The job

Chance had his first training for his new job.  He will be a teacher's aid and help with swimming lessons at our local pool.

That's right, Chance who wears implants, will be spending his mornings in a pool.  Filled with water and splashing children.  Teaching children how to swim.  Chance doesn't see any boundaries to what he can do with implants and I go with him on that.  That boy can do anything he wants.

Chance's implants can take some water, but we also got him these snazzy little dohickies that fit over his implants to help protect them.  Chance will be in the pool, helping a teacher teach little kids to swim.  Some of these little kids did not come up with the idea to learn to swim on their own and are being forced to learn by their parents.  They will cry, kick, hit the water with their hands and otherwise do all sorts of things that could get implants wet.

Little dohickies

Come to think of it, Chance first learned to swim against his will, and he cried, kicked and hit the water with his hands, all while looking at me in despair and holding out his arms to me.  But Chance had to learn to swim.  Chance out of all of my children, would be able to hear me the least when we were around any kind of water.  He needed to know how to swim at least a little and not just sink like a log to the bottom of a pool.  It was a hard go, I must admit.  Chance didn't want to learn to swim at first.  Heck, he didn't even want to be in the water with his teacher.  So guess what happened?  The teacher's aid would work with Chance and help him by gently having him do what the rest of the class was doing.  She knew he was deaf, and she worked with him by demonstrating what he needed to do.

It was rather heartbreaking as Chance called out to me during swimming lessons

Now Chance will come full circle and help other hapless children who are in swim lessons against their will.  Some of the kids love swim lessons and look forward to it every day.  Chance got to the point where he loved swim lessons and looked forward to them.  It didn't happen that first year though.

I am so excited for Chance.  He is really good at working with kids and he genuinely likes them and they like him back.  I think he will do a great job and the kids will love him.  AND, we get to try out these little dohickies on Chance' implants.  He is really excited about using them.  His dream is to swim underwater and hear what the rest of us hear and see what it is like to have sound when he is swimming.