you for making it so beautiful and now it feels like our home with all our stuff" I love that kid. He is so sensitive and notices everything.
3 comments:
wow, this woman really made everything a doom and gloom without sounds. She need to learn to sign if she want to be involve.
It's the parents decision and as long as the child have a language, he will be ok.
Plus, They have deaf family. She have a deaf parents, her child is deaf, they will always have deaf family members this point on. So nothing wrong with accepting there will always be deaf family member and decide to use ASL to share and pass down for many generations instead of CIs. The mom is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) so I think she is fluent in ASL.
I think she does know CI works but it is not the same as hearing.
Hi! My name is Stephanie. I'm actual majoring in Deaf Education and I love to read blogs from parents who have deaf or hard of hearing children. Your story absolutely amazes me. I'm very excited about Cormac's success with his cochlear, but the nephew that you spoke about reaches out to my heart. I do not mean to undermine your family's choices, I'm simply trying to show another side to this story. I love the fact that those parents have chosen to sign with their son, especially having Deaf grandparents. Because it is much easier for them to learn to sign than it is for the other family to learn to hear and speak, I hope, for everybody's sake, that the rest of the family can learn to sign enough to communicate with that sweet little boy. Hearing loss really affects an entire family, doesn't it? Again, I'm very sorry if I offended you in any way. I am very happy for Cormac and his blooming success with his cochlear!
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