Little Dumer News: Feeling better

So it has been a few days since we found out the news about Jordan's hearing loss, and both Chris and I are feeling a lot better about the big picture. We have gotten a lot of great advice about staying positive and lots of kind words of support from friends and family. I did want to share one message I got from a good friend of mine from high school, I thought other family members out there would benefit from reading it as much as I did:

hey debbie! i just wanted to send a quick message b/c i read your blog. first, i'm so sorry that you guys have had to worry and continue to. that's not a good feeling! but i just wanted to let you know that i majored in speech pathology in undergrad and would love to answer any questions you guys might have and comfort you as much as i can. i worked in the university clinic and had a lot of clients with hearing loss. and like you said in your blog, catching it early makes all the difference! i think he'll be just fine! depending on how mild the hearing loss is, you might not even notice (i actually have mild hearing loss, and nobody has ever known unless i've chosen to tell people). hearing aids come in the tiniest forms now that he may not have any problem cosmetically either! and even if you guys choose to use sign language early on, hearing loss is very very often NOT accompanied by any other developmental issue at all, so i'm sure he will be fine speech-wise too! i know this isn't very comforting, but kids are going to find something to tease each other about regardless, so knowing that he's got something that might make him a little different from other people is a huge advantage to you, b/c you can start raising him right away to be proud of that. you're such an amazing, open person, and i'm sure you didn't settle for anything less in chris either, so regardless of hearing loss or anything else, you're going to raise an extraordinary child! i have all the confidence in the world saying that! i'm sorry you guys are having to face such a scary situation, but i promise he's going to be great! i mean, he told you that at the audiologist's office himself! :) alright, back to studying for this stupid bar exam! keep in touch! xoxo! jen mcd

Thanks again Jen for sharing, I felt a lot less like mush after reading your note. It's amazing what a few days and a few e-hugs can do for the spirit! We are now at a place where we want to learn as much as we can about exactly what he can and can't hear and get Jordy his hearing aids as soon as possible so that what he hears from us will be closer to the real deal. I'm no longer sad, but feeling purposeful. It's a good place to be.

In other news, Jordan attended his first wedding today! We went out the the Celebration Pavilion at Queen Elizabeth Park. We sat in the back row on an end seat so that if he had a meltdown we could hightail it out and not wreck the video, but Jordy did well! He pretty much slept through it all, until the end when the whole place exploded with applause, at which point he startled in daddy's arms and looked around him as if to say, "I'm sleeping here!" Chris commented, how oddly funny it was that we'd been worried about our little hard-of-hearing boy and the same weekend the sound of a hundred or so people clapping upsets him.