Jodi Speaks Her Mind

8 weeks home 12/24/2005

So sorry for the huge delay in posts. I have heard from many of my readers asking me for an update, so I’m going to try to share some of the highlights. The last month has been busy, tiring, and quite wonderful.

I am pleased to report that Adelina’s temper tantrums have subsided significantly. She still has frequent “arguments” with us, as we call them, but the full blown violent bouts are a true rarity now - thank God! She is really beginning to relax into our family and is happy and engaging a majority of the time. One thing we have learned is that she has a really great sense of humor. She can take every day activities and make them into a cute game and she loves to play with sign language. Her creativity is a great source of joy and surprises for us. She laughs often, and if there isn’t anything funny to laugh at, she will make something up, have a laugh herself, and usually we get to join in as well. (Note: I wrote that paragraph prematurely as Adelina proceeded to have TWO major temper tantrums before I had a chance to post this. Oh well.)

Some more “firsts” for Adelina in the past month include: first jump on a trampoline at a friend’s house; first injury (resulting from too much playing on the same) which was thankfully just a mildly sprained knee; first sickness - just a 24 hour fever; first meeting with a horse and first ride on a horse; meeting Santa; meeting other kids who can sign and understand her sign; first gingerbread house to decorate as a family. Goodness, almost every day holds some kind of “first” for Adelina. She embraces them (well, most of them) with such ease and enthusiasm.

Her concept of family has developed quickly and she is finally calling us Mommy and Daddy (sometimes). It sounds so simple, but this concept and the “names” associated with them is taking her a long time to master. But she now seems to really love having a mommy and daddy and being a part of a family.

Communication continues to be an area that requires a lot of work for the three of us, but it is also a source of pleasure and fun and excitement. There are times when we marvel that we can have complete conversations with Adelina using sign language. Then there are other times when we feel utterly mute and unable to convey something of great importance or understand something she wants or needs. I suspect this is not unusual for other families who have adopted children who speak other languages, but it is especially difficult when we ourselves aren’t fluent in the language we are trying to model for our child. Still, we keep moving forward…

Adelina has been wearing two hearing aids for about 6 weeks now, and we are incredibly pleased with their effectiveness. From what we have read, some children make better use of their residual hearing than others. Adelina is able to both differentiate - and sometimes locate - the source of many environmental sounds. This task alone, which is incredibly simple for those of us who are hearing - is often very difficult for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. This progress is very engouraging and has led us to make a big decision.

We are waiting for insurance approval and the doctor’s final go-ahead, but we have decided to go forward with a cochlear implant in Adelina’s right ear, which is the profoundly deaf one (the other being in the severe range). Between the implant and the effective use of her residual hearing in her left ear, we are hopeful that Adelina will be able to “hear” the full range of speech sounds as well as a whole world of other sounds she is currently unable to hear at present. This was a lengthy and difficult decision for us, but we let Adelina be our guide. She simply loves to hear and loves sound. She tries hard to imitate our speech but can only imitate what she can hear, which is limited right now. While we understand that members of the Deaf community love being part of that community and do not feel the same compulsion towards the implants, we feel this is the best thing we can do for Adelina, and we are excited to see what new world of sound it will open up for her. We intend to continue developing our knowledge and use of sign language, since she will always be deaf when she isn’t wearing her hearing aid and implant processor. We also want her to always have the option of embracing the Deaf community and culture if she so chooses, as her deafness will always be a part of her. This two-track commitment of teaching her hearing and speech along with sign language will be no easy task for any of us, but we feel strongly that it is important.

Oh, we are quite excited about one more development. Adelina will be starting pre-school on January 9. I am confident she will love it once she gets over the trauma of a temporary separation from Mommy each day. She will be in a small class (made up of 7 students including Adelina) that meets every day for 2.5 hours. It is a “Total Communication” class, which means the children express themselves using sign language, gestures, speech, limited speech, or whatever works to communicate. Language development is the primary goal. Her class has 3 children who come from families within the Deaf community and are deaf themselves, so they will be excellent sign language models for Adelina. The children are also taught auditorily, as speech development is another goal. I will be sure to share how things go for Adelina once she starts. Wow, most parents get years with their child before they start school, but not so with us. Lord, help me!!

Well, I guess that’s it for this update. Merry Christmas everyone!! Oh, and more pictures should be uploaded soon, possibly even tomorrow or Monday. Keep checking back!