The Merriman Family

April 2011

2011-04-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

I stink at keeping up with my blog! We are so busy. Things never seem to slow down. This is what we call life. Of course, a lot has been going on. Lydia has had her second implant. Her surgery was February 18. She begged for a cochlear implant on her right ear and now she finally has it. She loves hearing with two ears! I am so happy with the results. We did have Lydia's IEP in March. Next school year she will go to speech for 30 minutes every school day. She will also have two 90 minute sessions with Miss Nettie. Other than that, she will be at home with me doing Kindergarten. I am soooooo excited. This is what we have been striving for. Two years of hard work to get her to the point where she is ready for homeschool. There have been many hard days, but I am so thankful that we have made it here. I have no fears for her education at this point. Two years ago I didn't know if I would ever be able to teach her at home. She is already starting to read. My fear was that I wouldn't be able to teach her to read. She is so smart! Lydia has reached another major milestone. She is sleeping in her own bed!!! I thank God for all of the little blessings.

It has been a long time.....

2010-12-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

It has been, at least, six months since I have updated this blog. So much has happened. I do not know where to begin. Kennzie is now in fourth grade and Maddison is in second. Lydia is in her second and final year of preschool. Kennzie is learning all about fractions and Maddison is learning to borrow in Math. Lydia has been learning all of her letters and knows the sounds of all but a few. Maddison has had her eighth birthday and lost several teeth. Lydia is now five. Kennzie is fastly approaching ten. As Maddison said the other day, "the years are just zooming by." Christmas is coming up and I am mostly done with my shopping. I actually let the girls decorate both of my trees this year. This is huge for me. I usually don't let them touch the tree in the living room. My mom will be so proud of me! Haha. God has been so good to us this year, just as He has been every other year. I can't believe that it is already December of 2010. I will be thirty in a few weeks. I am actually looking forward to it. At this point in my life, I am not scared of aging. I am happy as long as I have my husband and my girls!

Funny

2010-05-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

I have a couple funny things that Lydia has said in the past couple days. She said one really long very clear sentence. A few days ago she said, "When you do laundry you wash my baby's clothes and you give them to me ok, ok". I was very impressed. On Monday we went to the park after we picked Lydia up from school. While we were there a little girl about Lydia's age came up to her and asked what was on her head. Without missing a beat she said, "It's my hair. My mom did it". She was completely oblivious that the little girl was asking about the computer attached to her head. I thought it was so funny. Also, Lydia's teacher told me that the other day at school they were talking about where their moms were. Some kids said there mom was at work. Lydia told them her mom was in the van. You know since I drop her off at school and pick her up in my van I must be sitting in the van all day. She is so funny!

School is about finished for us. The girls will be done some time next week. They are scheduled to be finished on Friday, but I have a feeling they will work ahead and be done earlier. I am ready for summer vacation. Lydia's last day is May 20. She starts extended school year on June 1 and goes until July 1. It will be Monday-Thursday 8:30-11:30. She will still be getting her speech therapy so it will be good for her. She loves school and will have a good time. It will be easier for me only sending her part of a day only four days a week. I wish that was always her schedule.

We will be going on vacation with my parents and the end of May. I am so excited. The girls are thrilled to be going on vacation with MaMa and PaPa. Lydia has been marking the days off on her calendar. It is always nice to get away for a while.

It is finally spring!

2010-04-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

The weather has been beautiful here. We have been going outside almost every day. Lydia wakes up every morning and looks outside. She will either excitedly say that it is sunny or very sadly say it is cloudy. She loves going out to play. All of the girls love going outside. We only have twenty more days of school. I am so excited to see the end of another school year. I have been looking for curriculm for next year. Kennzie will be in the fourth grade and Maddison will be in the second grade. Lydia will go to one more year of preschool before she starts kindergarten next year. Lydia is still doing great and improving daily. We are all really excited about going on vacation next month. We are ready to get out of town and have some fun. Summer is so much fun!

Audiologist...

2010-03-02T10:36:00.000-08:00

Lydia went to see the audiologist today. Everything is still going wonderfully. She has had her cochlear implant for eight months now, and I can't believe the progress that she has made. For about the past week Lydia has talked non-stop. I just laugh because she just keeps going on and on. She is no longer just talking in sentences, but now she is talking in paragraphs. The other day she just kept going on and on. Andrew said something about her talking constantly. I laughed and asked her if she was a yak. She shook her head yes and then kept on going. It is so funny. To me it is a miracle that she is even talking. The audiologist did a test on her listening skills. Before her implant she scored 30% with her hearing aids. This time she scored 97%. What a difference! I have never regretted the decision to have her implanted. I am so thankful that she has the oppurtunity to hear. Every conversation with her is a miracle that I never want to take for granted!

Lydia is Printing

2010-02-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

In the past few days Lydia has started writing. I have worked with her on letter recognition and on printing some letters. I think it was two days ago when I was doing her journal for school that she also wanted to do journal entry. I did mine and then she copied it. She had a few of the letters backwards and she said that she didn't like small e's so, she wrote upper case E's. I was pleasantly surprised and so was her teacher. This is a big step. I guess the next step is working on the sounds of the letters. I found a piece of paper that said, "Emma" on it today. Emma is one of Lydia's classmates. Lydia had colored a picture and wrote Emma on the bottom of it.

I took the older girls to the store today. I had to buy some candy and stickers for Lydia's party next week. Maddison just had to push the button on one of those things that plays music. It played so loud that I am sure everyone in the store could hear it. The volume button was broken so, we couldn't turn it down. We all three laughed so hard!

Mississippi

2010-02-03T08:05:00.001-08:00

The above picture is of Kennzie and Maddison waiting on Lydia to come to the van after school. I don't get as many pictures of them as I do Lydia. Maddison doesn't like pictures so, when I get her to smile I have really accomplished something.

My husband went to Mississippi last week. Surprisingly, Lyida can say Mississippi. I was shocked and so ecstatic. It is so cute! While he was there Lydia talked to him on the phone. We were so excited. I held the phone to her ear and Andrew said, "Hello Lydia". Her eyes doubled in size and she said, "Hello Lydia". She was as shocked as we were. From there she continued to have a conversation with him answering appropriately to all of his questions. It was great.

Pneumonia and Harmonicas

2010-01-21T09:33:00.001-08:00

Lydia woke up with a cough and a slight fever last Friday morning. By Saturday night the fever was above 102 even with ibuprofen. We took her into urgent care. The doctor listened to her and said that she had pneumonia. She was given a prescription for antibiotics and by Sunday night she was fever free. She still has a terrible cough and seems to tire easily. She is improving though.

When my husband went to Iraq I bought him a harmonica and sent it to him. He decided this past week that he was going to learn to play it. The girls have been so excited that they went to the store and bought their very own harmonicas. Needless to say, our house has been filled with music this week. Maddison keeps forgetting that it is called a harmonica. She went to church and told someone that her dad had a new whistle called a harzonica. She is so funny.

