Christmas Comes Early for Alexander!

I looked at Alexander this morning, with smiling eyes, knowing the world has much more in store for him.



He's smart. Active. He loves to giggle and laugh. He enjoys learning. Even though he is only 10.5 month old this little wonder has already faced one of the most difficult challenges of his entire life.



Alexander was born with a profound hearing loss.



When he didn't pass the 24 hour newborn hearing screening we thought it was because of fluid in his ears or faulty equipment. Not to worry; a follow-up in 2 weeks would probably show that everything was just fine with our baby.



I remember the follow-up screening. I remember the look on the nurses face when Alexander failed to respond to the tones being played in his ear. A month later Jon and I were informed that Alexander was almost deaf. I cried with the audiologist, with my mom, who was there with me. No one could say anything to take away my grief, my heart ache for my little baby boy.



He was fitted with hearing aids almost immediately, and they seemed to open up the world to him, but we knew it wouldn't be enough. That is when we began to research cochlear implants. We never dreamed of such an amazing device and yet they have been implanting deaf children since 2007.



Tomorrow is Alexander's big surgery day. We couldn't be more excited! On his birthday, January 16th, is the day that is scheduled to activate the implant. That should be enough time for his body to recover from surgery and prepare to enter into a whole new world of sound.



For more updates and information go to his blog: http://iamthankfulformyears.blogspot.com/.