NO AVT!!!!

I know, I know, I haven't been posting as often. My reasons? #1 -S U M M E R! That means 6 kids running in and out of the house. #2 - here in Toronto, the City's unionized employees CUPE 416 and CUPE 79 are on STRIKE. What does that mean? No garbage pick-up. No city-run summer camps (affects 3 of my kids-which means they are home ALL THE TIME) and, worst of all, NO auditory verbal therapy for Ava. That really, REALLY sucks. She's only been hearing for just under 3 months and the therapy is CRUCIAL to her language development. The therapy should be considered an essential service. The longer the delay in therapy, the longer it will take for Ava to catch up. What makes me ill is that we used to have a really great therapist who is a Teacher of the Deaf (TOD) who wasn't connected to the City. But we were told we weren't allowed to use her because she was missing some sort of certification - really a political excuse, but, whatever. So then we were referred to another really great therapist who happens to work for the City and now we can't use her either because of the strike! So, where does that leave us? WITH NOTHING. We have not been successful in finding another therapist as of yet for temporary therapy during the strike. We will have to pay out of pocket and find private therapy, which we will do if this strike doesn't end in the next couple weeks.

Despite not receiving the therapy, I do feel that Ava is still moving along with her hearing and receptive language. She is imitating many sounds now. She vocalizes ALL THE TIME, a real chatter-box. She seems to be building many approximations and her receptive language continues to grow too-we can see she understands more and more words now. So I guess its all good for now but without that professional feedback, the doubts really creep up on me - very unsettling feeling.

Ava just had her Baptism yesterday. It was such a beautiful day and she looked so precious in her white gown. The priest was very considerate and took care not to get her CI's wet. I noticed a few stares from the congregation. That is to be expected. It's too bad that CI's really are quite foreign to people even now-a-days. I would love it if people asked questions about Ava's CI's. The more we can educate the general public, the better it will be for Ava. I took the kids to a fast food place for lunch last week and a kind elderly woman approached me and asked me about Ava's CI's. After I explained that they allow Ava to hear and learn to speak normally, she told me that Ava is a gift from God and how blessed we are to have her. And how right she is!