A Proud Momma Moment!

A little background: Foster plays for his school's third grade football team. The girls formed cheer squads for each grade's football team, so the third grade girls cheer for the third grade boys. But if you have a male sibling playing football, they will let the girls from other grades cheer for their brother's team (Thank the Lord!) so that means my 5 YO kindergartener is cheering on a team with girls serveral years older and a few in between. There are three high school and middle school cheerleaders that help coach the girls and they are fantastic with the young ones! I love them to pieces but they are teenagers and don't always understand Faith's hearing loss and how it affects her (not their fault at all), but they do make an effort and I appreciate all they do. So that sets up my proud-momma-moment.

Monday Faith had cheer practice. Ella had fallen asleep in her car seat, so rather than wake her up, I let Faith out and parked where I could watch from the car and let Ella keep sleeping. Faith was at the end of the line (where she usually is because she is one of the smallest) and it was becoming obvious from her behavior that she couldn't understanding what was going on. I had a mommy-dilema; I couldn't leave a sleeping baby alone in the car, but Faith was struggling and needed help!

I was feeling bad about not being in a position to intervene when I saw Faith get one of the teen's attention. She talked with Faith for a quick moment, then I see her move Faith the the center of the group right in front of the other coach leading the practice. Faith quickly caught up on the new cheer they were working on and this momma's eye's got teary.

When Faith came bounding to the car after practice finished up, I asked her non-chalantly, "What were you talking to Baily about during practice?"

Faith answered, "I couldn't understand Shannon and so I told Bailey an' I asked if I could move an' then I could hear her better 'cause I was close to her an' then I could do my cheer!"

WOW! Faith spoke up in a group of older girls she doesn't know very well to say she couldn't hear and needed to move closer to the coach! Talk about being a great self-advocate! I was so proud! I was glad I got stuck in the car so Faith had the opportunity to do that for herself without mom stepping in.

It also makes me laugh because self-advocay goals are one thing I personally should be included in just about every child's IEP, of course they would be tailored to fit the child's ability levels and their needs. Whenever I have brought this up to our committee, I am told by some of the 'professionals' that Faith is much too young to be expected to advocate for herself. (I do have to say we have an awesome deaf ed. teacher that recognizes that Faith is capable of self-advocacy and has said as much.) I can't wait to share that little story with some of them! :)

For a person with hearing loss, the skill of being able to speak up and ask for help when you need it is not as easy as hearing people often think, regardless of age. For a five-year-old to be able to speak up is huge! One of my biggest goals is for Faith to feel comfortable and confident as a hard-of-hearing person, and this little act helped reassure me that we have at least planted the seeds.

El shaddai - God is Sufficient

Our God is so good! I am amazed by the care He takes to comfort me in times of despair. Mark was laid off from his job last week and quite frankly, I am scared to death! Then on Sunday, I was driving out to my mother's house and a small miracle happened. The drive itself was unusual in that I was driving the Mustang and didn't have kids with me. Since I was in the Mustang, the radio was on (the on/off button is broken and if I managed to turn it off, Mark would shoot me!). Because of my hearing loss, I very rarely listen to the radio since it is just meaningless noise most of the time. The only songs I can really enjoy are old songs, ones that I learned and remember from before the onset of my hearing loss. The radio station Mark usually listens to is a contemporary Christian station and I honestly wasn't paying any attention to the songs - they were all recent releases I didn't know and couldn't understand. Then a familiar melody began to play. A simple song carrying a very strong message delivered just as I was wrestling with the fear of how my family was going to survive.

You see, God knows me, He knew my fear, and He knew that I could not be comforted through the words of a new song - I wouldn't be able to understand. In order to reach through my pain, He used a song from my memory, something that would bypass my hearing and touch my heart.

El shaddai, el shaddai, El-elyon na adonia,
Age to age you're still the same, By the power of the name.
El shaddai, el shaddai, Erkamka na adonai,
We will praise and lift you high, El shaddai.

Through your love and through the ram, You saved the son of Abraham;
Through the power of your hand, Turned the sea into dry land.
To the outcast on her knees, You were the God who really sees,
And by your might, You set your children free.

