Time to hear!

Tuesday was a big day for Maryelle- she got fitted with double hearing aids!  It's hard to fathom that she has gone her entire 5 years of life with moderately severe hearing loss.  The birth defect of malformed inner ears has been like the bottom part of an iceberg - it doesn't obviously present itself, but it's huge and can have devastating effects.  So now M is finally getting the help she needs to enter the hearing world.  She has the opportunity for language! 
The fitting process for the hearing aids was challenging.  After an 1 hour 45 minute appointment to get them fitted, there still wasn't a good solution.  Her malformed ears leave no place for the hearing aid to securely rest.  So we are trying to adhere them to her ears with toupee tape or trying to pin them under the bows of her glasses.  We're not sure if this is going to be the best long term solution.  We have 90 days to change to a different option which would be Bone Anchored Hearing Aids [BAHA].  This would be a titanium screw that would go into her skull behind her ears and then the hearing aids would be mounted to that.
We'd appreciate your prayers for Maryelle as she adjusts to this.  Because of stimulation deprivation in the institution, she's very sensitive to tactile sensory input.  So a flopping hearing aid means that she's grabbing at it and saying "off!!".  I can't say that I blame her.  And all things considered, she's been AMAZING in how she's handling it so far.  Not only does she have to deal with the sensory stuff, but her brain is now hearing LOTS of sound that it's never heard before.  It all has to be processed, sorted and inventoried for use.  Pretty overwhelming for the brain.  But it's been fun to start hearing her make repetitive sounds as though they're incredibly interesting in the new way that she's hearing them.
Earlier this month, Maryelle began one on one Audal Habilitation therapy at the UW Speech and Hearing Clinic twice a week.  Next week she begins her early childhood special ed intervention class, which will be three afternoons a week.  Language bombardment is a necessity in hopes that she can gain language.  Add in her Sunday School class and a Little Gym class and she's getting lots of opportunity to grow!  We're thankful!

The bear has hearing aids too!

First movie                                                                                             Bucky is her fav thing to wear!

First cookie baking with Mamaw.

First Valentine's

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