great day~another step closer

After 2 days of phone calls on Thursday and Friday last week (of course), today we received the phone calls we have been waiting for!

Jackson has an approved referral back to the Baha Clinic at Hampton Oaks at Shands for his Baha evaluation.  His appointment is on the 16th, just one week from tomorrow!

We are currently researching the benefits of bilateral Bahas in children with bilateral microtia/atresia.  From what we've read so far, there is a benefit of localization (being able to tell which direction a sound is coming from, which Jackson has none now) and also an increase in speech perception in noisy locations (classrooms!!!our home!!!!!life in general!!)

Our research has also been showing us that the FDA and Medicare has identified the Baha system as a prosthetic device.  Hopefully this will help with getting our insurance to pay for the cost of a system (and possibly 2 Baha systems to wear bilaterally)

Jackson is doing well in his auditory training therapy sessions, but they have ended due to school being out for the summer.  Diane has given us amazing websites to help us continue his therapy.  One of those sites is called "The Listening Room" They have many great highchair activites, songs, and games all organized according to stages of development.

Jackson has begun using "mama" more appropriately in the past few days!  Tonight it was a joy to hold him and rock him while he was looking up at me continually saying "mama", "mama", "mmmm" "mama" and then he would start to giggle!  And his giggle, by the way, is contagious.

We know that his speech development will be slow.  Please pray that we continue to find joy in the small accomplishments he has!

School is officially out for students tomorrow and then I have two days left of work.  My plan is to get our family blog up and running.  I haven't decided yet if I will continue Jackson's blog about his continual journey with microtia or if I will leave it as is and just post about everything on the family blog.  My original intention was to have Jackson's blog just about our adoption process and travel.  But then it became such a great way to update family and friends about his progress.  So...there arrives the thought of our family blog. 

Any thoughts, my bloggy friends?  Do you prefer blogs that have everything all mixed together or separate family from the journey?  I'd love to hear what you think!

Calling it a night!
"Mama"