Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day! I cherish motherhood. It sounds cliche but it is the hardest job I have every done but also the most rewarding by far. All those things you hear people say before you become a parent take on new meaning when you start experiencing them yourself.

I am settling in to my new place here in Holland. (If you haven't ever read the story "Welcome to Holland" written by the mother of a child with special needs, you should google it. It is another one of those things that take on new meaning when you experience it for yourself.) I am beginning to feel like audi appointments, hearing aid fittings, special educational meetings and other doctors appointments are just a routine part of life. Honestly, it's not so bad. I do know there are many parents facing much scarier, more dibilitating diagnosis with their children. My heart goes out to them. It reminds me of the photograph of my own parents with my older brother just a few weeks before his 3rd birthday. When I was a child, I never understood the strange look of forced smiles on my parents' faces as my brother smiled happily standing between them in short pants and knee sock (which to this day, he blames for ruining his life! So I guess Mom wasn't completely perfect, but he did look cute!). When I became a parent myself and understood the context of the photograph, I was amazed that my parents were able to smile at all; you see, the picture was taken on the eve of my brother's heart surgery. Since I was 6 years younger, I only knew of that time from stories of how my brother gave the nurses a fit in the hospital and his scar running around his chest. My mother never talked about how scared she must have been, but after becoming a mother myself and looking into her eyes in that photograph, the eyes of a young mother about to hand over her tiny only child into the hands of a heart surgeron, she never had to explain.

After doing much research and finding 'professional' after 'professional' recommend things like 'language-rich environments' and programs that stress important sounding ideas such as 'language models' and focus on 'vocabulary enrichment activites', 'narrating daily activities' and more. Then reading the descriptions of intentional activities designed to help HOH kids develop language, I realized, "These are things my mother does with my children naturally. Isn't this how kids are supposed to be raised?" I had told my mom one time, even before we found out about the girls' hearing loss, that if she could bottle and sell her style of child care, she could make a fortune! My brother and I were both early readers; I was a regular Reader's Digest fan before I even started school. So was Foster; at the end of kindergarten he tested as reading on a 5th grade reading level and has always been well advanced in language acquisition, both receptive and expressive. I credit most of that to the way my mother cares for him. I hesitate to say 'teach' because I don't want you to think it is a set aside time of planned activity. She just naturally realtes to her grandchildren so that they learn language in everything they do. And beyond that, she does it in ways that they think are fun! The 'narration of daily activities' is something that was always a part of my life and now my children's lives as well. Her imaginative stories are so good that for years I have been encouraging her to write children's books. I always thought it was my mom and her silly stories and fun chatter; who would have thunk...? Here's a tip though: if you ever pass a cemetary with my mom and there is an elderly man sitting in a lawn chair, make a quick comment about the weather or the pature on the other side of the road, anything really, trust me on this one! But seriously, I believe that the reason Faith is doing so well inspite of her hearing loss is that she has been immersed in a sort of informal verbal therapy since she was born, without us even realizing it! All thanks to my mom!

Mom, I can not begin to thank you enough for the gifts you have given my children - especially the gift of language! You have helped me be a better mom, too! Thank you for all you do!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!