Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Author: Karen Putz

  • Even Champions Cry

    Karen Putz and Keith St. Onge

    Last year, I sat in the boat unloading my feelings of frustration on two young barefoot water skiers. I was struggling on the water trying to learn a new trick and it just wasn’t happening.  My first barefoot tournament was  a month away and I didn’t feel ready at all. I didn’t have a trick run put together.  Slaloming behind the boat was a hit or miss affair and I had no confidence in my skills.  It was like a domino effect: the lack of confidence translated to a poor performance on the water.  To top it off, Coach Swampy made me cry on the very first day of that week.  Nothing was working well for me.

    So when I unloaded on the two youngsters who were training me, I learned about their own struggles on the way to becoming experts in the sport.  I  learned they both also had moments when they, too, broke down in tears.  (And just for the record, both occasions occurred with Coach Swampy. Just saying.  Bahahahaha!)

    Not too long ago I received a message from a friend who said to me, “You make the barefooting look so easy.”  Then another message from a friend who said, “Wow, writing comes naturally for you.”  Yet another expressed surprise when I shared I was having a really down day. “You’re always so upbeat on your Facebook and Twitter page.”

    The thing is, I have my struggles.  We all do. They don’t call it a journey for nothing. And the other thing is, people often see the end results of success but are unaware of the hard stuff that comes before the outcome.

    Two and half years ago, I started writing a book with Keith St. Onge, the two-time World Barefoot Champion. When we started this book, we literally did not know each other at all. I had taken two half-day lessons from him at the World Barefoot Center in Florida. When we took on this project together it was a crazy gamble. I had no idea if his story was even worthy of a book. He had no clue if I could write.  I had not  published a book of my own.   Keith called his mother for advice; she was confident he should go ahead with the project.  Deep down, something propelled both of us to take a leap of faith and start writing together.

    We spent hours on the phone with an interpreter translating everything while I took notes.  We once spent nearly an entire day on the phone and my hands became numb from the typing. Many mornings, I woke up at five a.m. to write before beginning my sales job. There were evenings when Keith would come in from an eight-hour day of pulling students and we tackled the book.  We spent several hours at a time at the local Crispers restaurant where I once fell asleep on top of the laptop.  Our spouses began to grumble about the “other guy/other woman” who was taking so much time away.

    For two and half years, we wrote and we wrote until we ended up with a book that was nearly 400 pages long and had to cut it back. What unfolded was an incredible story of passion, goals, and dreams; and the ups and downs it took to succeed. And I learned, yes, even champions cry. In his book, Gliding Soles, Lessons from a Life on Water, Keith opens his soul and shares every lesson of triumph and failure.

    So after two and half years, Gliding Soles isnow a reality. Keith and I are thankful we had no idea what we were getting into  for had we known, we might have given up before we even began.   The long hours and toil were well worth it as Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Tom Ziglar and Glen Plake are some of the folks who’ve endorsed the book.

    While glancing through my notes recently, I came across a few paragraphs which we didn’t include in the book but the topic fits this blog post so well I had to share:

    “Passion can burn deep down inside. I remember falling while I was training on the water as a teen. I began to cry. I tried to stop myself from crying before the boat crew came back to pick me up but they asked why I was crying. I could not answer. I just knew the passion deep down inside of me was like a ball of fire. I had failed to do the trick and paid the price in a fall, but I would not give up until I mastered it.

    Passion is when you cry from failure and have no idea why, but you will do anything to figure it out and succeed. “

     

    Yes, even champions cry.

     

    Keith St. Onge

    .

  • In Praise of Meditation

    20121012-112108.jpg

    Every day, I spend some time meditating in quiet thought. I start with some gratitude, for I find it gets me in a good frame of mind. Then I spend some time “sitting for ideas,” a process I learned from Debra Poneman.

    I love finding new places to meditate surrounded by nature. This morning, I went out to a dock in Winter Haven surrounded by reeds. It was the perfect place to be alone in thought.