The above picture is of the girls in their new gear that was sent to them as a late Chritmas present. They love getting things in the mail.

Back to Normal

2010-01-14T09:06:00.001-08:00

What is normal? I don't think that we are ever really normal, but we are back to our normal. Lydia is back to school and the older girls are back on track. It feels good to be back in a routine.

I had been having problems with my cell phone. My phone company did not want to replace my phone. I was very frustrated with my phone. It had a touch screen that did not work. After I bought the phone multiple people told me that the phone did not work correctly. Eventually, they decided to replace my phone. I am so excited to have a phone that works.

Last night a man that my husband works with and his wife came over for a Bible study. We had pizza and I made a chocolate cake. We had a good time. They are wanting to get together again for another Bible study.

Lydia's speech continues to improve. It seems like every week we can tell a difference. It seems to be happening quickly. It is so exciting. Our family prays together every night before bed. A few nights ago Lydia wanted to pray. She said, "Thank you Jesus for Mommy, Daddy, Kennzie, Maddison, Lydia, Malachi, Kayden, Jacob, and my cat (she was holding a stuffed cat), and my dog (she doesn't have a dog). Amen". It was wonderful to hear her put that many words together. her goal for this year of school is to be able to put seven words together. I think she met the goal!

Our Chritmas Card Pictures

2010-01-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

These are the pictures we used for our Christmas card this year. The picture of Kennzie was taken in our front yard. The picture of Maddison was taken in Arkansas at the Buffalo National River. The picture of Lydia is in our Condo when we were on vacation in Branson. The picture of all three girls is at the Butterfly Palace in Branson.

We are enjoying the new year. We started back to school today with the older two girls. I am ready to get this second half of the year finished. Lydia goes back to school on Thursday, weather permitting. We have several inches of snow on the ground now and it is predicted that we will get more on Wednesday. It isn't fair that the older girls never get a snow day! I am enjoying staying indoors with nowhere to go!

It is almost 2010!

2009-12-31T09:02:00.000-08:00

It is crazy that it can almost be 2010. It seems like yesterday we were talking about the year 2000. Where did the ten years go? For me it has been a fast moving and wonderful decade. In the year 2000 my husband and I were living in Anchorage, Alaska. Since then we have lived in Chugiak, AK, Minot, ND, Marion, IL, Blue Springs, MO, and Olathe, KS. In the year 2000 it was just me and my husband. Since then we have added Kennzie in 2001, Maddison in 2002, and Lydia in 2005. Hopefully, we will settle down for the next ten years. With us you just never know what we might do next. I am hoping for a relatively calm ten years. I may look back at this post some day and laugh and say "riiiight".

The cutest thing happened yesterday. I was in our basement doing laundry when Lydia started yelling "Mommy". I said, "I am downstairs". She followed my voice and made it down to the basement to "help" me with my laundry. She actually sat down in the floor. I was doing my laundry when I heard, "no more monkeys jumping on the bed". It was so cute. It is the first time I have heard her sing anything besides "Happy Birthday" and it actually make sense. I was very excited. I stopped doing laundry and we sang the whole song.

Tonight we will be at church to bring in the new year. We will be having a breakfast potluck after midnight. Bro. Brandon said that he couldn't think of a more apostolic way to bring in the new year. I couldn't agree more!

Christmastime...

2009-12-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

My last post was in November but it seems as though it was just yesterday. December goes by so fast. Thanksgiving is really our last breath of sanity before the Christmas craze begins. As for me, my mom, and sister crazy begins very early the morning after Thanksgiving. Since my last post we went to Branson on vacation. We had a really good time. We were able to spend some time with some friends while we were there. We did some Christmas shopping and spent a lot of time relaxing. That is something we don't get to do very often. We are always going. There were no appointments and no school to do. We didn't have to get up early and get Lydia to school. It was so nice. We have been home for one week today and it has been crazy. Andrew is in charge of the Christmas Program for Sunday School. He has been working on that. I have been trying to make up for missed school with the girls. Yesterday I took the oldest two girls shopping while Lydia was at school. We spent a good part of the day shopping and the rest of the day wrapping the gifts. Today was Lydia's Christmas party at school and her last day for three weeks. Woohooo! I am so excited to let the girls sleep in for the next few weeks. No crazy early mornings! Next week we are heading to Illinois. I can't wait for Christmas!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T11:33:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The holiday is about spending time with your family and being thankful. I love Christmas, but it can be somewhat stressful. Thanksgiving seems more pure. I took some time Thursday morning to let God know how thankful I am. I am so blessed. This year I am so thankful that Lydia has hearing. Words cannot express my thankfulness. Last year we were going throught the process of finding out that she is deaf. We knew something was wrong but had no diagnosis. It breaks my heart to know that last year she missed her birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. She received her hearing aids in February. Her language has grown an extraordinary amount in the past year. I am thankful for the progress that she has made. I am thankful for all of my children and an amazing husband. I am thankful that I was able to spend the holiday with my mom and dad and my sister and her family and other family members. I am thankful that I was able to go black Friday shopping with my mom and sister (it is a tradition). Most of all I am thankful for the truth! I could not have made it through this past year without Jesus. He is a constant friend.

Funny Girl

2009-11-20T11:27:00.000-08:00

I think that it was Tuesday evening when Lydia spotted one pink glove on the floor of our coat closet. I didn't have time to dig into the glove/hat/scarf tote and find the other one at the time. On Wednesday morning as we were walking out the door to take Lydia to school she insisted that she wear the one glove. I tried to reason with her. I told her we didn't have time to find the other glove. She persisted! She said she would wear one glove and put the other hand in her pocket. And, she did. We went to the car with her having one glove on and one hand in her pocket. When she got to school she walked all the way to class with a glove on one hand and her other hand in her pocket. I laughed. I picked her up from school later in the morning and we went home and found the other glove. She jumped and screamed. She was so excited. The next morning she wore both gloves and went all the way to school with a huge smile on her face. She is such a funny girl!

Good News

2009-11-18T08:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Lydia had an appointment at the audiologist. She did very well playing the listening games. They tested her hearing aid ear. Previously they had tested and thought that she had lost more hearing. Yesterday they tested her hearing and compared it with the audiogram from March. The audiologist said they were the same. Hopefully, that ear will not progress any more. She still benefits from her hearing aid in that ear so there is no need to implant that ear. That was good news for us. We really didn't want to do another surgery. Also, there are benefits to having one cochlear and one hearing aid. The hearing aid is able to pick up sounds in music that the cochlear implant cannot. She definitely hears speech better out of her cochlear implant though. She tested as being able to hear in the 25db range. That is a mild hearing loss. Her hearing aid ear has tested as being able to hear in the 30-40db range. I am pleased with the 25db. That is enough that she should be able to hear all of the letters and sounds. She amazes me every day. She loves to sing and I love to hear her sing. We saw some Christmas lights last night and I told her it was Jesus' birthday. She started singing Happy Birthday to You. It is a wonderful thing to hear your profoundly deaf child sing!

