Thankful

Yesterday our dear friend Hannah, a young child with hearing loss, celebrated her one-year anniversary of receiving bilateral cochlear implants.  What a day to celebrate!  Hannah is an adorable little girl (she is almost 2-years-old).  Hannah is so full of life, and she has an adorable smile.  Thanks to cochlear implants Hannah can now hear her mommy sing to her.  She can hear Katie call out to her when they play before speech therapy.  Hannah and her mom, Jen, have become wonderful friends to us since we started going to the Children's Hearing Institute. Over the last 24 hours, I cannot stop thinking about how blessed we are to be raising children at this point of history.

I know our country is struggling right now.  For many reasons, it breaks my heart to think about what may be in store for our children as they get older.  Frequently, people tell me that they are sorry for the world that our children are inheriting.  While there certainly are some huge challenges facing our children, this point in history also provides our children with some amazing blessings.  
 

Thanks to living in New York City in  2013, I know that my daughter will be able to develop reasonably normally despite her hearing loss!  Thanks to the amazing technology of newborn hearing screenings, we became aware of Elizabeth's potential hearing loss before we left the hospital two days after she was born.  Thanks to the amazing technology of modern hearing aids, Elizabeth be able to grow up without having to learn sign language and with very little speech delay (hopefully).  There are so many blessings that are available to children today that were not available in previous generations.  I choose to be thankful.

Okay I am off my soapbox now.