The buzzer on the oven

Chance was making brownies today as I was in and out of the room. After a while Chance came to me frustrated and said," It has been 32 minutes and it hasn't beeped yet!"

"The buzzer telling you the oven is hot enough?" I asked.

"YES!" Chance replied.

I told him to go ahead and put the brownies in anyway since the oven had had enough time to warm up.
"Maybe I just didn't hear it." Chance said matter-of-factly as he left the room.

So, Chance didn't hear the sound telling him the oven was ready. He seems to hear the buzzer when the items are done cooking. I think they are a little different in sound. Now, I'm curious. I'll have to pay attention and see do some expiriments with Chance to see what he is hearing from the oven.

Chance versus the stink bug

One of the best things about having boys who are fascinated with bugs is the fact that I now don't feel I should have to mess with any tiny critters who invade my home. And I don't. I call my boys to mess with them. So this morning when I discovered a stink bug in my bedroom, I immediately knew who was going to take care of that potential for offensive smell....Chance.

When I went to find Chance however, he was in the garage getting something out of the van without implants on. No matter. I flagged him down by waving my arms frantically in the doorway until he saw me. Then I put on a dire expression and motioned for him to come. His expression was one of concern as he climbed out of the van and walked over to me. Then I took his arm and led him into the kitchen where I handed him a jar. His look of confusion deepened.

Then I led him to the entrance of my bedroom and pointed to the offending bug. Chance's look of concern vanished and he knelt down to examine the bug. "Is this a stink bug?" Chance asked. I nodded.

"Can they fly?" He asked.

I said I didn't think so.

Then Chance scooped up the stink bug into the jar and the entire episode was over.

I could get these critters by myself but with boys around who find the task fascinating as they get to get up and close with critters, I defer to them:)

Why Chance gets to sit in the bucket seat

I think we may have quelled the complaint that some of our kids have because Chance always gets to sit in the bucket seat in the middle row of the van instead of the bench in the back that seats three.

Due to an injury incurred while bouncing on a trampoline at a cousin's house, Chance's brother got to sit in the bucket seat in the middle row since it can recline back a little. Chance therefore was regulated to the back seat of the van.

Our conversations on the hour drive home went like something like this:

Mom to Chance's older brother:"Did you actually fall of off the trampoline or did you hit the side of it?"

"I hit the side and then fell off." Was the response.
Chance:"What did he do?"
 Mom:"Tell your brother how you got injured."

A little time lapse and then:
Dad:"We need to get home so that I can turn the crock pot down or the meat will burn."
Chance:"What will burn? Dad, what will burn?"
Mom:"Tell Chance what will burn please."

Child from the back seat asks,"When will grandma and grandpa be coming to our house?"
Mom,"They will be to our house in about an hour."
Chance from the backseat,"When are grandma and grandpa coming?"
Mom:"Please tell Chance when grandma and grandpa will be coming."

And later while we sat at a stand still on the freeway........
Dad,"Oh, I see why traffic is moving so slow! We are going down from 4 lanes to 2 lanes because they are fixing some pot holes."
Chance from the back seat,"What? Why are we moving so slow?"
Mom to Chance's older brother,"Turn around and tell Chance that they are fixing potholes in the road and that is why we are moving so slow."

Note to other kids from mom:"You see kids, there IS a good reason that Chance sits in that middle seat. He can not hear everything from the backseat what with the music playing and 7 people making various noises and comments as we drive, and so you have to keep turning around and telling him what is going on:)

Perhaps it was the blinking lights....

Apparently some vultures made their way into our cul-de-sac the other day. Chance and his friends took this opportunity to prostrate themselves upon the ground and pretend that they were dead. Nothing adds pizazz to your day like being sucked on by a vulture who assumes that you are dead since you are laying so quiet and still on the road.

Except, Chance said that they kept laughing so the vultures never attempted to make a meal out of them.