Friday Night

2009-11-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

This is Bro. Brandon getting ready to take Lydia through the fountain.

Fun Friday

2009-11-16T12:37:00.000-08:00

Friday night we went out with some friends to eat Mexican food. It is one of our favorites. There is just something about chips and salsa. After we were done eating we met the youth group from our church at the Crown Center in Kansas City. The kids, Kennzie, Maddison, Lydia, and Andrew, had some ice cream. I had a cup of coffee. To be more specific, I had a white chocalate mocha. It was not Starbucks. Starbucks has the best white chocolate mochas. This time of year I get a white chocolate peppermint mocha. Yummy! Anyway, there is a outdoor ice skating rink there. The young people went ice skating. We watched because we are too cheap to pay nine dollars a person to fall and hurt ourselves. It was unseasonably warm. It was in the 60s so they still had the water fountains on. Bro. Brandon had the idea to run through the water fountain. Before you knew it most of the kids and the men were soaking wet. They had a great time. Saturday we spent our day inside. We have a single 19 year old boy that just moved here to Olathe from Colorado a couple months ago. We had him over Saturday night. I made some chilli and cornbread. Tomorrow Lydia has an appointment with the audiologist. She is getting a new ear mold for her hearing aid and she will have that ear tested and the hearing aid reprogrammed. I am looking forward to it. I know that she has lost some more hearing in that ear so I will be glad when her hearing aid is turned up accordingly. I always feel better when I know her ears are at their best.

Lydia's first full day of preschool

2009-11-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

Today is Lydia's first full day of preschool. This week she starts going to preschool full days on Tuesday and Thursday and only half days on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It will be strange with her gone all day. I just keep telling myself that it is for her benefit. I miss her like crazy though. She is still just a baby. Tomorrow is Veteran's Day so Andrew will be home with us. I am glad that Lydia will not be at school all day tomorrow. They do not have the day off though. I think that the schools in Illinois have the day off. Everything is going good. We went to a wedding in St. Louis this past weekend. We were able to spend the night there Friday night and spend some time with my parents. The kids enjoyed staying in a hotel and seeing MaMa and PaPa. How much better does life get? Kennzie and Maddison are doing really well in school. They have some quiet time to get their work done since Lydia is not here interrupting them. :-) We are hoping that by the time she starts Kindergarten that she will be able to homeschool. She will go to speech therapy a couple days a week at an elementary school. I am looking forward to having all three girls home all day!

She is so Funny

2009-10-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

We had an appointment with the audiologist Monday morning. Lydia did very well playing the listening games. The last appointment we had was during in the afternoon and it didn't work out so well. Lydia was done being good for the day. They were able to make some more adjustments to her MAP and they were able to test her hearing in her right ear (the ear with the hearing aid). Her audiologist feels like she has lost more hearing in that ear. She will test again in three weeks and make adjustments to her hearing aid at that time. Eventually we will have to make some decisions concerning the right ear. We will have to decide if we are going to have the right side implanted or not. There are advantages to have both sides implanted, but I am not so sure it is worth another surgery at this point. It was nice having Lydia for the morning. I usually only get to spend afternoons with her. She is always in a better mood the first half of the day. When we were at the audiologist we were waiting in the waiting room. There was an older man in there that obviously couldn't hear very well. Lydia was near him and everything was going good until he started talking. It was really quiet in the waiting room and all of the sudden this man starts yelling. He was only yelling because he couldn't hear himself, but it scared Lydia. She jumped up and ran over to me. She whispered, "He's Loud!" Andrew and I got so tickled that we couldn't stop laughing. She doesn't realize that without her processor and hearing aid on she also yells. So funny!

Going to Illinois

2009-10-19T08:56:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of Lydia last week on her way home from school. She went on her first field trip. She is wearing her yellow school shirt. They walked to the grocery store. She was very excited! Tuesday she is going to a pumpkin patch. Wednesday we are going to Illinois to celebrate Lydia's fourth birthday. She has been waiting for a month. We have been marking the days off on a calendar.

Fall time is here

2009-10-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

It is October and the weather is wonderful. It has cooled down here in the midwest. I love autumn. It cools down and we can say goodbye to the humidity until spring. The trees have began their slow change from green to empty. Lydia has noticed the changing colors. She will look out her window with amazement and say, "red tree...oooooh, purple tree... wow, orange tree..." She is rather cute! She is counting down the days until her birthday. She has thirteen more days to go. She is ready to go see MaMa and Papa and get her baby bathtub. It sure isn't going to be a secret. She is probably going to walk right into the house and ask my mom where her bathtub is. Andrew has been working really hard with her to say I want to eat at Lamberts. She will probably tell MaMa and PaPa she wants McDonalds. Everytime I ask her where she wants to eat for her birthday she says, "um chicken and french fries". As my younger sister proved as a child, you can get chicken and french fries just about anywhere!

One Year Ago

2009-09-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

One year ago we realized that Lydia had a hearing problem. At that time we thought that she just had some fluid in her ears. October began the seemingly long journey to her diagnosis. It was in October that I took her to her pediatrician to see if there was fluid in her ears causing her to be unresponsive. He looked in her ears and said they were perfect and I felt my heart drop out of my stomach. I knew better. After all I am her mommy. We had just moved to Olathe and it was the first time Lydia had seen this doctor. We talked about Lydia and he made a referral. I later found out that the referral he had made was for a developmental specialist that works with kids with autism. Again my heart dropped out of my stomach. One year ago I was planning a combined birthday party for Maddison and Lydia, and Lydia had no idea what was going on. She had no idea that she was even going to have a birthday. This year she has awakened every morning for a week and asked if today is her birthday. We still have three weeks to go. She made me call my mom this past weekend and tell her that she wanted a baby bathtub. Six months ago we could write down on paper how many words she could say. I have no idea how many words she can say. Sometimes it is easy to forget how far she has come. I don't ever want to forget how blessed we are. Lydia visited her audiologist yesterday, and everthing is still going well. One year ago it didn't seem like life would ever be normal again, but it is!

Thank Goodness It's Friday!

2009-09-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

I am glad that it is Friday. For some reason, this week has seemed very long. I have been tired because I have been fighting a nasty cold. Lydia and Kennzie has already had a cold and now it is mine and Maddison't turn. Andrew probably won't get a turn. He usally doesn't. Lydia had a good week at school. Her theme for this week was "Around the House". It is so cute to hear her say refrigerator. Her sentences are continuing to grow. Her speech is also getting clearer. She tries really hard to pronounce her words correctly. We have an appointment next week with her audiologist. I am really excited because Cochlear has just came out with a new processer that is much smaller than Lydia's. She will not get one for a few years, but it is exciting to see the technology advance. Somday they hope to have a fully implantable device. I am so grateful that this technology is available. It has changed Lydia's life.

