Well it's been a while...
It is now 6 months since Isobel has been wearing her hearing aids and we have noticed so many changes in her. The picture says it all, we have one seriously happy little girl. These days she is all smiles, hugs and kisses, and... in training to be a princess. What 4 year old little girl isn't?
Looking back, it has been a challenging 6 months, we have experienced just about every emotion a parent can. We have had some really tough times, but they have really been outweighed by the tremendous highs we have experienced.
Our daughter has really gone from an angry, screamy, 'don't touch me!' girl, to the playful silly little thing you see in the photos. She plays and interacts with many children, she advocates for them and comforts them when they are hurt or sad. She helps with jobs at home and routines with her little sister. She sits still and plays hairdressers with a little girl from Pre-School. She is constantly singing or chattering sharing her books, her paintings and her toys. It is easy to say she is a completely different child.
We have also experienced such an outpouring of love and support from the community we live and work with (our family away from home). Without that, and the constant love and support from our (blood) family we would never have come as far as we have. We are truly lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives.
And so as we close the chapter on the first 6 months of the journey of raising a child with hearing loss, we embark on the next 6 months.
These will bring our greatest challenges yet. Isobel will have her cochlear implantation surgery and will have to re-learn how she hears sounds. Sounds will be very different for her and we essentially start from the beginning with her AVT. The good news is, she will move through the steps even faster than she did with the hearing aids.
We hope that she will continue to be the happy little girl we see today throughout all the challenges to come in this next chapter.
