It was early summer of this year (March 29 to be exact), when EC was first fitted with hearing aid.  That day marked the beginning of many firsts in EC’s life.  It was her very first time to see the world in a different perspective. To perceive sounds not just to see actions. To hear, learn and realize for the first time in the span of two years that her name is actually “EC”.  She was further made to understand, react and turn to her name whenever she hears it. Her brain that was once quite, serene and calm was enforced to recognize new and diverse sounds. 

That day was also the last time I saw in EC’s eyes the BLANK look that I had come to know so well and had wished so much to wipe away but I had no power and knowledge on how to obliterate before.  I could still remember the past with days full of frustrations, questions and doubts on why EC was behaving the way she was.  EC simply would not react and appeared not to understand anything that I would try to tell her instead she would always flash to me her BLANK stare in those big black eyes.  There seemed to be no way of reaching her.  Then came the diagnosis of hearing loss, relief though finally came on us that it was nothing sort of mental retardation.  But the pain of knowing eventually set in…we suffered grief; we tried to deny the truth, had questions but had no answers.  Acceptance was the hardest part but in the long run we came to admit because acceptance comes with it the wisdom to search for solutions, to look for support groups, and parents that also have children with hearing loss.   

After placement of hearing aid EC began to attend weekly speech therapies with teacher Kathy.  Then, we began her daily therapies at home.  I talked to her in a way that I never did before.  For the first time EC seemed to understand what I was trying to tell her. She came to recognize that things in fact have sounds.  We taught her simple things like pigs say oink!oink! and cows say moooo and we made her imitate the sound.  She began to produce intelligible sounds in response to questions like O for NO and EE for yes, up up for stand up, EEE AW for sit down.  She also came to know that the red thing she likes to eat is in fact called apple, that the round thing that bounces is called ball.

 I was acquainted with my roles on EC’s life, I became her coach, who pushes her when she needs it, a playmate when she longs for other kid to play with,  a mother  who comforts and unconditionally loves her all the time.  It has been 8 months now since we were made to be aware of EC’s hearing loss.  8 months of wonderful journey with EC from her then silent cocoon to the hearing and buzzing world of sounds.  Through it all, an implausible thing has happened.  Her hearing loss has become our gain.  It strengthened our faith in GOD, made us better persons, opened the opportunity to meet wonderful families, and gave us the chance to work with experts on the field of hearing loss..speech pathologist, audiologist and neurootologist  that give guidance and chance for hearing impaired children to know how to hear, listen and speak.  Through God’s ways He has given them the gift of helping children with hearing loss to benefit from the miracle of language.

Answers to my questions before were unveiled in the passing of days.  Through all the pressures, mental, emotional and financial to name a few we have proven to ourselves that commitment to stay together was yet stronger against all the odds.  We are letting go and letting GOD so to speak.  Experience with the silent disability further made us treasure the special Gift that GOD has particularly given us.  Raising a child who has hearing loss may seem daunting at first but the joy of witnessing the mystery of language while slowly unfolding to our very own eyes is worthy of all the struggles we put into it.  The virtue of patience, of not rushing and just to wait and marvel at the gift of language proves to be the best part of our journey.  The thing that is being taken for granted by anyone because it (language) comes naturally in time becomes a precious moment to treasure.  We were able to see the stage by stage growth of words like watching how an ugly larva developed into a lovely butterfly, uncertain and struggling at first but astonishing and great at the end.