Grandma Moore

2009-09-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

On September 13, 2009 I lost my grandma. She was diagnosed with liver disease in July and chose not to recieve medical treatment. After the diagnosis I was able to see her two more times. When I was a child Grandma walked every day and didn't have a white hair on her head. She kept me every morning before school. I remember her letting me eat whipped cream out of the container and cut up bananas and pour milk and sugar over them. I remember her quilts being set up in her living room and she would let me quilt. Grandma was always so strong in my eyes. She was never afraid to speak her mind. She was funny even when she didn't intend to be. I will miss her greatly. Each grandchild was allowed to have one item from her house. I chose a white milk glass covered dish. I will always treasure it.

Back into the Swing of Things

2009-09-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

We spent this Labor Day weekend in Illinois with my family. We were also able to go see my mother-in-law one night. We had dinner and the kids got in her hot tub. We were able to visit with my husbands grandma, which is always fun. My mother-in-law usually works nights but happened to have Saturday off. It worked out really well. My mom and dad's church didn't have church Sunday night. We celebrated my dad's birthday with steaks. My sister and her family came over and we ate and played games. We played Apples to Apples. If you have never played, you really should. Lydia has been having a hard time going to school. Once I leave she has a good time. She just doesn't want to let me leave. It makes it difficult. She did better this morning. I was so proud of her. It has to be hard to be three! I would never have decided to send her to pre-school if it weren't for her language delay. I can definitely tell that her language has improved. I am glad to be back in our routine after the long weekend. I love routine!

I like purple

2009-08-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

Lydia is at home from school today. Last night during church she felt warm. At home I took her temperature. It was 100.1 degrees. It wasn't too bad but she wasn't feeling well. It was 8:00 and she asked to go to bed without eating. She crawled in bed and went to sleep. The school asks that you not send your child to school for 24 hours after a fever. She slept until 9:00. This morning she has a snotty nose and a cough. The girls are doing school and Lydia is sitting at the coffee table coloring. Our weekend went good. We had the youth over on Friday night for food and a Bible study. We had a good time. We played Taboo after the Bible study. Our youth group is so much fun! Saturday we went to Home Depot to get the materials for a bathroom project my husband is doing. He worked on that Saturday afternoon. Lydia and I went to Walmart. I bought her a new comforter for her bed. A couple in our church gave us her bed a little while ago and I never bought her a comforter. The comforter is purple and she was so excited. She said, "I like purple!" A few days ago I was in the kitchen and she came in there and said, "What are you doing Mommy?" When she speaks in sentences it shocks me every time. She is doing so good.

Busy Busy

2009-08-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

So much has been going on in the past week. Lydia going to school is a lot of work for me. It is actually easier for me just to homeschool my kids. I know not everyone feels the same way, but as for me, sending my kids to school would be a pain. Doing school at home really isn't much more than the homework that the school sends home for kids to do. I really am amazed that any kid that spends 7 hours at school should ever have to bring home work. As a grown man my husband goes to work for 8 hours and never brings home his work. I never remember my parents bringing home work, but as a teenager I brought a couple hours or more of work home every night. In Lydia's case, it is important that I work with her at home on the same things that she is doing at school. It helps her to hear the new words that she is learning at school and at home. Before she started school I worked with her on preschool age workbooks and we have flashcards. Now, she is gone three hours every day and I still do the things with her that I was doing before. I use A Beka workbooks with her. I know it will be worth all the work some day. She also has projects to do for school and a small speech activity almost every night. She loves school and I can already tell that her language is improving. We really are blessed that this program is available. Not all school districts have this type of program. I know that God's hand is in this situation. Some day I will be able to homeschool Lydia also. I am looking forward to that day.
This past week we lost a friend from church. We are so glad that we had the oppurtunity to know Sis. Maria. She was loved and she is missed. Please remember her family in your prayers.

Monday

2009-08-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

We had a very nice weekend. On Friday night we went to Chuck E Cheeze with some friends and their three year old daughter and two nephews. The kids had a blast. I love taking the kids to Chuck E Cheeze. They always have so much fun. The pizza may be too expensive but it is worth it to see them running around laughing. On Saturday we took it easy. We actually had the kids in bed at 8:00. That was an accomplishment. Sunday was good. Sunday is always busy and very tiring. I love going to church though. There is actually no place that I would rather go. I was glad when they said unto me let us go to the house of the Lord. We went out to eat after church Sunday night but we were still in bed at 10:00. We probably won't do that again. Lydia was exhausted by the time we got home. She usually is out cold before 9:00. Now, we are to Monday. Lydia woke up very excited about going to school this morning. She has so much fun. I am glad that she likes going to school. It would be impossible for me to take her if I knew that she didn't like going. She didn't even want to eat breakfast this morning. She just wanted to leave. I can't think of many other things that she would rather do than eat!

Lydia's first official day of school

2009-08-14T07:42:00.001-07:00

Lydia went to see her classroom last night. She was slightly upset when we had to leave. She got to see her friend and was so excited. We had to drag her out kicking and screaming. Not so pleasant for us. Today is her first official day of preschool. If you remember correctly, I didn't count the few days she went this summer. She was so happy to be there. She was smiling from ear to ear and readily kissed us and said "bye". She was so cute. I am so glad that she likes to go to school. It makes it somewhat easier. I started school with the other girls today also. It was a good first day.

2 months old

2009-08-12T07:35:00.001-07:00

The second photograph is a picture of me in my new sunglasses that I bought when I was in Illinois last week. The first picture is of Lydia holding my handsome nephew, Jacob. Isn't he a doll? He is two months old now and is growing so fast. He was born at just over 5 lbs. and now weighs over 10 lbs. He has doubled in weight in just two months. He is so cute. The title of this post is not about him though. It is about Lydia's ear. Her new ear is now over two months old. It is crazy that it has already been turned on over two months. She is putting more and more words together. Most of them start with me or my. I guess in her world everything is about her. I think that is typical for her age. Maybe even more so for her because she is the baby.
I spent yesterday organizing the school material for the new school year. We start on Friday. I had to clean out the armoire and put in the new material. It feels good to have everything all organized. Keeping it organized througout the school year is a chore. Lydia also starts going to school on Friday. Thursday night we get to go look at her classroom and drop off her supplies. She is so excited. She is really excited about a little girl in her classroom that has two implants. Lydia thinks that is so cool. She is always telling us that she wants two. She even tried to get her audiologist to put her back-up processor on her right ear. For the time being she can hear well enough with her right ear with her hearing aid. In the future there may come a time when she will get a second implant. It will be different for me taking Lydia to school every day and leaving her. She is so little to be going to school, but I know the advantages far outweight the disadvantages. I will miss her while she is at school but I am so excited that she will be getting the speech therapy that she needs. My prayer is that she amazes everyone and learns faster than any of us ever expected.

