Thank you, Mom for all the things you've done for us while we were growing up. With your love and dedication to help me as a child with a hearing loss you made sure I get the best help in education. I'll always remember how you helped me with my speech and listening skills, and all the fun books you helped me get so I could read everyday. I remember the times when you spent many hours standing in the rain to watch me play soccer at those soccer games. And the reward of seeing my hard work pay off with my team winning the soccer state championship. And the wrestling matches where I ended up in 2nd place in the final match, and the little league baseball games with my team winning the championship in Tacoma. All with your love, encouragement, and dedication not just to me but for my brother and sister, as well. We all turned out great!
I am sure you still relishing to this day your prediction when I was a little boy that the doctors and educators would eat their words about me thinking that just because I have a hearing loss I wouldn't amount much past the 4th grade level. You were right. The moment I graduated from high school with a 'B' average and at age 18 went to Valdosta State University striking out on my own for the first time was the day when they ate their words by the buckets. It was long road I took where I finally ended up with a M.S. degree in geology from University of Idaho with enough credits to get a 2nd degree. You still gave me lots of encouragement and hope even while I was working nights, raising a family and getting my graduate degree during my time at University of Idaho all by myself. Going to that university was one of the more memorable times I've had because it was a time when I was raising my own family showing my love and encouragements to my own daughters in return. Even the newspaper photographer captured that loving moment I had with my first child and I swinging together on one swing where our picture ended up in the Moscow, Idaho newspaper. Your 18 years worth of love, dedication and help paid off in spades and got me going in the right direction. I will make sure parents of deaf and hard of hearing kids that nothing is impossible when it comes to raising a child with a hearing loss.
Happy Mother's Day......and yes, they will continue to eat their words. And don't stop acting in those wonderful plays, too!