I personally think it may have been the blinking lights on Chance's implants. The vultures have most likely never eaten someone who's ears were blinking before and found this fact very suspicious.

Oh well. Maybe next time.

"I can hear with out using the t coil!

I was in the kitchen doing motherly things like loading the dishwasher and wiping off counters when I got a phone call. It was Chance and he was very excited.

"I can hear on this phone without turning my implant to t-coil!" He gushed into the phone.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes, I can hear you right not and I did not have to use my t-coil."

"That is awesome Chance. Where are you?"

"In the barn in the backyard. We're playing in here. I just wanted to call and tell you I can hear on this phone."

Who would have thought that our little hand-me-down Net10 phone that we use when the kids go somewhere and need a phone to call us would be the one that Chance could hear on the best? And we got it by accident! Friends of ours from out of the country got these little Net10 phones so that they could communicate with each other while in the states, but the phones would not work back in Europe so they gave one to us.

What a great surprise.

The implant takes a ride.....

Chance has cousins visiting from out of state and so they joined us for a fun day at the zoo today. We watched birds sail overhead, and watched an elephant retrieve and put a hat on his head during the pachyderm show. The weather was just right for a day at the zoo and when the kids saw the carousel everyone wanted to have a turn riding on the zebras, elephants and roosters that were pumping up and down and whirling around in a circle.

Chance took a comfortable seat on a snow leopard next to his cousin. We were in a canyon, and a slight breeze blew....a perfect day to be riding a zoo animal. As "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" played on, Chance's cousin decided to tease Chance and reached over to knock the hat off of his head as they rode. The hat didn't come off, but the implant did. It fell and shattered across the wood platform of the carousel as the music played and the ride turned on. I think I gasped. My sister-in-law said,"I am sorry!"

The operator of the ride who had no idea what he was giving to me, handed me the battery pack part of the implant which had bounced off the wood platform and landed on the ground near his feet. He must have known it belonged to me as I had spontaneously started running along side the carousel when the implant fell off, while Chance held up his arms in a gesture of,"I don't know where it went."

The other part of the implant lay on the wood platform going around and around with everyone else on the ride.

Part of me wanted to shout,"STOP THE RIDE! AN $8000.00 DEVICE IS SITTING ON YOUR PLATFORM AND I HAVE TO GET IT OFF!!!" (wouldn't that have caused a stir as parents and children alike clamored for the opportunity to grow $8000.00 richer)

Instead, I sat mesmerized watching the implant go around and around willing it to stay where it was and not slide down into the nether reaches of the undercarriage of the carousel.

A third thought going through my head was, "insurance is going to cover this right?" I even started writing the letter in my head...........

"Dear insurance people,

My son Chance needs a new implant since half of his old one is under the carousel at the zoo. Thank you for being so understanding and sending us a new one ASAP.

P.S. If you replace this implant as soon as possible so that my son can continue to hear, I will tell everyone I know how great you people are. And frankly, you people in the insurance industry could use some good PR right now. "

When the carousel stopped, the last I had seen of the implant was it sitting on the wooden platform, but it was out of my line of sight at that moment. I was just getting ready to push my way into the throngs of people getting off the carousel when Chance suddenly appeared at my side and took the battery pack out of my hand. Without a care in the world, he put the two parts of the implant back together and smiled to me as he flipped it on and bounced off to join his cousin.

I didn't technically do any extended cardio exercise today, but I think my heart beat hard enough when the implant crashed to the platform and was whirling around and around to qualify as my heart workout for today.

What if I can't hear God talking to me?