Lydia Swimming

2009-08-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

Swimming

2009-08-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

We have been swimming for the past two days. The water was very cold yesterday. Today it was a little warmer. Still too cold for me though. It looks like it might rain outside and then the water will be even colder tomorrow. Oh well, it is still nice to lay on a raft and relax in the pool. The girls have had so much fun. Today is my sister's 24th birthday. Her family is coming over to my mom's house tonight. We are having a big dinner complete with a peach cobler. I can't wait for the warm cobler. My husband doesn't like cooked fruit so he won't be missing anything. We sure do miss him though. Only three more days until he comes back to Illinois!

Illinois

2009-08-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

I am in Illinois right now visiting with my family. Yesterday we went to St. Louis to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory for my sister's birthday. That was an adventure. There was some big deal going on at the Arch and it took us about an hour to get through the traffic there. We Left after church and we didn't eat until about 4:30. We were all very hungry. I thought Lydia was going to have a melt down. When she got her pop she started cooling down, but there were a few rough moments. After we ate we did a little shopping. Our last stop was Ted Drew's. They have the best frozen custard. I had a concrete with banana and reese peanut butter cups. Yummy! My husband is back in Kansas working today. I miss him and I can't wait to see him again on Friday. I think that we are going to swim today. Hopefully the water isn't too cold.

Maddison

2009-07-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Maddison Praying the night that she got the Holy Ghost. She was the first to get it. She asked me if she could pray and I said yes. We started to pray together and she started crying. Bro. Riggen came and laid hands on her and she started speaking in tongues. She was so sweet. It is a wonderful thing to see your child filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost. I will never forget that night as long as I live. The lady that took this picture of Maddison had gone back up to the platform by the time Kennzie got it so she was not there to take a picture of her. There were others that got pictures of Kennzie but they have not been given to me yet.

Me and the girls have been cleaning the house this morning. On Friday we head out to Mama and Papa's house. Oh, and don't forget the dogs. That is really important if you are three. Tomorrow we will be packing. I don't think that I am ready to pack again. I wish that I could snap my fingers and have my bags packed. I am looking forward to spending some time with my family before we start back to school though.

Heritage 2009

2009-07-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

We returned from Colorado late Saturday night. We left for Colorado on Monday morning. It was a very exhausting week but we had a good time. It took about 10 hours to get there. On Monday night we went to have pizza and make a Wal-Mart stop. Have you ever been anywhere without going to visit the local Wal-Mart? I don’t believe I ever have. I have been to Wal-Mart stores all across this great country. Tuesday my husband went with the youth on a white water rafting trip. It was a little chilly that day but they all had a good time. One of the youth succeeded in losing his glasses. Fortunately, he brought an extra pair. Thankfully, that was the worst thing that happened. Everyone made it back to the hotel safe and sound but freezing and starving. While they were out being dangerous we played it safe and went to the Focus On The Family campus and visited Odyssey. For those of you who don’t know, Odyssey is a radio show for kids that grown up people also happen to love. There was Wooton’s exit slide which was three stories tall. The girls went on it at least 20 times. All but Lydia. She is still too short. We got to eat at Whit’s End. It was a good time. The girls had so much fun. We also went to the Garden of the God’s. It was very beautiful and I would love to go back there some day and spend more time. Wednesday we did a little shopping at the mall. The conference started Wednesday night. We had church Wednesday night, Thursday day and night, and Friday day and night. There was a lock-in on Thursday night. By the time I got home Saturday night I could barely hold my eyes open. I am too old to act like I am still 16. We did have fun trying to act like teenagers though. The best news that I have since I last posted is that Kennzie and Maddison received the Holy Ghost on July 19! I will be adding pictures of that later. It is Tuesday and I think that I have finally recovered from the long week. We are already looking forward to Heritage 2010!

All I ever wanted to be was a mother.

2009-07-17T09:44:00.001-07:00

These four people are the reason I get up every morning. It is true that all I ever wanted to be was a mother. I use to tell my parents that I was going to have a dozen children. As crazy as that is, I still would if I had the finances to do so. That was before I realized how much money it took to raise kids. I have been very blessed that I have never had to work outside the home since I have had chilren. I have also been blessed to have a husband that has always been supportive of that. I can't imagine doing anything else. I was reading in the news about the couple from Florida that was murdered. They had adopted 13 children. One of their grown daughters said that her mom always said, "Some people want to be a doctor or a lawyer. I always wanted to be a mother." That is exactly how I feel. I love every thing about it. Even thought it is not a glamorous job and there is no money in it. I have enjoyed every phase. From newborn to sassy eight year old. Actually, I think Kennzie has always been a little sassy. My kids are so much fun. They each have their own wonderful personalities. I adore them!

The Lord hath heard my supplication... Psalm 6:9

2009-07-15T19:09:00.000-07:00

Lydia’s appointment went well today. The audiologist tweaked her MAP again today. She turned up the volume a little bit. She put her in the booth to see how well she was hearing. After only a month she is hearing in the 30 decibel range. She heard speech in the 20 decibel range, which is very soft. I can not believe that she has progressed this quickly. I had prepared myself for the worst possible scenario. I know that God has heard every prayer that has been uttered. At this point she has a mild hearing loss with her processor on. If you take the device off she couldn’t hear a train coming at her but she can almost hear a whisper with it on. We asked her audiologist what the future holds for this technology. She said that down the road they hope to have a fully implantable device with no external processor. It is simply amazing!

On another note, we had a very busy day. Andrew took the day off because we had some things to get done before we can go on our trip next week. We started the day off by going downtown to a home- school curriculum display. We ordered all of our materials for the next school year. The books should be here in a couple weeks and we start school on August 14. We spent a good part of the day looking for something for my husband to wear on his white water rafting trip. The paper said no jeans or cotton. We had to buy him some silly looking water shoes and an active wear top that he will never in his life wear again. Oh well, I guess it is worth the fun that he is going to have. I had to make a run to Sally Beauty Supply to buy many different sizes and colors of hair pins so that I can do mine and the girls hair next week. We had the appointment with the audiologist also. It has been a full day and we are all very tired. Tomorrow I am going to finish up our packing. I am ready to get this show on the road!