    I had been feeling so weighed down for a while, the result of going in too many different directions. It’s that lovely “ADD” aspect of me. I try hard to control it, but sometimes I let it get the best of me.

    After the go-go-go of the last several weeks, the stillness of the morning took over. I sat there for a long time. A hawk flew overhead. I thought of my friendMary Clark who passed away recently and I began to cry.

    A good, cleansing cry. I needed it.

    As I stood up to walk back, a bird flew out from the reeds. It was a red-winged blackbird.

    My dad.

    /missin-dad-one-year-later/

  • Elise Whitworth, Entrepreneur and Web Developer

    Tell me about your job, career, or calling. How did you get into this line of work?

    It’s a long story!  I’ll try to tell it as simply as I can…

    I first started my career in mass communications and design industry in 1997 when I served as News Editor, then as Business Manager, and finally as Managing Editor of the student paper at Gallaudet University. During my time at the newspaper and as a student, I learned design software and became an avid user of the internet, critical skills that I later used at my jobs as Production Manager and Content Manager at dot com startups, then as a web development contractor.

    During those years, I loved hosting the occasional party, big unforgettable bashes, always complete with entertainment, drinks, and food.  I also enjoyed doing occasional part time work for a variety of event planning companies doing event deco, set up, catering, serving, and clean up.

    Out of all my work, I loved event work the most, so I attended University of California, San Diego for an extended studies course in event planning and earned a certificate.

    I launched my first website, EyeOnEvents.com, in January of 2003 – an events and news calendar site for the deaf and hard of hearing community.  I had to shut down the site while I was ill from my second pregnancy. A friend liked what I did and later asked me to build a website for him, he’d pay me. I was surprised, said OK and built his website. He referred me to someone, then that person referred me, and so on. Before long, I found herself doing web development almost full time while taking care of two young children at home.  But I always wanted to get back to the event industry.

    Two years ago I decided to bring back EyeOnEvents.com, rebranded as Eventida.com, an event promotion site where one can post events for any community, specifying which language is spoken or interpreted at the event; ASL, ENG, or SPA.  Eventida.com allows me to combine my skills, experience, and love for both web development and events.

    Meanwhile, I’ve continued to provide web development services to clients for income, working with my husband and business partner, who is a web developer too.

    If you think about it – newspapers, websites, and events are all really about the same thing; the user experience.  That is what I specialize in; creating user experiences.

    What is the best part of your job, career, or calling?

    The best part is the ability to apply my creative thinking skills, and getting positive feedback from the users who enjoy what I produce, be it an event or website.  With website work, I’ve always enjoyed learning about different industries, such as filmmaking or manufacturing.

    It’s also wonderful to be able to use technology to bring me to a level playing field when it comes to being deaf in a hearing world, with email and IM allowing me to communicate.

    I also love being my own boss and ability to set my own hours so that I can be there for my family when needed.

    What are some of the challenges?

    Some of the best parts are also the biggest challenges: the fact that there are so many different industries usually means different requirements that sometimes the clients don’t think to tell me about; I do find that some hearing people are really “phone people” relying a lot on verbal tones, and that puts me at a disadvantage when I’m not able to voice directly to them in my tone; and when there’s a big deadline and I’m working insane hours, it takes me away from my family.

    I also find myself dealing with assumptions and mis-interpretations; there are people who think I’m just lazing around at home, putting in the occasional hour or two of work, when I actually work more hours than most people at a 9 to 5 job.   Or a simple, brief email that I quickly pop off is interpreted as me being curt and cranky and it goes downhill from there.

    Client management is hard.  You have to communicate, communicate, communicate.  For creative people like me, I usually just want to focus on producing.  I’m just not “on” as a communicator all the time, and have to be “in the mood” to talk. That’s always been one of my biggest challenges.  I’m typically “on” when it comes to writing, designing, coding, promoting, planning task lists, doing project breakdowns – I love to produce tangible results.

    There are no benefits when you’re self employed – you have to pay health insurance, taxes, and when you go on vacation, the income stops – unless you have a turnkey product or website that sells itself 24/7.  

