I took this photo between the time of Lexi's cochlear implant surgery and the time they turned her ears on. It still haunts me that there was a time in her life she couldn't hear, and we didn't know.
Some people take a lot of time arguing that nothing is wrong with people who are deaf or born w/ hearing loss. I really don't think God makes people "wrong" in any way. We all have unique challenges, differences, things that make us "us".
Lexi will tell you that her deafness is nice at night (grin), but she wouldn't have chosen it either. Just her take on it and she's entitled to it. Probably my favorite thing she ever said is this -- she read something I blogged and came in and asked me "Mom, do I really have special needs?" (LOL)
Her PERSPECTIVE is the best thing about her. Like everyone else, she EARNS every accolade, every grade, every basket, every strikeout.
Back to why I'm blogging about this pic...it reminds me of a conversation she and I had this weekend. Now that she's a little older, she can better discuss her journey & and how she was finally diagnosed, why she has to work so hard and how her life is to be used as a blessing to others and a testimony to God.
Yesterday in the car, I shared with Lexi how she was "missed" by various healthcare professionals. Talked her through every step of it ... It's funny and POETIC. While JJ was demanding justice, Lexi just LISTENED. Interesting to me that she just LISTENED about those who missed her diagnosis when she couldn't listen or hear.
She's not as out there with her story as I am. She's much more subtle. She's okay with me telling it, but she likes to tell her story in her own way...by the way she competes/works hard, goes to a great school and how she loves her friends.
What is so interesting to me is where we are NOW and where we were THEN in this photo. I heard a great Pastor Steven Furtick preach on the difference between CHANGE (happens suddenly) and TRANSITION (is a gradual shift).
Lexi's cochlear implant surgery and being turned onto a world of sound was a CHANGE that happened SUDDENLY. However, the journey or the TRANSITION is the best part of all of this. While middle school, hormones, a new school and complex language is hard right now...if I focus on the TRANSITION and what we are learning, what we are experiencing, the MOMENTS, then I can appreciate the good and the bad.
All of what happened from the day this photo was taken to NOW is the most beautiful, challenging and "wild ride" transitions I wouldn't trade for anything. I lost my mom to cancer before all of it. I had to grow up. I had to be this big champion for a little girl who needed to develop from deaf to sound. Lexi had to fight. She had to fight for hearing and for spoken language. Every time she was at speech therapy, she learned critical thinking skills. Every time she worked hard at Mama Lere Hearing School, she learned how to work on a team. Each time we carved out time for her tutoring at home, she learned to carve out time to pitch or workout today. Every day she had to listen to book after book or me talking talking talking to catch up her language, she learned to LISTEN to teachers.
So the TRANSITION is what matters the most in all of this.
