Picnic of Hope...

Sydney's teachers are so wonderful in her early intervention program. They are all so compassionate and passionate about helping deaf and hoh children. One of her teacher's comes to my families house once a month and teaches us sign language and is so patient with our families sarcastic antics.

Another of her teachers just started a meet-up group for all of the local counties deaf and hoh kids. This really means a lot for our family, and others out there that can assimilate with us. We had our first potluck picnic at the park across the street from our house on Saturday. It was rather chilly but when the sun peaked through the clouds it briefly warmed us up. There were about five families that showed up. Everyone was so nice and I was so thrilled to see all the cute kids with their hearing aids and cochlear implants.

Ever since Sydney was diagnosed with a hearing loss I had been in search of people I could relate to that were experiencing the same journey that we are. I managed to find some on-line in forums like Help Kids Hear that made me feel not so alone. Nothing could match actually seeing people face to face and seeing how well their kids are thriving. Hearing all of their experiences gave me the hope that I needed to know that Sydney will be just fine. You would be as amazed as I was to see how cute and wonderful these kids were. They were all so well spoken, I would've never known they were hoh or deaf. I could see some of them signing to their parents from across the park. These parents once were where I am now, and to get the reassurance and see the proof that everything will be OK is all I need for now.

On a different note, please keep Sydney in your thought and prayers that her test for Usher Syndrome comes back negative. We will have to wait a long dreadful two months for the test results. The geneticist was pretty hopeful that this isn't the case, but nonetheless all of these tests are scary until they pass.