One month old

2009-07-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

We are still busy preparing for our trip to Colorado next week. We spent the past couple days trying to figure out who was going to stay in which room. You want everyone to be happy but sometimes that can be hard to accomplish. I think that we have it all worked out now though. Last year we waited until the last minute to make these decisions so some people started the trip off upset. This way they can get over it before we go. Haha. We had a good weekend. Friday night Andrew and I went on a date. They were having parents night out at our church. It is always good when we get a couple hours to be alone. We had ice cream without three little kids begging. The great part was that the kids had just as much fun as us. They did crafts and had really cool snacks. Saturday we took the kids to the Deanna Rose Farmstead. It is a really neat place with animals and gardens. They have an old one room schoolhouse and a barn where you can watch them milk a cow. They were able to bottle feed some baby goats. They loved feeding the goats. One goat sucked so hard that the nipple came out of Lydia’s bottle and milk spilled all over her. She was not happy. We had a lot of fun though. On The 11th Lydia's ear was one month old. It doesn't seem like it has already been a month. She is doing good. She is hearing new things every day. She is ready to go back to school. She was talking about it last night. I am ready for her to start speech therapy again. I can't wait to see how she progresses!

Are you listening?

2009-07-09T12:51:00.001-07:00

The above picture is of Lydia playing her listening game on the day of turn on. She holds an item to her cheek and when she hears a beep she gets to put it in a container. This is her playing Connect Four. This is not her favorite listening game. Her favorite games are ones in which she gets to throw the item! If you know Lydia, you would expect no less. It is so amazing to see her hear. She is putting more and more words together to form sentences. We have taught her that when she hears a new sound she says, “hear that?” All day long she is using this phrase and I am explaining to her and showing her where the sound comes from. She has heard my phone ring for the first time and she now calls the microwave a beep. Because of course it beeps so it should be called a beep. Today I put her spaghetti on a butterfly plate. She promptly told me “no butterfly, orange”. That meant I had put it on the wrong plate. She wanted her spaghetti on a orange glass plate. This afternoon she was playing a game on the computer and she did something correctly and the game replied with a thank you. She said, “Welcome.” For her to hear the computer is a miracle. I am so amazed by how far she has come. I never want to take for granted the fact that she can hear.

Doing better

2009-07-08T12:36:00.001-07:00

The picture above is of Lydia the day she got turned on. Lydia is doing much better today. She is not quite 100% yet. We did sleep good last night though. I think that we were all exhausted. Lydia and I just finished making chocolate chip cookies and we are waiting for them to bake. I love warm chocolate chip cookies. It is one of life’s simple pleasures. My two older girls are really into American Girl dolls and books. They are historical books and dolls to go with them. They are very interesting and educational. The dolls are very pretty. When we talk about the girls in the books we talk about them living in the old days. Most of the dolls are from the 1800s or early 1900s. Anyway, last night, Maddison, who is six, asked me, “Mommy, was I born in the old days?” We got a really good laugh out of that one. I tried not to laugh too hard while I explained that the old days were way before her time. She is so funny! We leave two weeks from today to go to Colorado with our youth group at church. We are very excited to be going on this trip. My husband will get to go white water rafting. It is beautiful in Colorado. We went last year too, and we had so much fun. We enjoy the youth group so much. There are so many different personalities and I love each one of them. Each of them are unique and wonderful in their own way. I have already started packing my bags (I am a planner). I use to pack to go to church camp a month in advance. My husband likes to throw some stuff in a suitcase and hope that he has everything when he gets there. We will get to see other minister friends that we have not seen in a while. It is going to be a good time!

It's been four weeks on Thursday

2009-07-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that it has almost been four weeks since Lydia had her implant turned on. She is doing really well. I am amazed at her progress. From what I had read, I didn’t think she would be hearing this well so soon. She had an appointment with the audiologist yesterday but we had to cancel it. Unfortunately, she has had a stomach virus. Yuck! We have been up for the majority of the night for the past two nights. I hate seeing my kids sick. She is starting to improve though. This evening she has regained some of her strength. We did have a good 4th of July. We found the Dillard’s Clearance Center here in Kansas City and went shopping. We had dinner with our pastor and his family and then we went to watch fireworks. Andrew had a three day weekend. It is always nice when he is home. We went to the JCPenney outlet also this past weekend, but we didn’t find much there. One of the nice things about living in a city is all of the shopping options. Even though I am not a city girl I really do enjoy the shopping!

What a Weekend!

2009-06-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to Southern Illinois for a wedding. My husband’s cousin, Stevie, got married on Saturday. We left Olathe Thursday afternoon and got to Marion late that night. Friday we spent the day lounging in my parent’s pool. Both Kennzie and Maddison learned to swim. It was very exciting. On Saturday morning our niece, Ella, had a birthday party. Our kids got to see their cousins that they had not seen since Christmas. They had a great time playing at McDonald’s. Saturday afternoon we went to the wedding while the kids stayed at my parent’s house to swim. It was a very eventful weekend. Lydia had her last day of school for the summer session yesterday. She is really going to enjoy school this coming school year. She had so much fun. She painted a big purple butterfly that I hung up on their bedroom wall. She was so proud. They made a really cool butterfly snack. Her teacher said that she did really well. Yesterday we also went to see Erin, our audiologist. Lydia wasn’t quite so hyper this week. She had them laughing though. She is such a ham! Next week they are going to put her in the booth and see exactly how good she is hearing. She only has two more weekly appointments and then they do not see us back for two months. That will be so nice. I am really tired of going to appointments every week. We have had appointments almost every week since January. It has been exhausting!

Day 12

2009-06-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

Lydia has been turned on for 12 days now. She is hearing much better than she was the first few days. Her audiologist said she was pleasantly surprised. Lydia went yesterday to have more MAPing done. She also had school yesterday. It was a long day for her. Last night we decorated her processor with stickers. She thinks that is really neat. Today we tried the toupee tape for the first time. It is working well. We were having a hard time keeping it on her ear. I was getting really tired of putting it back on all day long. Last night Lydia sat the whole family in the floor and then went and got a book to read to us. It was so cute watching her imitate what she does at school. She really does like school. While she was at school Kennzie, Maddison and I did some shopping. We went to Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Hobby Lobby and the Goodwill. We had a good time. We don’t usually get to do that much shopping with Lydia. We did miss her though.

Going Good

2009-06-16T11:04:00.001-07:00

All is going well in the Merriman household. Lydia is starting to respond to her name with only her cochlear implant processor on. That means that her hearing nerve is developing and starting to recognize sound. Since she has not been able to hear with that ear the hearing nerve gets kind of lazy. I think it is starting to wake up though. It is not an overnight thing. It takes time for that nerve to wake up. Anyway, I think she is doing good. We have two teenage girls staying at our house for a few days. They use to live here and we are friends with their parents. Their dad happens to be in Kansas City on business and they are staying with us while he is here. One of them happens to like a young man from our church so I think that may have something to do with them wanting to stay here. Either way it is always fun having extra people in the house. I think that is about all that is new here.

