Fast Forward 3 years

It has been 3 years since I last posted! Life has been very busy!! Ariana is in the eighth grade now and taller than me by at least 2 inches. Middle School did not work out so well for Ariana. She had 8 periods with about 28 kids in each class. So many distractions, she had to always have a FM system with her to block out background noise, and if she didn't quite understand something, there was no way the teacher could come over and give her extra clarification.

She is now going to a school for the deaf as a day student. There are only 4 kids in each class! She is doing really well there and she has even learned ASL. She comes home though and talks our ears off! I love it! I never thought I would ever have to tell her to be quiet. I also never thought I would send her there, but I was tired of fighting the system and it's really nice that she isn't the only one at her school that is deaf or hard of hearing! It's done wonders for her self esteem and her confidence. She is going to play basketball this Fall and even has her very first boyfriend. :) Ariana opted to not wear her right cochlear implant. She just wears the left one. They do not sound the same and she never got used to the left one. We tried though and gave it the good fight. She still has it though to wear if she ever has trouble with her left implant. Its nice to have it as a backup. :)

My oldest is driving and is a Junior this year. The youngest just started Middle School. Where does the time go?! I wished I could freeze time. Life is good though. I am very blessed.

Ariana and Marlee Matlin

Ariana got a very special and rare opportunity to go meet Marlee Matlin last week! She was so excited and the envy of all her classmates! She even got her autograph! Marlee was speaking at one of the local elementary schools to the 1st graders. It was a rather intimate gathering, but Ariana and a few other hearing impaired children from the area schools got to attend which is so nice. Marlee's partner, Fabian Sanchez from Dancing With The Stars was there and his little boy happens to attend this school. I had no idea that her dance partner/instructor lived in Alabama! Who knew! Oh and by the way, he was very easy on the eyes I must say.:)

It's not everyday that a deaf or hearing impaired person gets to meet another deaf person that is so successful and famous. I truly believe that one event such as this could change a child's life. Life is a journey! Along the way, you will meet many people, and you might just meet one person in a brief moment of time that could forever change your whole course in life.

I am so thankful that Ariana was allowed to go meet her. I hope she learned that there is nothing that she can't do if she puts her mind to it. It doesn't matter what your beliefs are, how you communicate, rather you are oral or use sign language, have Cochlear implants, hearing aids, or nothing. All those young kids and Marlee are my heroes. They all know what it's like to be deaf and they embrace life and try to live it to the fullest. God makes us all different for a reason so that we can all touch someones life along the way.

Life

Life has sure thrown us some curve balls lately. It has been a long year with lots of obstacles to overcome. Chase has been diagnosed with diabetes for a month now. It has been a long month filled with lots of learning, stress, and uncertainty. At first, it was a shock to learn our child that had never been sick or in the hospital had this incurable disease. The shock wore off and then the tears came when no one was around. Everyone says that is normal. I kind of went through a grieving process. Chase has endured countless injections of insulin. He got 4 a day and sometimes 5. He was always a trooper and checked his own blood sugar while still in the hospital. On Saturday he got his new pump!!!! It is amazing and no more shots for Mr. Chase!! He just told me a few minutes ago that he feels like his old self before he got diabetes. Oh and by the way, he won the foot race at a skating party on Saturday right after getting his pump. I said see, you can still do whatever you want despite diabetes!

I got some awful news on Saturday just minutes before the nice nurse came to help us put Chase's pump on. One of my very good friend's husband passed away in the early hours of Friday morning. It is so very tragic. I have known this friend most of my life and had just met her new husband last summer. They were only married 9 months. He was her soul mate and they loved each other very much. He felt like he had no choice but to do what he did due to circumstances that I won't go into. No matter what life brings your way, suicide is NEVER the answer. Our other friend and I are going to see her on Wednesday and the funeral will most likely be on Thursday. My heart breaks for her. He leaves behind 3 precious children from a previous marriage and 2 step daughters that are my friend's children from a previous marriage. Life is so short. This has brought back so many painful memories of my late husband. I know what it's like, but the circumstances are much worse in my opinion for my precious friend that I love dearly.

Ariana has been busy with tutoring this summer with a speech therapist that the school has set up for her to see to get her caught up on some academic stuff. It is going well, but she is sick of going. She goes 2 days a week for an hour. She also has participated in a speech therapy session that helps school based SLP's learn about AVT. It went well. Ariana also had a speech perception test recently that showed even more improvements. She never ceases to amaze us with her steady progress! It will be almost 3 years since getting her implants. It's so awesome due to her age, but she had been such a good hearing aid user for many years before hitting that wall. Thursday brings her regular appointment of speech therapy at her implant center. Hubby will have to take her that day. I will most likely be at the funeral and on my dear husband's Birthday. :(

Sorry I haven't posted lately (if anyone out there really reads this), but as you can tell, life has been a wee bit busy and stressful.

Blessings to you all!

OmniPod

Chase came home from the hospital last night! We were so glad to be home. We are trying to explain everything about diabetes to Joseph and Ariana.Some of the terms are great words for Ariana to learn. It's a very hard thing and we are still learning and will be for quite some time. Chase knows and understands that this is not his fault and that there was nothing he could have done to prevent this from happening. The Dr. is doing a study with the omnipod and wants to see how quickly newly diagnosed kids his age can resume back to their somewhat regular life with an insulin pump. She thought Chase would be great for the study. This pump is waterproof and has no tubing. It also has a PDA. You have to change and throw away the pod every 3 days. It's really awesome. We were so excited that she is offering us this amazing opportunity. http://www.myomnipod.com/ BTW...Nick Jonas, the drummer for the Jonas Brothers has diabetes and also has this pump

One more thing, there is so much to be thankful for. As bad as it is to hear news like "your child has type 1 diabetes", there are so many children worse off. It broke my heart seeing some of them at Children's. Some of them had no hair from cancer or leukemia or had brain injuries from an accident, etc. My heart and prayers go out to those families.

They had a VBS at the hospital that Chase went to. The topic was "thankfulness". When they asked Chase what he was thankful for he proudly said his sister who survived meningitis. I teared up big time. I think he truly has a new perspective about hospitals, illnesses, and learning to overcome obstacles.

Chase going bananas!

Prayer Request

If there wasn't enough on our plate...we just found out yesterday that our happy, always healthy, sweet son, Chase has juvenile diabetes. He has been having excessive thirst and running to the bathroom every 5 minutes. He is currently in the hospital and will be here until tomorrow or the next day. He will be okay, but will have to have 4 injections everyday of insulin for the rest of his life or until they find a cure. Right now we are all trying to learn all we can about this as a family. Please keep us in your prayers. My all time favorite saying is "Love is Pulling Together Against All Odds". I am so amazed by Chase and his outlook. He has not let this get to him and says "these shots are a piece of cake"! I hope this attitude will continue.

Great books for building vocabulary

I am working with Ariana a lot this summer on building her vocabulary even more. There are so many words that she may not have heard or understand what they meant before she got her implants. I got some great, but simple little flip books that make it so easy to learn new words! I am trying to use new words that I don't always use everyday. They have these little books at Books a Million or Barnes and Noble in the teaching section.