The End

I am making this short and sweet.   Since I have noticed I have not gotten any comment on my blog lately,  I have lost my motivation to polish my writing skills.   So at the end, I have come to the conclusion to end the blog.

My Experience

When I found out Ryan was diagnosed Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) known as Autism, my world crumbled around me. At that time, I wanted to look for ways to prove to the specialist that she was wrong because she had no knowledge of Children of Deaf Adults. I did look for articles and indeed did find an article about Hearing Children of Deaf Parents with Language Delay.


Also, I remember feeling my world crumbled around me as I wanted to blame others for causing Ryan being Autism while I was pregnant quietly. Instead of blaming others, I automatically shut the world out for weeks including my family. I remember how angry I was when I heard someone telling me, " I'm sorry to see that Ryan will live with you for the rest of your life time." That was blunt. But for anyone who had said to someone bluntly TOTALLY missed beautiful daily moments.

I remember how much I wanted to overcome Ryan's obstacles. At first, he could not speak at all. He was frustrated. He had lots of tantrums: throwing things up in the air such as toys and shoes. He did dash off a lot of times. But this had changed. Little by little, I worked with him daily by age 3. He gradually started talking and cooperating nicely. That was not my only destinations. The next destination was to interact with other kids. Now, he surprised others; he does interact with other kids. Still, I have many more secret destinations -- I am not the kind of a person who would surrender despite of his disability. Look at me- I am his example.

When a parent finds out his/her child is disability, I know what it feels like to see your world crumble around you. But the matter is that I had totally different points of views.

I didn't know then that Ryan's smile would make my heart sing.

I didn't know that he would hug my neck with all his might and that he would be a super snugger.

I didn't know he would make me laugh in many ways.

I didn't know he would amaze me with his far-out creative imaginations.

I didn't know he would made that far ahead of my expectation: being in a full-time mainstream class and doing remarkable well.

Yet, I had the experience to walk through the pain to find joy.

and looking back,I can confidently say, the joy far outweighs the pain.

Watching a Show

Have you ever had an animal who likes to watch T.V. ?  One of my cats, Star, mainly liked to watch any specific show. This evening, my husband and I caught him watching a Disney show. We thought it was so cute to see him standing in a front of T.V.

Being Cool

At an early morning, Ryan saw the sun came out for the first time we have had.  He politely asked me if he could wear a pair of sunglasses to YMCA, just before his class started.  I warned that I would allow him if he put his sunglasses away by the time he went in class, and returned his sunglasses.  He  did!  Ryan mentioned, "I wanted to wear sunglasses to school because the sun is out.  Also, I wanted to be cool!"  When I heard he used the word, "cool," it cracked me up.  He sure was a COOL boy.

Dr. Robert Davila's Visit

Since we named our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program after Dr. Robert R. Davila, he kept his promise to visit our school site since last Fall.  On the day he informed my boss, who is a coordinator,  that he wanted to visit our program.  For months, we slowly made a progress in our programs such as installing the Video Phones, getting our printers working from Smart Board, and few other things.

On the day before his arrival, we gathered everything especially from my boss who worked SO HARD!  One of the lists were having our students painting the signs that says, " Welcome Dr. Davila", and making the signs "Reserved Parking for Dr. Davila."   Pizza, drinks, cookies (of course I didn't eat this) and light and dark purple balloons.  We even had our school mascot, "Dalmatian " with purple banana statue.  Ironically, Dr. Robert Davila had a dalmatian dog when he was a young boy.  This gives an addition reason for choosing mascot is that 80 % of dalmatian dog is deaf.

By the time of his arrival, he brought his long time friend.  Many of my students kept asking me, "Is Dr. Davila here yet?" or trying to peek through the one way door's window.   I had to manage their excitement because they had learned a little bit about him especially when we all learned many different hand shapes for "D."  His name for Davila is one of them.  He smiled when he saw the hand shapes and a picture of him posing on the wall in my classroom.   He did visit each classroom.

While he was still having a lunch with all of us,  I did take a picture of each of my students. So I can printed and give it to them for their life time memory.   Not only taking pictures of my students,  I made sure to have someone taking picture of me and Dr. Davila. He sure was VERY OUTGOING AND FRIENDLY person.  Not only being an outstanding and friendly person, he even shared his fantasized story when he was a child. He miraculously made it through to the top!  I am really proud for his achievement.

He and I had an opportunity to have a chit chat.  He did ask me few questions such as where did I graduate and is there any deaf staff.  He did not realize I was the only deaf teacher.  Guess it was because I was signing and speaking at the same time. I know he did the same thing.   At the end of the day, I requested to have a signature of my Deaf Life Magazine for me and my husband.  He did not hesitate at all.   I also told him that I would be happy to send a copy of pictures on CD.  He seemed to be pleased because I was the only ones who actually brought the camera (it does not make any difference because I ALWAYS carry my camera in case) while

others were taking pictures from their phone. 

At the end of the day, it was a splendid day that he actually came to our school.  I would not say that it is our school.  This include him.   Frankly, it was awesome to see him beaming his smile when he saw a huge picture of him hanging above the wall.  He deserved this well after he had worked hard for himself and the deaf community.

Cub Scout Ceremony

Last week, the Cub Scouts gathered for the ceremony.    Some of the scouts graduated with a merit badge while others did not finish it at all.  My boys did !

 At the opening ceremony, Ryan gave a prayer speech.  He did an excellent job since we have had practiced for two days before he came and spoke it in a front of the Cub Scouts and the parents.  Lots of the parents were impressed for his efforts.  

After Ryan finished the prayer, each leader spoke for their troop.  It was Dylan's turn to stand up in a front of his dad.  His leader painted Dylan's face.  This symbolized that he graduated from Bears.  He will be promoting up to Webolos.  Boy, I enjoyed seeing both of them being so proud for his achievement.

Like I said each leader had an opportunity to take turns,  David took his took to speak for his group.   There were few parents who showed up.  While he was speaking for his group, Jeff,  the Master interpreted for David.  It was really nice to see someone interpreting for him in a front of the audience.   While he was interpreting for Jeff,  I had a chance to come up to put an award on Ryan's shirt.  Without a doubt, he was proud that he was one of the among scout.

At the end, we all came home with our proud sons.   It was really nice to see them making difference in their life.

Flower Fields

Have you ever made a spontaneous plan?  I did and chose to take my family to go to Flower Fields in Carlsbad.  It has many beautiful and colorful flowers.   We were fortunately to take many good pictures just for one hour because we had to visit David's aunt who was in town for a very short amount of time.   The plan on going to Flower Fields were PERFECT!

However, the boys really wanted to do all of the stamping areas and entered in Sweet Pea Maze.  We will on the next round because we were for an hour.  Did we do a good job on taking pictures?