Going Into Retirement

It's not just a matter of keeping up with this blog (although I find it very difficult to do so lately), it's the whole process of speech, language, etc. that we engage in on a daily basis that Bud has finally gotten the hang of, that I just simply feel as if there's not that much to post about anymore.  We still have our articulation issues, but he's making sentences and major progress week to week.  This year, he goes to an in-home day care three mornings a week, which has helped him socially and in the language department.  There is a wonderful preschool curriculum there as well.  We have also added another speech preschool the other two mornings a week along with an hour of speech.  After having a bad experience with a speech therapist who only wanted to emphasize sign language soon after moving to Maryland, along with about seven months at another speech facility which wasn't bad, but we weren't getting anywhere, I finally found a wonderful speech therapist who specializes in auditory/verbal therapy.  It really does make a difference.

Bud has made major strides in his language and we couldn't be happier.  He may not perform as well as his hearing peers or even another child of his age with cochlear implants without Mondini's Malformation, but he has come a very long way.  There's still work to be done, but we are on the right path. 

I'm "retiring" this blog because I felt the need to reach out to other parents going through our situation.  I hope that I was able to help and to be a source of information as well as someone who could offer support.  I feel that now, with Facebook groups, and other internet resources and groups, there are other people out there as well as online magazines, that can offer much more assistance than I ever could have.  This blog was also to be a support system of sorts for myself, especially in the beginning when we found out about Bud's diagnosis.  Even though I still have those days where I'm a little dejected over my son's "special ears" and how he is now noticing that his ears are different, or I'm having one of those days where I'm comparing his language to other kids his age, I no longer have that deep anxiety over how my child would cope with hearing loss.  I don't dwell on how he got to be this way, or how I could have done things differently.  I understand now that there are only so many things that are under our control.  I'm primarily focused on the little things that we can control, and being happy.... and most of all, grateful.  Grateful for the little things, and the big things, such as the technology that has made it possible for our son to hear.

Thank you to all who have read the blog and kept in touch.  I hope to still keep in touch with you (probably through Facebook).  And I wish nothing but the best to you if you are going through this same journey.  There is hope.  It doesn't happen when you want it to happen, it happens when you least expect it.