Jodi Speaks Her Mind

Adjustments and more adjustments 11/10/2005

Hi all,

I’m sorry it has been so long and that I haven’t posted very often. As you may imagine, life with a newly adopted, deaf 4.5 year old doesn’t leave much free time. Not to mention the 3 months of bills and junk mail to go through. Yuck!

Oh, and yes, I said deaf. Adelina was retested here by the audiologists and it was discovered that her hearing loss is in the profound category, quite a bit worse than her Ukrainian audiograms indicated. She actually started to refuse to wear her hearing aid a few days after returning and we now know that it was totally useless to her anyhow.

Her diagnosis was definitely tough news, but we are not giving up hope. She is an amazing child who continues to build her sign vocabulary daily (forcing us to do the same). She is also a candidate for cochlear implants, but we are weighing all the options heavily before making a decision on this lifelong issue.

{Sidenote: Before I say anything else, I want to ask that you please refrain from posting any views about cochlear implants on this blog. If you wish to share your experiences or opinions with me personally feel free to do so, but please only do so if it is based on personal or professional experience and not just heresay. I do want to know your opinions, so you can e-mail your thoughts to me at ivyredgirl at gmail dot com. It’s not that we’re not interested, but there are a lot of strong feelings, bias, and even ignorance about cochlear implants, so I’d rather not have my blog become a source of erroneous or controversial information to others who might just be passing through. ((If anyone disregards this request, your comments will be deleted regardless of how nicely you state your feelings. Simply do it privately. Thanks!!!!))/Sidenote}

Generally speaking, we are doing really well. It hasn’t all been strawberry shortcake and roses, but it has definitely had some special moments. Today Adelina got her first haircut, which was given at her own request. Last night I gave her a trim. I intended only to trim the excess length off the longest pieces, which were becoming quite cumbersome. She looked at the small pile of hair with a look of utter disappointment. She then made it quite clear she didn’t want a trim, she wanted it CUT. I am not qualified to do this, so today we took her to our own hairdresser who was more than thrilled to satisfy Adelina’s request. She now sports an adorable neck-length bob. It is very cute on her, and she seems quite pleased with her new “do”. Mommy is thrilled because it means less hassle! Woohoo!

Other highlights include learning to enjoy simple stories (they have to be really simple for us to be able to sign them), trips in the car to various places - almost anywhere will do, learning to ride her bike, learning to swing (by pumping herself), first visits to the pool, sitting in the cart while shopping and of course getting to put purchases in the basket is quite the thrill, especially if an item is for her. She is developing a sense of ownership and of having an opinion about what to do, buy, or eat. At times, this is great and helpful, and at other times, she becomes quite the demanding one, and I do mean DEMAND.

Well, Adelina is about done with bathtime, which means I have to go. Hopefully in a few days time, I can tell you more and I’ll pester Steve to put up pictures of Adelina with her new hairdo.