“‘Love her like you would a normal child.’ Would people really think Charlotte wasn’t a ‘normal’ child or we wouldn’t love the crap out of her? And what is ‘normal’ anyway?”
‘She probably still has fluid in her ears from the delivery.’ I knew it was more.’: Mom advocates for hard of hearing daughter, ‘It’s not something to apologize for or fear’
‘You can’t be THAT deaf. You can speak to me.’ My disability was always up for debate.’: Advocate urges ‘there’s no right or wrong way to be deaf’
“They pulled out my eardrums. ‘You’ll be permanently deaf by 30.’ I was devastated.”
‘The teacher called home. ‘Vanessa is not paying attention in class.’ I failed every hearing test. ‘What are you saying?!’ I started to think I just wasn’t smart.’: Woman with severe hearing loss receives eye-opening diagnosis after 33 years
“We took my daughter for a routine hearing test. I impatiently asked my husband, ‘What’s taking them so long to start the test?’ His eyes widened. ‘Vanessa, are you kidding me? We’re half way through!’ I couldn’t hear a thing.”
‘Do you work for her?’ they’d ask. ‘I’m her daughter.’ My parents being deaf isn’t a thing to be SORRY for.’: Daughter of deaf parents describe joys of growing up, ‘Experiencing this is a gift’
“My mom experienced REPEATED rejection while searching for jobs, and was told she wasn’t a good communicator. It’s not an IMPAIRMENT, it’s something to be proud of.”
‘I desperately signed over FaceTime, ‘Mom home soon.’ I was stuck in a country with a brand new daughter.’: Couple adopts 2 special needs kids, ‘We are the absolute luckiest’
“I didn’t know when I’d see my husband again. I could hear my son crying, but all I could see was the dreaded ‘poor connection.’ My new daughter was screaming and couldn’t communicate. It was just too hard.”
‘Your son is deaf.’ We were praying it was a huge mistake. They wheeled him out. I lost it.’: Mom shocked by newborn’s severe hearing loss, ‘we had no family history’
“Beckett hadn’t heard for the first 13 months of his life and BAM. He was suddenly hearing. I cried on the way home, if I’m being honest. I received nasty, angry messages. I was ‘playing God’ by wanting to give him the gift of sound. Wanting our son to be able to hear us tell him ‘I love you’ was NOT a selfish thing.”
‘You will never become anything,’ my doctor said. I was going stone-cold deaf. ‘What now?’: Woman loses hearing to infection, vows ‘deafness will not define me’
“As a young girl, there were signs. I literally danced to my own beat, mispronounced words. I spent years humiliated, called to stand up in front of classmates and speak the language I couldn’t hear. On one test in particular, I completely bombed the oral exam, tears streaming down. ‘I thought you didn’t want to be labeled as different,’ my teacher said. That was the final straw.”
‘Is your husband deaf, too?’ No, but he’s the most patient man I’ve ever met.’: Cancer survivor marries ‘hearing husband,’ claims ‘hardships’ make her ‘glad to be born deaf’
“Yes, I’m deaf and my husband can hear. He reminds me when I leave the water running because I can’t hear it, or when my car is making a funny noise. He makes all my appointments over the phone. The amount of times I’ve said, ‘Huh? I have no idea what you’re saying,’ are endless. But I seriously couldn’t do life without him by my side acting as my ears and being my person. He makes me glad to be born deaf.”
‘An older woman complained I wasn’t ‘shushing’ my crying daughter loud enough. I smiled through tears.’: Mom gushes over ‘amazingly fearless’ deaf daughter
“We were so excited to finally have our baby home that it was a last minute thought she’d failed her newborn hearing test. The nurse assured us it was pretty common. I honestly didn’t even think of it again. Over the next few weeks, we watched her when the dog barked, we’d vacuum right next to her as she slept. Friends would watch football, loudly. NO response. Nothing seemed to disturb her. We knew something was terribly wrong.”
‘Then came the call. ‘Come to NYC and get your daughter. She’ll land in 3 days!’ We immediately jumped on the plane, but then a hiccup.’
“Just 2 days later we got a text in our agency group. ‘Who was the family that was interested in a deaf child?’ Well that was us, and now we are going to adopt 2 girls?! No, we couldn’t do that. So we had a HUGE decision to make.”
