My Little Dancer

A couple nights ago I brought Baby B, 15 months old now, up to the office to be with me and for extra stimulation. He was fine and happily entertained himself for about an hour, but then, when I turned on Brooke Fraser, LOUD, he went nuts!! Before I had tried to get his attention by calling his name and talking to him loudly, but he didn't pay any special attention to me. But he came alive with the music! I've heard the caregivers say that but hadn't seen it myself since his hearing aids. Finally, my first proof that they are helping!!

(That's our medical assistant Katrina at the filing cabinet, putting away various lab results in kid files.)

And then the last thing that happened before I left the office yesterday for church rehearsal:

Childcare superviser Tia (aunt) Adelaida sulks into the office. "Tia Jenny? I have some really bad news. Some really really bad news."

I notice she's nearly shaking and obviously nervous about continuing. This is my best tia here, so I can't imagine what's gone so wrong.

"Well......uh......it's really NOT good news." (I have the point by now.)

"One of B's hearing aids is... Broken."

I dropped the pen I was writing with, picked my jaw off the floor, and tried to not scream. Those are worth around $1000 each, although of course ours cost us much less from Starkey Foundation, that's even more pressure to me (how could we request a replacement?). I begged my eyes to see that it was just the mold and not the expensive part. IT'S JUST THE MOLD!! YEAH!!

But then I have to break the news to the audiologist at Audiocien, who made those for us for free.

"Buenas tardes, Don Miguel? Um......this is Jennifer from Hogar de Amor. Do you remember me? Of course you remember me. Well, uh, we have a little problem here."

(Why is it odd he doesn't seem surprised?)

"Well, uh, it's that......... ourbabyBsomehowgothishearingaidoutandanother(teething)babyBITitandnowthemoldisin,well,twopieces."

He didn't yell at me. Just said we'd have to take a look at it the next day since it was already late. SHEW.

Ironically this happens on the same day I probably spent a good hour total on organizing B's care better, particularly in regard to the usage and safety of both hearing aids. (Lately there have been problems losing them although there's a central place to put them, him ripping them out, the tape we use hurting his skin, sores in his ears maybe from putting them in wrong, the volume getting changed accidentally, tias forgetting to put them back in after his naps, etc., etc. At least I'm completely in charge of checking the batteries and changing them out every couple of weeks.)

So the administrator said "It really doesn't work to use hearing aids with a baby, does it". Nooo, it should work!! At least I don't think it should be so complicated. It's just our situation. Sigh. The challenges are more compounded raising so many at once, with 8 different "mothers" + volunteers and me.

And teething babies who think a soft plastic mold is nice for chewing practice.

As now I'm sure you are all very concerned about what craziness will happen next in the hearing aid saga, please join us in praying for God to work in providing B with a permanent loving family! He is a beautiful, sweet baby who loves attention and joking around. He has a slight to moderate case of cerebral palsy, severe hearing loss in one ear, moderate hearing loss in the other (the degree depends on who you talk to), and--what seems to be the main issue behind his delays--brain damage/mental retardation. Our current volunteer didn't seem to believe me when I described how he was as a baby, so cranky and hard to please and decidedly ANTI-social. He has turned around so much from that stage.

We KNOW that there is a family who will love and embrace him from one of the countries Bolivia works with (mainly European). I can't say much more here in public, but we have high hopes that he will be matched to someone soon, although he could still easily be with us another year. And I will miss him terribly when he goes.