Our Brave Little Nathan

Hello!

Here are a few recent photos of our brave little Nathan...

It's been two weeks since Nathan's 2nd stage hearing aid implant surgery and he's doing great!

He still has a "healing cap" over the new implant, but next week he'll get to take it off and be fitted for his new hearing aid. Yay! We've anticipated this event since he was a baby, always talking about "when he is older, he'll get an implant, so he won't have to wear his headband anymore." But now that we've seen him through two surgeries and we're days away from his final stage of this process, it feels a little sureal. It's still so strange to me to see the shiny new attachment on the side of his head...it kind of reminds me of some half man/half robot kind of thing. But I'm sure we'll get used to it, in time. And I know it's in his best interest. He'll be able to hear so much better with the direct contact he'll get from his hearing aid now, and he won't have to be bothered with a bulky headband anymore, either. He's been so brave about it all, too. I admire him so much for going through this whole process during school. We had hoped he could get this all done during the summer, but his Dr. wanted to wait & be sure that his skull was completely healed before attempting the 2nd stage surgery. I'm grateful, though, for the excellent Dr. he is and for his good judgement. He has taken such great care of our son. And Nathan is coping with everything with such maturity! The other morning, I was in his class, helping him set up his "FM system" and get his hearing aid on--over the healing cap and the brown gauze-type bandage that wraps around his head, and some of the other students had stopped to watch us. I was so worried, because I know Nathan doesn't like to draw any attention over that, so I was trying to hurry and then the cutest little girl said to me, "Nathan is pretty cute. And he has a cute smile, too." Then Nathan smiled and I just about burst into tears!!! I was SO thankful for her kind words at that moment, and I know that Nathan was too. I am so grateful for moments like that, that help us through some of these trials that we try to make light of, but can be quite overwhelming at times.

~

Thank you so much for all of your love & prayers!

xoxo