{good but hard}

this day seems so long ago.

but today marks THREE YEARS that our daughter has been deaf but hearing!

three years ago today, 

a few weeks after her cochlear implant surgery...

(matt with m right before her surgery)

our daughter heard her very first sound.

it probably sounded like blips and beeps,

but it was the first time she heard

anything.

do you remember those early days?

these days i take my daughter's ability to hear me (when she has her implants on) 

or read my lips as the norm. 

it seems so natural for m to be singing, talking, making up stories. 

and yet she is still completely, totally deaf. 

today her friend eli asked her, "what is deaf?" and m said, "i'm deaf. when i was born i was born deaf and my ears can't hear and all the kids at my school are deaf and they wear implants or hearing aids like me." 

pretty remarkable.
we're staying at a rental house this weekend with friends,
so we had a little impromptu hearing birthday party for m this afternoon,
ao as she was waiting for everyone to wake up from naps to join her party

we had this little conversation:

happy hearing birthday to my smart, lovely daughter.