Through the Hearts for Hearing Bridges program, a mixture of children who can hear unaided and those with hearing loss come together to celebrate their differences and see each other thriving in their own unique ways. “It ends this stigma of dividing between aided and unaided, and it’s important to do that,” said Lily. Lily also attended Hearts for Hearing camp each summer with other children who are deaf or have hearing loss. “It’s really cool because we all share the same experiences because we’re all deaf but we can hear and talk to each other,” said Lily. Though Lily laughingly says Hearts for Hearing has “kicked her out” because she no longer needs speech therapy or other services beyond annual mapping, her stepmom Amy, marketing and communication strategist for Hearts for Hearing, says the staff still know Lily well, sharing funny stories or sweet memories about her from her time as a patient and before Amy knew her. “The goal is by the time a kid is school-age that they are good to go, but there’s definitely that atmosphere where you’re always part of the family,” said Amy. As Amy and Alex began dating and then married four years ago, Amy has been especially grateful for the bond she and Lily have developed, from learning TikTok dances together to spending hours talking, and she recognizes that Lily’s cochlear implants have played a huge role in the two bonding so quickly. It’s also been instrumental in Lily creating a special relationship with her 18-month-old sister Hazel. The two love to play music together, along with Lily’s sister Violet, 11, and brother Ethan, 18. “Lily doesn’t consider herself any different from other kids, and that’s really the best way to articulate the difference cochlear implants have made in her life,” said Amy.
Lily
Lily’s story Now a 15-year-old sophomore at Harding Charter Preparatory High School, Lily loves learning TikTok dances, spending hours at the dinner table laughing and talking with her family and running track and cross country. Lily received her first pair of hearing aids at age 3 months, though by age 3 she had become profoundly deaf, at which point she received bilateral cochlear implants. “Making the decision to have the surgery was huge,” said Alex. He worried how Lily would be received, or bullied, by her peers because of the implants. Alex also researched what the speech of kids who had cochlear implants sounded like. “I knew she would be able to hear and talk, but I thought she would have a speech impairment,” said Alex. In hindsight, Alex recognizes Lily’s “spicy” moods as a toddler were because she was frustrated. She couldn’t communicate what she wanted. While remembering the rawness of his fear and worry is still painful, now when he looks at his daughter, he, and Lily, can say with assurance the implants were the right choice for their family. “Her speech just picked up and it was incredible the progress she made in a short time, cognitively and with language,” said Alex. “I would have never dreamed Lily would sound like she does … like a typically-hearing child.” When Lily was younger, her cochlear implants were visible and she often received questions or curious glances, especially from other kids. Though the models she has now aren’t visible, at the time, she embraced opportunities to share her experiences with others and explain her cochlear implants. “I love when parents would let their kids come up to Lily and say ‘what is that,’ to not treat the equipment on Lily’s head like something we had to ignore,” said Alex. “Let your kid be curious and ask questions.”
Clay
FOTO ARTS PHOTOGRAPHY
Morgan and Clay’s story Michael and Maria Young were intent upon providing their children a foundation in language and learning from a very young age so they wouldn’t potentially spend their entire academic careers behind, which is why they were fast acting in getting Morgan, Clay and Joseph enrolled at Happy Hands. Michael was amazed at the progress Morgan
54 METROFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM / SEPT-OCT 2021
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