Obeying...when you don't know what it means

(An entry that was written last month, but was never posted:)

Tonight, Chance ran up to me as I was finishing dinner and said," I obey you today!" I told him that yes, he had obeyed me today. Then Chance asked me what obey means. Interesting. We've been using that word for quite some time. I explained to Chance what obey means and gave him an example. His eyebrows went up like they usually do when he is surprised about something.

Chance then asked me an odd question. He asked me if he obeyed when he was little. I told him that he was a good boy when he was little. Then Chance asked me again if he obeyed when he was little. He was very concerned about this and my saying that he was a good boy when he was little was not satisfying him.

Somewhere in our conversation tonight, Chance had mentioned his ears being broken and that is why he has implants. So I told Chance that he could not hear us when he was little because his ears were broken but his dad and I did not know. Chance was intrigued by this. I told him that when he was a baby, his ears were not broken but that he got sick and his ears did not work right anymore after that. Chance was really interested and asked me how old he was when his ears broke. I told him that he was 1. Chance was amazed by this conversation. He told his brother that his ears had broken when he was a baby. Then he looked at his baby brother and asked if he could hear when he was his age. I told him that he was about the age of his brother when his ears broke. Chance nodded and then said,"And now I can hear!" Then he ran off to play.

It made me think also to see my baby and realize that if he had been Chance, he would not be hearing at this time. I told Chance's dad about the conversation and he said that he can not wait until Chance has more vocabulary to share whatever feelings he has about this.

I still marvel that we did not catch that Chance had gone deaf. But who considers that their hearing child will just go deaf? Chance faked it really well. He had lots of people fooled. I still feel bad thinking about what it must have been like for him not being able to tell anyone what was happening to him. But I am at peace that we may never know exactly what happened. The important thing now is, Chance hears again and is no longer in his own little world looking in wondering what is happening in ours.