Maddison Graduates Kindergarten

2009-06-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

Maddison graduated from kindergarten last night. She was so excited! Kennzie and Maddison both got awards for their academic achievements for the year. Maddison had a 100% average for the year and Kennzie had a 99.07% average. I am very proud of them. Kindergarten was a cinch for Maddison. She learned to read when Kennzie was going through first grade. Kennzie worked very hard in the second grade. She is a perfectionist and worked hard to get good grades. I am already looking forward to going through first grade with Maddison and the third grade with Kennzie. I love watching them learn new things. Lydia did go to school today, but for the sake of my emotions, I am not counting it as her first day of school. She is only going on Monday’s. I don’t really count that as starting school. When she starts going five days a week this fall I will count that. She did have a good time. There are only five kids in her class and three teachers. There is a little girl that is three years old like her and also has cochlear implants. She got to make a fish and fishing pole and also had a snack. She is only there for three hours and also gets her speech therapy. I am sure that she will be excited to go back next week.

Day #2

2009-06-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

Today was day number two for Lydia’s ear. We had another two hour appointment this morning to get her cochlear implant programmed. Lydia did really well again. She is tolerating it surprisingly well. Her audiologist was very impressed, and went on and on about how well she did. She said that Lydia was very advanced for her age. She was able to sit there for two hours and play the listening games. She sent us home with four different programs. Each program is louder. She said it may take her a while to get up to program four. We are already there! This is where she will stay until her next appointment on June 22. She seems to be doing alright without her hearing aid. I didn’t know if she would. It doesn’t make sense, but she is already saying some words clearer. This morning she said baby for the first time in a long time. She usually pronounces it mamy. She wanted the processor on this morning when she woke up. That is good news! This afternoon Andrew is going to mow the yard and I am going to do some yard work while the kids play outside. Tonight, our pastor’s wife is doing a parents night out. She is keeping the kids for 3 hours while the parents go on a date. We are going to try a new restaurant and go walk through the mall. We rarely go anywhere without our kids, so this will be different. It will be fun though. Oh, I have a funny story about Maddison. Yesterday, when we were driving home from the audiologist we passed a television station. Maddison said, “Wow, they must have really big TV’s !” She had seen the really big satellite dishes, so she assumed that they must have really large television’s. She is such a funny kid. Life would be so boring without the kids!

It is a big day!!!!

2009-06-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

Today was the big day. We had an appointment this morning at 9:00. We were there for about two hours. It went really well. The audiologist was really surprised at how well she did. There were only a few tears. A lot of kids cry because it scares them if it is the first time they have heard. The audiologist says that it is a weird sensation when you first put it on, and she did get scared and cry. She has been doing great ever since then. She seems to like the thing. We went and celebrated with chips and salsa at a local Mexican restaurant. This is a big day for Lydia. We got plenty of video and pictures. For the first time in a while, Lydia has a left ear!

Tomorrow is the day we have been waiting for!

2009-06-10T14:55:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is the big day. Lydia gets her new ear. I am really glad that she will be back to two ears. She can hear fairly well out of her right ear with her hearing aid. Over the past two weeks I have been able to tell that she is more frustrated because she can not hear as well as she did with both hearing aids. I will never forget the day that she got her new hearing aids. She was so excited. The minute the audiologist put them in her ears a huge smile spread across her face. The picture above is of that moment. She was so proud. I asked her if she could hear me and she said, “Yes!” I have heard that the initial turn on day for cochlear implants can have varied results. The first day they just turn it on. On Friday we go back and they will turn it up. She will see her audiologist every week for a month. At each appointment they will tweak the settings until they are correctly programmed for her hearing loss. Each individual ear requires different settings. I am not worried about her adjusting to it. Usually kids have a difficult time adjusting to hearing aids but she was great. She knew they were helping her and wanted to wear them. I think that it will be the same with her processor. Tomorrow I will post pictures of the big day.

Cochlear Bear

2009-06-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

It has been storming here all day. I am ready for some sunshine. Maybe tomorrow. Yesterday I saw my older two girls sneaking cereal upstairs to their bedroom. I didn’t say anything then, but later when Maddison said that she was hungry I asked her ,“Why are you hungry when you had all of that cereal?” She said, “What cereal?” I replied, “The cereal you were sneaking upstairs earlier today.” Her eyes got really big and she waved her hand behind my head and said, “Can you see that ?” I always tell the girls that I have eyes in the back of my head. They know that I am teasing, but my point is that I see things that they don’t think that I see. I had a good laugh about it. My mom and dad use to tell me that they knew everything. What they didn’t know, I usually ended up telling them myself. I was good at telling on myself. I always figured that they would find out anyway. I guess that their tactic worked because I was convinced that they knew it all. It probably kept me out of a lot of trouble. Two more days until Lydia gets her new ear turned on. We are so excited. She has a cochlear bear that she got the day of her surgery. It is really a neat thing. We have used it to show her what her new ear will look like. It is also helpful in showing other people what it will look like. Above, there are two pictures of her with the bear. I know that people out in public will be curious about her “ear”. It doesn’t really bother me that people will stare. Yes, she is different than other kids but different can be good. I am so grateful that she has this opportunity to hear. I hope that we can teach her to be grateful and to realize that yes, some people may be rude about her “ear” but , that is only because they do not understand. I hope that she grows up to be a strong Christian woman that can use what people think of as a disability to encourage others.

I am odd

2009-06-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful weekend. I am really strange and I also enjoy Monday too. I love the weekends but I also thoroughly enjoy being back into a routine. I love when the school work is done for the summer but I also anxiously anticipate the day we get to start the new school year. I am odd. Maddison, our middle daughter, has inherited my oddness. No sooner than we were done for the summer she was asking if she could start the first grade. Last summer she begged me the entire summer to plllllease let her start kindergarten. I can hardly believe that Kennzie will be starting the third grade, Maddison will be starting first grade, and I will be sending my baby to preschool. How did my kids get so big when I still feel like I am twenty? Sending Lydia to preschool will be different. We are not sending her because we want to send her but because we have to send her. It is critical that she gets speech therapy and since money still does not grow on trees this is really our only option. She needs speech therapy five days a week. Each private speech therapy session cost roughly $150. Her preschools program is to get her ready to mainstream into either a regular classroom or, in our case, into a home-school. This summer she goes to school three times and then in the Fall she starts M-F. She will only be going from 8:30 until 11:30. It will be different! I am very excited to see her speech progress. I can’t wait until she is able to have conversations. I am dying to know what is going on in her head.

