Back to the beginning with Joshua.

I need to get back to our "story". I think I left off with us in having moved to the Town Home. Matt was doing well at his schools, and then Josh was born. He was tested at birth for hearing loss, something we didn't have for Matt. We actually had a feeling he was deaf, so were expecting him to fail is hearing test. I requested to observe the testing, but the nurse who did the testing didn't get the word. The next morning she came in to give me the results and before she said anything I could read it on her face. He failed the test. For some reason she was immediately apologetic, told me of course he'd be retested, could probably hear. Maybe there was fluid in his ears, who knew? I tried to reassure HER that this was okay, we fully expected he was deaf, one of our other sons was already deaf with an implant. I thought it was so strange she was more shaken than I was at the moment. There were a ton deaf folks in the area, surely they had more babies fail the test? She said maybe one a month at their facility.

When she walked out I finally broke down and cried. Bawled. I was wiped out from the delivery, and finally heard what I was expecting to hear. My husband just sat there not knowing what to do, what to say. My best friend there walked in literally seconds later. Her son was in Matt's class, a HA user. I couldn't talk for a few minutes, just sat there and cried. When I could finally talk, I told my husband and friend that I wasn't crying so much for my son and his deafness, as I was crying for myself. Matt was doing so well with his deafness and implant, and here we were all over again. We had to start from square one with Josh. All of the doctor visits, all of the tests, all of the therapies. Sure those were selfish thoughts, but I'm trying to be as honest as I can about what we were going through. At least I can blame it on the hormones after delivery? :)

Well, there we were, a second test confirmed enough to us that two of our three sons were deaf. Of course the test after birth isn't a true diagnosis, but it was good enough for us. We had an official ABR done, and Josh had hearing aids by the time he was a month old. Good thing he had such a bucket head and big ears! They stayed on with no problems.

Oh! Boys are acting up right now, I'll try to catch up more later. As an update on our travels, we're doing okay. Matt had a birthday party last weekend with family we haven't seen in three years. They were all shocked that he could speak so well! It was really cool to hear comments from people who hadn't seen him in such a long time. I forget sometimes how far he has come. Josh did better too, initiating conversation and more approximations than he even used a week ago. Slowly but surely, we move on...