Magic Ears

Today has been a day of discovery! We took Emma in for her hearing evaluation for the cochlear implant program, and due to some mistakes in scheduling we should have already had her hearing aids first. So they did part of the test and came back and said that they could fit her hearing aids today instead of three weeks from now. So, without much prep work on our part to prepare her or plan anything, including bringing a camera to capture these moments, we headed to another office to get her magic ears.

Wow what an amazing afternoon it has been. Emma did great! She was scared and quiet at first and was pondering and concentrating pretty hard, but things got better as the day went on. I will say trying to take her to a noisy place to eat lunch was a very bad idea!! She freaked out and I ended up outside with her. I had never noticed how loud it was there but today I did and so did Emma.

We dropped daddy off to go to work after lunch and headed to Meme's to get baby and see some family to show off her pink ears! Emma did great at her grandparents. It was not as noisy and she was so proud to show her ears and her kit of supplies to care for them. She kept smiling and pointing to them. I loved watching my sister and mom watch her respond to them like a normal hearing child, no yelling at her to get her attention. (she still has a way to go as she is still learning sound and is limited in her speech memories but it is so much better listening already). Tears fell all around as Emma smiled at her name being called or Barney singing songs on the tv.

The best part of the whole day however, was well two things actually. She was watching Barney and pointed to her ears and said "Barney yeah!!" loved it. Then, on the way home tonight Taylor started crying and she said "shhh baby, loud" and kept shushing him all the way home. I could not get over that she acutally heard her brother for the first time:) Love and tears again!!

She wore them all afternoon and cried to take them out tonight. We promised her they would be back on tomorrow. She did amazing today and after I get some sleep I will share more. I am so proud and amazed at her. I think today opened a whole new world for her and I cant wait to see it unfold.

Sorry no photos yet of her tiny pink magic ears! God is so good!! The road will be long to teach her to listen and hear and speak, but step one today was so amazing and she is adjusting quickly. Looking forward to the hard work to help her learn and grow!