My amazing boy

I was thinking today how Ethan is a typical almost six year old boy. (in a week he will be six). I am on a CI loop and few emails have been tossed around the word "normal". Is Ethan a "normal" kid? None of my children are normal or typical for that matter. They are each extraordinary. When I realized Ethan was deaf and the statistics posted below normal standards I knew where my challenge would be. How to grow Ethan in a world of being deaf, but still being able to see all the potential for extraordinary. I knew he was a problem solver, long before I knew he was deaf.



He would figure things out. Some babies get stuck and start to cry or whine for help, but not Ethan, he would wiggle, observe, and figure out how to get out of a bind. As early as eight months when he was an experienced crawler I could see his determination to figure things out on his own. Around ten months I put him at the top of the staircase, to see if he would bull doze over the edge. Nope, not Ethan. He carefully surveyed the land, backed away, and new his limits. He was taught very early to go down the stairs backwards. Okay this may all sound normal, but for our normal in our family this is truly extraordinary.



Ethan has never allowed his handicap, being deaf, to prevent him from figuring out what he wanted to know more of. This has amazed me in his process of learning to speak, read, and ask questions over and over about everything he hears. He wants to be in the know, and he gets when he is not and will push to know.





His cochlear implant has connected him to the same world that I am connected to and he appreciates being part of our world. He knew at three that his world was not the same. He knew, before his implant that he was missing out on things he should not miss out on. Getting his Cochlear Implant has amazed all of us. Ethan is so not normal, but he is amazing in every single way. Just as my other four children are.



Does living in a non-hearing world mean that he would have missed on on much. Absolutely!! Many will argue this to not be the case, how can I know as I am not deaf. But a deaf person's normal is very different from a hearing person's normal. And seeing the difference of who Ethan was being deaf, and who he is in a hearing world is a night and day difference. I am so blessed by his appreciation of his special ears. He knows he is deaf, and he knows he can hear with his devices on. He is just amazing and I know someday God is going to use him in huge ways.