11/21/13 - Thanksgiving

Well, I said I wouldn't post anything for a year unless something dramatic happens. Today Alexandra got removed from Knox County School's Hearing Services because she no longer qualifies. In other words, she is hearing TOO WELL to need help. Now, that is something for which to be Thankful!!!!

Tomorrow we finish up at UT's Hearing Services, as well. We couldn't be happier with her progress this past year. We are truly blessed!!!

On a side note,  she won a Gold Medal today in Special Olympics Basketball by winning all 4 games!!!!!!!  Tonight at Young Life she was famous.....she was asked, "Didn't you play basketball today and win???"

One year ago....

One year ago today Alexandra had her cochlear implant. It has been a year full of blessings and much progress. Because of her age when she had the implant, her speech (though better) is still difficult to understand. However, we knew that going in, and we are blessed with her hearing restoration. This will make her life so much easier forever.

We are still continuing speech therapy at UT until the end of the year, and will also work with her at home as long as we see improvement. The implant really did change her life. She is much happier and although her autism limits interaction to a certain extent, she is more sociable than she has ever been. 

I will only update this blog yearly henceforth unless something major happens. Until then, thank you for sharing our journey.......

In reflection........I posted 52 blogs this past year. It is encouraging to me to read about our journey. God is Faithful and we are so Blessed!! 

You may not know what God has planned for your life at this moment (would we have knowingly chosen to adopt an autistic daughter--probably not), but as it says in Jeremiah:

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

And that is what we try to do..understand that God knows what is best for us and seek him in all our decisions. What he has planned for us is better than we could plan ourselves.....

7/17/13 - Laughter

I was working on various grammar skills with Alexandra today such as is, are, ed, etc. One in particular was adding ing to words. A picture showed a woman taking bread out of the oven. Alexandra's response was, "She is ov-ing." Love it!!

Update - July 4th, 2013

There are four stages of auditory training in post cochlear implantation:

1. Detection (of sounds)
2. Discrimination
3. Identification
4. Comprehension

Three weeks ago I was told by Alexandra's Speech Therapist that Alexandra has reached the final stage of Comprehension. That is such great news. She has worked so hard. Having hearing makes life for her and us so rich. We will probably cut back some with the formal speech therapy, but I will continue to work with her at home and continue to incorporate learning in her everyday life. It's like having a child who is just leaning to talk, but instead of it happening naturally, we have to teach her everything because she has missed so much and she is 17 not 2.

Here is one example of the challenges she faces in learning new vocabulary. To Alexandra scuba diver, screw driver and school bus driver all sound the same. She knows what a school bus driver is, so when I say unknown words, she thinks school bus driver. So, comprehension is based on 1, 2, and 3 above. The brain is so amazing. God is more than amazing.

At the moment she is out on our screen porch watching, but mostly listening to the July 4th fireworks. There are so many things we take for granted that she is enjoying for the first time. She is a Happy, Happy Girl!!!!

Update 6/10/13

I am still amazed at how great Alexandra continues to do. Her reading has improved so much. Her sentence structure has improved, as well. She initiates conversation, which never happened before unless she was hungry. She is so aware of what is happening around her. 

As far as speech therapy goes, we continue to practice daily. I try to come up with different ways of working with her, but it is hard. I don't want her to become bored. We resumed therapy at UT last week after 5 weeks off.  She is wearing her implant and her hearing aid all the time now. Previously, she did not wear her aid during therapy. I like this much better. It seems easier for her. Sometimes she likes to turn everything off, but most of the time she stays turned on until bedtime.

At the store today a baby was crying. She grinned from ear to ear because she heard it. The great thing was, I never saw the baby. It must have been halfway across the store. 

We are almost 8 months from her turn on date. Life is so much easier for Alexandra and us as a family.  We are so thankful!!!

What does Simon Peter and Alexandra have in common? - 5/7/13

Another month and we are still working on growing in knowledge. We have finished up speech therapy at UT until June, but we continue practicing and learning something new almost daily.

Today we had a real interesting evening. Alexandra came home asking about Jesus on the cross. We have talked about it before, but she was more into details of the nails, crown of thorns, and the hurting Jesus suffered.  I  also managed to talk with her about the why. She wanted to get down the Resurrection Eggs and so we did. When we got to the part where Peter cut off the Soldier's ear, she could really relate. After all, her ear was partially cut off during her implant and she has seen the scars. She knows just as Jesus healed the Soldier's ear, she will be made whole in Heaven.  No scar, no implant, no hearing aid. My sweet girl continues to amaze me.

4/5/13 - A Grateful Mom

Today I am feeling so humbled and thankful for all of the people who work with my Alexandra. Not only are there great doctors and dentists in her life who are not intimidated by special needs children, but also many who choose to work with special needs kids as their vocation. Alexandra has had so many wonderful special ed teachers, TA's, audiologists, hearing, speech and language therapists. There are also regular ed teachers who open up their classrooms to her and work with the strengths she has (such as running, art and PE teachers), peer aids who give of their free time, Young Life leaders who include her, and the list goes on and on and on. One particular person, Shari Gentry Cate, has been part of  Alexandra's life almost as long as we her parents. How can we even begin to express what so many of you mean to us and her. Alexandra may never look at the people in her life and show gratitude. It's part of who she is--the autism in her. However, as her Mom, I say Thank You!!!!  To everyone who has given so unselfishly of themselves, I am grateful beyond words. I am reminded of a verse in Hebrews 6:10. "God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the LOVE you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them." May God shower His blessings upon you beyond measure.