December Already~

Hello December! Hello. I cant believe you've wintered upon us already. This Summer and Fall flew up, with a blink, and now We are prepparing for Christmas. The Most sought after Holiday for our 4 year old. She has been claiming toys and making lists, viewing flyers, catalogs and insisting upon A count down. Asking every day "mom how long is it till Christmas".
We've Learned Merry Christmas in Sign lanuage, Santa, and Christmas Tree. Reindeer is the same sign for Deer.
It Really is night and Day on how receptive Sophie is to Language this Winter compared to Last. Shes picking it up so well.
Funny last night, she strolls up to me, doing what I saw as the Sign for Dance, so I start to Dance. As does she. Then stops and does the sign again.......so I was confused, she then Ran to the bathroom door, hit it and signed again. AND AH HA! It was the sign "pee pee" my girl for the first time ever WHILE WEARING A PULL UP THAT IS, told me she wanted to use the bath room in sign. AND SHE ACTUALLY hadnt gone in her pull up and peed on the potty! I WAS AMAZED. We then really danced the happy potty dance afterward, I was proud and thankful for her communicated that to me last night. December just reminds me that my baby girl is closer to her Birthday, which makes mixed emotions. I mean Really shes going to be 3....3...Like didnt I just have her amazing birth yesterday?

December 1st, yesterday we ventured out in the Wilderness of Seattle lol. The drive there wasnt so long, got there at a decent time. The Drive back...well All I can say is thank Goodness for Carpool lanes. Other wise it would had been a 2+ hr drive home.

We sat in a large conference room at Childrens Hospital with a Woman named Amy. A therapy specialist who talks to families prior to possible Implant Surgery. She took notes on our story, asked us our opinion, our thoughts and wanted to grasp not only our knowledge of Deaf Community, our Daughter and sign language up till now, but our knowledge on C.I's and what it means as for Commitment for us.
If Sophie Gets Surgery heres what we have newly learned.
~ Its not speech therapy she gets.
Its Auto listening skills Therapy...theres a word for it, that I forgot.
~ Speech therapy is not something I need to make a separate weekly appt for
Eventually the School will work with her on that.
~ We must fully commit to 1 full year of WEEKLY trips to Childrens in
Seattle for Her Auto Therapy. To which, Im involved in. To Which Ryan
Could be distracting in, therefore Matt needs to be available to watch
Emily and Ryan WEEKLY...but ah remember he is in ARMY!
~ Auto therapy is at least 2 years long, depending on her skill level and
She adapts to sound. The Progress she makes.
~ The Mapping for her Implants right after surgery is 3 consecutive trips
To Seattle. ALL IN A WEEK period. where they will raise the volume of it.
~ SCHOOL, SCHOOL, SCHOOL. Apparently the county in which we reside here on
THis Military post, isnt known for being too friendly with allow Students
TO attend different public schools, should we decide their program isnt
the best envirnmont for Sophie.
~ CLover park School district, here on Post. That has a "hard of Hearing"
(H.H) preschool. Doesnt really provide much more assistance after that.
And has been known with in the small pre-k class to not provide what
the Children really need as far as signing and speech.
~ Also that the Nucleus 5 while awesome, might not be the best.will looking into advanced Bionics to see the difference.
~ We learned that ASL is a language of its own. And not really easy to use
While speaking and therefore we best use Signed exact English or a close
Match to that. So that little words that asl users say "clutter" up the
Signed sentence are used. So that full speech for Sophie can be under-
stood. Which we have been using really, cuz we sign, "the, have, this..."



So next Thursday the counseling group of all Specialists and surgeons at Childrens Hospital for C.I's join together for their bi-weekly report.
Where they will talk about Sophies canididacy for C.I's. If she is approved, they will contact our surgeon here at Madigan Medical on post for the O.K for Dr. Crawford to perform the surgery. But how far out they may be isnt known yet.Its a pretty popular surgery here, and yet NO ONE WANTS TO GET TOGETHER AND START A SUPPORT GROUP with me. So its local and we dont have to run around finding similiar families. But hey! FINE right~

The Auto Therapy, the traveling, the Matt taking off of Work weekly...thats not really all that big! Yes stressful and a huge under taking, that we are more then willing to do! Im not worried about Sophies success with the C.I's. Im worried though about School. Shes 3 years "behind" shes tiny, a ball of energy, and kids now dont always give her a chance to play. Im worried if shes not in the Right School environment, the teacher allowing her to slip through the cracks, or finding her an imposition...as Teachers (especially young, sorry friends) tend to do, or so Ive seen through my 3rd person experience when Friends of mines children, who need that little extra UMPH have done....ESPECIALLY ON A MILITARY BASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a sour puss lol. about young Teachers. No offense to the few young teachers I do know and know would never be that way. I know Teaching is an extremely hard job, Iwont pretend I could do it. Cuz I wouldnt want to. Teachers are under paid and not always given the Chance to work with kids cuz of Size of classes and rules, I get that. Ive just seen More Kids who need that TLC be pushed away, or labeled trouble maker/ Lazy/ annoying/ dont enough time for. And it later makes School Harder on them. And Programs their minds to think...well no one wants to help me better myself, so Why try!

After all the School research Ive done. Washington state is limited on whats available. Or they are Seattle or More North.I love Seattle now! But To travel the i5 traffic for Matt to work everyday...Would be insane. Military wise, ive only found one location that has the SCHOOL that would be in my opinion worth staying in Army for. And thats in Colorado Springs, near Fort Carson. But getting that location...could bea hit or miss with re-enlisting. Meanwhile, Salem OR, has an awesome Deaf culture...As does Counsil Bluffs Iowa. Riverside California, and Mesa Arizona. MESA has the hearing impaired Public School system that is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Deaf principle and on the same campus as a public school for the Hearing Children,making all classes available for the deaf. And same Bus as Siblings. and pre-k thru 12th. Great acedemics and Sports open to ALLLLL children no disability discrimination! If I could score 2 well paying awesome ass jobs in Mesa for Matt and I.........I'd leave Army life to the wind. But The Phoenix/mesa metro area is slim pickings for the unemployed. RIght now! So what we need is to pray, and to link a pray chain. One that Sophie is approved, that $$ allows us our weekly travel and 3 that We figure out our last moving path that matches Sophie's educational needs while providing the same for Emily and RYan. Where we both have jobs to support a now Military life. Its so much! I know, but if anything Prayer is more powerful then WRITING about it! I need my brothers and sisters in Christ to PRAY hard and share the prayer request for us! My Biggest worry is School.



On a positive note!
Our first DATE NIGHT! TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Christmas Shopping and Panera Bread! First one since last November! OMG I couldnt be more excited PEOPLE! but what Am i gonna wear! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH