Newswise — When you think about starting a family, you hope for the most perfect, beautiful and healthy child. But our journey took us in another direction. We waited 18 months to adopt our, beautiful daughter, Samantha. We felt so lucky to have been selected as her parents. When we received our first picture of our daughter, she was precious and innocent. When the day finally came, we traveled half way around the world to meet our precious baby girl. I was excited and nervous about the whole experience. I can remember the day we met with Samantha. She was this little bundle weighing 13 pounds at 9 months old. Samantha had this determined look and did not cry like the other baby girls. We noticed on the first day that she did not respond to very loud sounds as any normal children would. We did not know the extent of Samantha’s hearing loss until we returned home to the United States. Samantha was diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss at about 10 months old.
How could we love our daughter any less because she could not hear? Instead of mourning about Samantha’s hearing loss, we were determined to find out a way to optimize Samantha’s hearing. We surfed the web, found sites about hearing loss, read scientific publications and connected with others about hearing loss. We were referred to the John Tracy Clinic (JTC) and were one of the lucky ones to benefit from this wonderful program. They taught us how to deal with hearing loss as a family. Samantha was fitted with hearing aids. There were lots of ups and downs with a toddler not wanting wear hearing aids. Of course we had many hearing tests and, speech therapy sessions along this journey. Samantha’s language was still delayed and we were at a cross roads- another life-changing decision for Samantha.
In Samantha’s short 5 years of life, she has experienced more changes in life than other people would experience in a lifetime. After the last hearing test showed that Samantha did not comprehend the English language very well, we decided that we needed to contact the House Ear Institute (HEI) for a cochlear implant evaluation. We were hoping Samantha would not need the cochlear implant at such a young age, but it was apparent that she having more and more difficulty hearing as she has got older. We were given the green light to go ahead with the cochlear implant surgery. The entire process was less than three months!
We were more stressed about how to tell Samantha that she was going to have the surgery instead of her having the surgery itself. How do you explain to your 5 year old that she needs to go the hospital and have someone give her a boo-boo? We spent a week playing with her dolls with bandages over the ear to help Samantha visualize and comprehend the surgery. The day of surgery was pretty intense. We survived her cochlear implant surgery in June without any complication.
After she was fitted with the cochlear implant processor, she loves to wear it. If you ask Samantha, she says “my implant is working good!” Since receiving her cochlear implant, Samantha has graduated from the John Tracy Clinic Preschool and is currently attending kindergarten.
Today, she is a very active 5 years old who loves dressing up like a princess. And yes, her implant cover is pink as well as her new hearing aid. Samantha loves singing and chats about what she did during her day. Samantha’s hearing loss has become a part of our everyday lives. We have to work hard every day with her language skills and sometimes we just want to throw in the towel but when you look into Samantha’s eyes, it’s like a breath of pure energy. We know we have many new and long journeys ahead of us but we are so lucky to have family and friends who have embraced Samantha with open arms. She is truly an apple of our eyes. Her hearing loss has not stopped Samantha from doing anything.
Lynn Fukushima is Samantha’s mom.
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