Words To His Past

The first week with his cochlear implant Ethan walked the runways of New York City, with Vogue Bambini a division of Vogue magazine.

Here is Ethan modeling a little outfit. He also made it into the publication which featured those fashionable kids clothes.

I had a trip to make for business and this happen to be a trip where I would have to be gone for ten days. I was able to pull Elliot and Emily out of school and knew that they could do a lot of helping behind the scenes. It was a terrific trip for Ethan in his very deaf world. He was very much aware of all the new sounds with his new implants. He was still only wearing his implant for a few hours each day.

Here is why I share this. Ethan is one month shy of being three years old in this picture. He is now going to be eight. This was about five years ago. Ethan had no words in these pictures. Lots of screaming, pointing, banging, and outbursts of frustration. So hard on a mommy's heart to not know how to help Ethan. He had no words five years ago. Today he is a motor mouth. He can look at these pictures and say "mommy remember when" and give meaning to what he did take in five years ago. "Mommy remember when I walked to the end and there were all the cameras? Why were there so many cameras? Remember I was not happy to wear that hat and threw it on the floor? He can put words to his past.

I hope I never lose the AWE & AMAZEMENT of what world Ethan lives as a deaf child. Today he told me it would be boring to him if he could not talk to everyone he knows. I explained that he would have had to be in special classes and talk with his hands and every new person who came into our home would have a hard time because they would not know sign. He said his arms would get tired and thanked me for choosing special ears for him.

Ethan continues to do well in second grade. He is right on schedule for academics. I continue to be amazed at his progress and remember saying when Ethan had been hearing for six months with cochlear implants "if this is as good as it were to ever get I would be happy". Now five years later....his good as it gets, gets better each and every day. There is no limit to his progress. Thanks Man who invented this device.