In our house, we really do believe that prayers are answered and that there is a loving Heavenly Father that listens to our prayers and guides our lives. We were having a conversation about God answering our prayers when Chance asked, "What if I do not hear God answer my prayer because I am deaf?"
This is a totally a logical question. At various times we have talked to Chance about how God usually uses quiet means to answer our prayers as opposed to flashy loud means. This apparently got Chance to wondering if he might miss an answer or two since he is deaf and may not hear the quiet answers.
We gently explained that number one, God knows Chance personally, and will not let a little old thing like his being deaf stand in the way of their communication with each other. Number two, we explained that the answers will come as impressions in the mind or stirrings in the heart many times. Things that being deaf will not hinder.
God has had such a hand in helping us to get Chance what he needs along this journey. We have truly experienced miracles along the way. We let Chance know that God is very aware of him and that he will get answers to his prayers and his being deaf will not hinder that in the least.

Mom, what does hearing normal sound like?

I was in the van with Chance the other night and he was telling me what it was like to use implants to hear. "It is just like normal. Like you don't even have implants on." He explained to me. He had apparently given this process of hearing with an implant a lot of thought."At first they kept falling off, but now it is like they are not even on and I just hear without thinking about them."

Then he hit me with,"Mom, what does normal hearing sound like?"

"Well......" I began letting Chance's question sink in. How do you explain what it is like to hear when you have never even had to think about it....it has always just happened for you?

I have actually given much thought to what it is like to have normal hearing since I have a son who is deaf and does not hear things the same way I do. I have come to really appreciate the ability to hear and the amazing power of our brains and the whole process of hearing.

I have not however experienced being deaf and not able to hear so I was sorting out in my mind how to explain to Chance what hearing was like for me.

"I don't really have to think about hearing too much either." I told Chance."My ears just hear things."

Then I thought of various things that affect my hearing. "Sometimes your ears can become clogged when you have normal hearing. Like if you go swimming, or if you have a cold. It it really annoying when that happens and it makes it so you cannot hear as well."

"Really?" Chance asked enthralled.

"Yes. My ears will clog up sometimes and it drives me crazy." I told Chance. Even though I could not see Chance in the dark of the van, I was picking up on his tone of voice and he was really amazed by this discovery of what can happen when you have normal hearing.

"WOW! I am really lucky!" Chance expressed with awe in his voice."That NEVER happens to me with implants!"

This conversation got me to thinking about what it was like to wear implants. You never get water in your ear when you swim that clogs up your hearing?? I had never thought of that aspect before.
I imagine that colds may have some effect on hearing with implants but I don't know. Do colds have an affect on implant hearing? Or does the implant just bypass the congestion of a cold?

Now I have more questions to add to the question I have had for years now,"What is it like to hear with an implant?"

Bobby pins and magnets

While sitting in church, I noticed some sort of a projectile leave our row and land a short distance away. I didn't see what the specific object was, and figured maybe I didn't want to know. Thankfully, no one else seemed to be disturbed by the UFO sailing off of our row, so the damage was minimal. Still, Chance looked perturbed and his brother was stifling laughter. A" mom needs to know what is going on moment", if ever there was one as the potential that we would soon be drawing attention to ourselves there on the pew was great.

It turns out, that the UFO was a bobby pin. A quiet item. This was good. Chance's brother had attached the bobby pin to the magnet on Chance's implant to see if it would stick to it. It did, and as everyone knows, this sort of thing is exactly what you should be focusing on during church anyway.

Chance did not appreciate a bobby pin sticking to his implant and had ripped it off and hucked it away from his personage.

Chance's brother was thrilled and amused to see that his little experiment with the bobby pin had worked. Chance was annoyed and unappreciative of the same experiment.

Thankfully, there were no more objects that would stick to a magnet, so the rest of the meeting went smoothly.

Bonding with Chance

I was laying down getting Chance's little brother to sleep, when Chance came in and lay down by me. He snuggled up to me, and I kissed his head. Across from the bed was a window where you could see the moon shining through the arch of the window. Chance pointed the moon out to me and together we lay enjoying the full moon shining through the window.

Chance did not have his implants in, but we didn't need words to communicate. We just enjoyed the quiet and hunkered down under the blanket.

It was a perfect night with Chance.