Saturday

2009-06-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

It is Saturday and I love Saturdays. Andrew doesn’t have to work and during the school year the kids have no school work on Saturday. Thankfully, the school year is over though. I clean my house on Friday so Saturday we can just relax! We can do whatever we want to do. Today our church is having a yard sale and we will go to that. Other than that we have nothing planned. It is a wonderful feeling and a rarity in our lives. By nature I am a planner so I usually have something planned. Since we are still trying to keep Lydia calm we will probably spend the majority of our day at home. I love home! If my mom reads this she will be saying “who is this?” As a child I never wanted to be home. I always wanted to go somewhere. As an adult there is no place I would rather be than home, other than church, which to us is kind of like home. Yesterday I did my weekly grocery shopping. I am a member of a web site that tells you what to buy, when it is on sale, and when you can use your coupons from the Sunday paper. It is www.thegrocerygame.com. I really enjoy getting a good deal so to me it really is a game. I have started going to CVS and Walgreens and I am really surprised that they have such good deals. Some items I am able to get free. CVS was having 90% off of some items so I was able to get school supplies for next year super cheap. I bought packages of mechanical pencils for 19 cents. I was so excited. I love mechanical pencils because you don’t have to spend all day sharpening them. Anyway, that is my exciting news for the day. On another note, I was reading the Bible this morning in Psalms and found a scripture that about sums up how I feel about the Lord. Psalms 116:1-2 says, I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. Among other things, I love Jesus because I never have to question if He is listening to me. He is a faithful friend and I will call on Him as long as I live!

Healing Nicely

2009-06-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

Lydia went to see the doctor yesterday. He removed the steri-strips, and I am very impressed with the incision. It is only about two inches long and follows the contour of her ear. You have to pull her ear back to see it. He said it was healing nicely. He doesn’t have to see her again for six months. She can now have a bath again! She loves her bath. I have been putting her in the kitchen sink to rinse her off. It is not easy putting a three year old in the sink. She thought it was funny though. We have an appointment next week to have her new ear turned on. We are so excited! At church last night Lydia went up to a few people to show them her scar. She is very proud. We are very proud of her. She hasn’t missed a beat. The doctor gave us Tylenol 3 for the pain and we never had to give her one dose. Other than the day that she had the surgery she has been “normal”. Andrew and I were not back to normal though. She wasn’t worried that the incision would bust open, but we were. I am so glad that the surgery is behind us!

My Girls

2009-06-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

The above picture is of all three of the girls. These girls mean everything to me. Being a mommy is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love my girls! Lydia is doing well. We are trying to keep her as calm as possible. The doctor said no vigorous activity for two weeks. That has been a very hard job. The second night after surgery my husband and I were sitting on couch watching the kids play when we look over at Lydia who is doing a flip. She is a very active 3 year old. There is not much calm in her. We are trying our best though. She had some very yucky medicine that she was having to take. It smelt like perm solution! We are finished with that now. Tomorrow is the day she gets her steri-strips off. I am happy to report that everything is progressing smoothly!

Surgery

2009-06-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

Lydia had surgery May 27, 2009. The decision for Lydia to get a cochlear implant was an easy decision for us. She has almost no use of her left ear now even with a hearing aid. Eventually, she will not be able to hear with her right ear either. The surgery was a small incision behind her left hear were they inserted the electrode array into the cochlea. It will bypass her damaged hair cells and stimulate the hearing nerve directly. Next week she will get the external processor. The processor will pick up the sound and send it directly to her hearing nerve. It is really amazing technology if you ask me. I am so excited to know that she will be able to hear with her left ear again. I think this is what Lydia wants also. She wants to hear. Since she has had hearing aids I can tell that she is much happier. We had a rough few months where we had difficulty understanding each other. We taught her quite a bit of sign, but when that was her only source of communication she was reluctant to open up to people that did not know sign language. Before she lost her hearing she had a very outgoing personality. Since she got her hearing aids she has went back to being Lydia. We were watching her personality change and it was heart breaking. Her speech is developing faster than I thought was possible. Her speech therapist has been very impressed in what she has accomplished in such a short period of time. I know that it is the Lord. She has people praying for her all over the country. Sometimes when we pray for a miracle our miracle isn’t exactly what we were thinking it should be!

2009-06-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

Lydia

2009-06-01T11:17:00.001-07:00

Lydia is the primary reason I have started this blog. She is the youngest of our three girls. She is beautiful and smart and ridiculously funny. She has an absolutely amazing smile. Everywhere we go people comment on her pretty smile. She is also profoundly deaf. She was born with a mild hearing loss in one ear. For the fist year of her life she was right on track. At around a year old she started having chronic ear infections. At 17 months we had tubes put in her ears. When she was about 2 ½ I noticed that she seemed to be having troubles hearing. My thought was that the tubes had fallen out and she had fluid in her ears again. When she turned 3 I took her into see her doctor. When he looked in her ears and said that they looked perfect I knew that something was wrong. That was in October. In November I took her to see an Audiologist. She failed her hearing test in the booth that day so they made her an appointment to go to Children’s Mercy Hospital for an ABR. They couldn’t get us in until January. We waited for two months for this test. We had to go through the holidays knowing that something was wrong but not knowing exactly what the problem was. On January 26, 2009 we were told that Lydia had a severe hearing loss in her left ear and that she had a moderate hearing loss in her right ear. The audiologist also told me that day that since she was not born deaf they felt that her hearing loss was progressive and eventually she would probably lose all hearing. The grief I felt at that time was overwhelming. I never expected to hear what I heard. No one ever plans to hear that their baby is going deaf. I do know that ALL things work together for His good. God has truly been my very best friend through all of this. There were times I would wake up in the middle of the night and cry out to Him and I would feel the peace that passes all understanding wash over me. This is not the path I would have chosen but I know there is a purpose. Since that time her hearing loss has progressed. In March her hearing was tested again and we found out that she is profoundly deaf in her left ear and severely-profoundly deaf in her right ear. At that time we were told that she was a candidate for a cochlear implant. She does use hearing aids which really help in her right ear but was not really benefiting her left ear. We decided to have her left ear implanted. I will post more on that later along with a picture of her after surgery. This has been quite the ride. I am not worried about Lydia’s future. I know the hand of the Lord is on her life!

Just getting started

2009-05-31T09:48:00.000-07:00

I am completely new to this blog thing and really I am not really even that great with anything to do with a computer. What I am is the mother to three wonderful girls and the wife of one amazing husband. My girls are Kennzie (8), Maddison (6) and Lydia (3). We have been blessed beyond measure. My husband and I recently celebrated 10 years together. He is my best friend and I don't know what I would do without him. We are very lucky. I love him more now than I did the day I married him. I am a stay-at-home mommy, which is my dream job. I always wanted to stay at home with my children and I enjoy every minute of it. I homeschool the oldest two girls and I also love that. Even though I am living my dream every day, our lives are not without struggles. I am starting this blog as a place to record the tough times and the good times. When I look back I don't want to forget the good times but I also don't want to forget what God has brought us through. As my brother-in-law once said, without the test there is no testimony!