El shaddai, el shaddai, El-elyon na adonia,
Age to age you're still the same, By the power of the name.
El shaddai, el shaddai, Erkamka na adonai,
We will praise and lift you high,El shaddai.

Through the years you've made it clear, That the time of Christ was near,
Though the people couldn't see What Messiah ought to be.
Though your word contained the plan, They just could not understand
Your most awesome work was done Through the frailty of your son.

El shaddai, el shaddai, El-elyon na adonai,
Age to age you're still the same, By the power of the name.
El shaddai, el shaddai, Erkamka na adonai,
I will praise you till I die, El shaddai.

El shaddai, el shaddai, El-elyon na adonai,
Age to age you're still the same, By the power of the name.
El shaddai, el shaddai, Erkamka na adonai, I will praise you till I die.
El shaddai.

El Shaddai by Amy Grant

From Hebrews 4 Christians: The All-Sufficient God (click on the link to read more)

and from another source:
El-Shaddai means God Almighty. El points to the power of God Himself. Shaddai seems to be derived from another word meaning breast, which implies that Shaddai signifies one who nourishes, supplies, and satisfies. It is God as El who helps, but it is God as Shaddai who abundantly blesses with all manner of blessings.

He is sufficient! He will provide! He will bless us if we are faithful to trust in Him! What an awesome God we serve! I hope you take a moment to watch the video and be blessed!

A Request to Blog!

I have to say, TulipGirl made my day (maybe even my weeek!) I had a comment this morning that someone actually checks my blog! Whoohoo! LOL!! I am such a bad blogger! I think about it often and then I get busy on something else. I realized that my last post was the beginning of the school year and now here we are winding down. So much has happened this year!

Chelsea did go to private school, had a rough start because of the higher academic expectations, overcame and made some huge strides, got a part in the school play, had some awesome teachers, made some friends, and now she has decided to go back to public school for her senior year. It's not what I would choose for her, but we promised her the choice if she would try private school for a year. I am proud of her for trying it and how far she has come!

Foster has had a great year. He and his best friend, G. have survived the year with friendship intact. They get regular playdates after school and he sees G. on Wednesdays when the homeschoolers come to campus for their programs.

Faith has not let the hearing loss slow her down at all! Neither has Ella! Both girls recently scored above age level on all of their language tests. I am still worried about Faith's pre-reading skills, but all I have to compare her to is Foster (not the norm! His reading scores came back at 9.o recently, yes that's a 9th grade reading level - he's only in second grade). Everyone tells me she is just fine and right on track so I am trying not to worry! Ella is communicating up a storm. Just in the past month of so it seems she made the shift from repeating things that she hear to expressing her own ideas. Now she isn't completely talking in understandable sentences, but she definitely gets her point across! There other day Faith was at Granny's and Ella and I were at our house. Ella comes up to me with the phone. "Bai(t)... Bai(t)...!" (That's Ella's way of saying "Faith", the (t) is very soft.)

Me: Faith is at Granny's, Honey! What are you doing with the phone? Oh, do you want to call Faith?"

Ella nods furiously and hands me the phone. I call explain to my mom that Ella wants to talk to Faith and Faith gets on the phone. I hand the phone to Ella.

Ella: Bai(t)? Bai(t)? Where you?

Faith: I am at Granny's.

Ella: Wha' doin'?

Faith: Playing outside.

Ella: Dogs?

Faith: Yes, I am playing with the dogs.

Ella: Dogs! (I think this meant something like "Pet the dogs for me!" It was a statement where as the previous "dogs" was definitely a question.)

Faith: Okay!

Ella: Bye-bye! Ha' guhh da! (Have a good day! We always say this in the morning when dropping the kids off for school and Ella has picked it up. In her vocabulary, it goes with "bye-bye". LOL!)

Faith: Bye!

So there you have it! A complete telephone conversation from my hard-of-hearing 20 month old! I was so proud and a little amazed! Even all the therapy and testing and assurances from professionals didn't ease my fears as much as that innocent exchange between sisters on the phone. She's doing fine!







Here's a fairly recent photo of Ella. You can see her sparkly ear molds if you look closely.