Kai's Baptism

In our Church kids can choose to be baptized when they turn 8 years old.  Kai has been so excited for his big day to come and has been counting down the days.  He is such a good kid and we are so proud of all the good choices he is making in his life. 

Kirsten and Emme flew in from Seattle which was super exciting and so fun.  The baptism program was really neat as Kirsten played the piano, Emme and Aunt Kimberley gave talks, Kennedy and Grandpa Utah gave prayers, and Uncle Tyler and Grandpa were the witnesses.  Lance performed the baptism and gave Kai a beautiful confirmation.  We were so grateful for the love and support shown from family and friends who were there and from a distance.   Afterwards we came back to the house for lunch and playing.  It was a great day and we were really pleased with how it all turned out.    

 

 

I Can Hear You, I Can Hear Me

One of the really amazing things about Rori's school here in Utah is she has lots of access to the school's audiologist.  Finding an audiologist that was familiar with kids and willing to really focus on Rori was a real issue for us in Vegas.  The only services we have really felt confident in so far came when we traveled to Los Angeles to the John Tracy Clinic.  The problem there though was they were only really able to evaluate and test Rori as they didn't have the access to the software for her brand of hearing aids.  Plus she really needed someone local that could continually be monitoring and adjusting her hearing aids. 

So, it has been such a massive relief to already be in such close contact with the audiologist here.  I spoke with her on the phone on the first week of school for about an hour going over Rori's long and often frustrating history and I was immediately impressed.  She had us come in that Friday and she spent about 2 1/2 hours testing Rori, adjusting her molds, etc.  It was something we have never experienced to that level before.  What is crazy about hearing evaluations is it is so archaic.  Rori spent over an hour in the sound booth.  Every time she heard the bird chirp she was to respond.  Good places make it a more fun game for a kid, but what five year old really has the patience to do that for an hour.  Rori did great though and we all felt like they got some really good results out of it.  Hopefully someday soon technology will get better.

Last week the audiologist came in to Rori's classroom a few times and altered the hearing aids even more based on those results.  Again, it is all about the fine tuning, testing, finding the right hearing aids for the kind of loss, and adjusting over and over.  It is so great that she is so accessible and brings the services right to the kids in the classroom.  It is a work in progress and it is SO AMAZING to have someone focusing and really trying to get it right.  I also LOVE that she is communicating with me through phone calls and email on a regular basis.  Even better is the fact that she copies Rori's teacher and Auditory Verbal Therapist so they can all work together as a team.  Hooray!!! 

Last Friday she called and told me about the adjustments she had made that day.  She said she had really raised the high frequency level some and was curious to see how Rori did with it over the weekend.  About 10 minutes after we hung up I got Zuri up from her afternoon nap since we had to get to the airport and Rori went over and gave her a big hug.  Then she said:

 "Zuri listen to this.  Shhhh.  Can you hear that?"

We got in the car and the whole rest of the ride I could Rori in the back repeating that "SHHH' sound to herself at different volumes.  At one point I asked her about it and then made the sound myself.  She excitedly responded with a giggle:

"I can hear you, I can hear me".

Needless to say there were some tears on my part as we drove along.  It made me think that this might have been the first time that she was really hearing that sound.  Living in two places as a family is hard, but it is for moments like that that we are doing this.  We will keep working and trying to figure out how to give Rori the most access to various sounds.  For once it feels like we have someone who knows what they are doing helping us though.  Again tears of relief. 

Labor Day Weekend 2013

Friday's are super exciting around here as the kids have short school days and then Lance comes.  It is so great to pick him up after missing him all week.  Labor Day weekend was extra great because we were going to get him for an extra day.

After we picked him up at the airport we headed directly to the Salt Lake Bees baseball game.  Uncle Tyler hooked us up with some extra tickets and we were able to invite some of our UT friends to join us.  It was fun to catch up and see how big all the kids had gotten.  I guess I was having so much fun that I didn't even take any pictures.

Saturday morning we got up and headed to a reception at the Celebration of Life Monument near the spectacular downtown library.  They had added new names to the monument and one of them was Grandma Utah's.  There were tons of people and it was a nice program.  The area is beautiful with a big fountain, flowers, trees, a glass wall with the names, and beautiful upbeat sculptures.  I think it has been done very nicely and I was glad we could be there for the reception. 

 

 

Walking back to the car afterwards we found some fun downtown things to play with and an old police car show to check out.

After that we headed back to the house to pack up and head out for the Cabin at Bear Lake.  Everyone was excited to get there as we hadn't been there in over a year.  The kids had so much fun exploring and enjoying all the fun things there. 

 

 

We drove back on Monday afternoon in time to unload and then drop Lance off at the airport for another week.  It was a fun long weekend.