    What was it like growing up deaf/hard of hearing?

    Honestly, that’s a hard question to answer since I’ve been deaf my whole life.  How can I compare it to not being deaf?   I can say that, growing up, I’ve felt glad to be deaf.  Instead of living a boring life growing up in the same neighborhood and knowing the same people all my life, I’ve met people from all over the state, and later during college, people from all over the world.  Being deaf has given me a unique experience and perspective on life that I appreciate having.  I’ve always valued uniqueness – one of my favorite sayings is “variety is the spice of life.”

    I can read lips and speak really well, so that probably contributed to me not minding so much being deaf while growing up – I didn’t experience the same level of frustrations that some of my peers have.  I enjoyed music, had the occasional hearing friend, grew up in an area that was densely populated with deaf people (southern California).

    However, I do find myself appreciating being deaf less and less as I get older, and the challenges become bigger.  When you’re a kid, what responsibilities do you have?  Not much!  The more responsibility I have, the more I feel the barriers that I have to overcome.

    Having hearing children has made me feel more deaf than I ever have in my life – if I can’t understand what someone is saying to me, then I can brush it off and move on – I have people I can communicate with in sign language, I’m satisfied.  But now, when there is some stranger is talking to my kids, or we need to talk to my kids’ teacher or scout leader, and we can’t understand – then it’s hard, I can’t just brush it off because I care about my kids more than anything else.

    Also, as a professional, as I’ve found it challenging to successfully grow my business, network – I am certainly feeling the “glass ceiling” more and more.  Thoughts such as “if I weren’t deaf, maybe…” now pop into my head, that I almost never had growing up.

    Even in the deaf community, where one may think I’d have an easier time, it’s tougher – there are a lot of biases in the deaf community against one another.  I’m not going to say anything more about that issue right now, that could be a whole other article, or book!

    What advice would you give a deaf/HH person who is looking for a job, career or calling like yours?

    Most of the advice I have is for contractors / self employed.  There’s a whole other set of advice for someone running a business with employees or building a Software As A Service product.  I’ll save that for yet another article, another day.

    1. Don’t accept just any client or project – be selective, set up ways to “filter” potential clients.  A bad client can consume your attention, kill your motivation, and worst of all, say bad things about you to other people who may be potential clients.

    2. Keep up with industry trends and maintain skills – attend workshops, conferences regularly.

    3. Make sure you always set aside time to keep up with marketing efforts.  It’s easy to fall into the pattern of working on client projects full time and when it’s over, have to drum up more business, and possibly run the risk of accepting a bad client or project just because you need the revenue.   It’s a hard pattern to break once you’re in it.

    4. Commit to always providing the highest quality, being consistent and dependable.

    5. Don’t undervalue yourself.  Being affordable and inexpensive may allow you to get more clients quickly, but then you will be less able to provide true quality, hire help, and will eventually burn yourself out.  The more expensive you are, the more careful clients will be with your time, and naturally respectful, the happier you will be.  Closing the sale will be harder, but worth it.

    And most importantly: know yourself.  This applies to all of the above; if you’re highly creative but mercurial, not the most dependable person, make sure your client knows that beforehand – don’t commit to deadlines – or get a partner who doesn’t mind dealing with the client and delays because you produce awesome stuff.  If you have a hard time turning down projects or filtering clients (ie., you trust people easily), make sure you’re not the person responsible for client sales.  Or, if you’re not that creative, get a creative partner and focus more on logistics, client management, etc.  Maybe you want to work from home, but then reality shows that no, you need to be around people to stay focused on tasks.

    The more you know yourself (and be honest with yourself), the more you can adjust your working practices, find the right partners / employees to complement you… in the end, achieving success.  Be warned: it will probably take years.  But persist and you’ll get there.  You won’t, if you blame everybody but yourself for your failures and setbacks.

    BACKGROUND INFO

    Elise was born deaf, the youngest child of six, and raised in Orange County, California. After graduating from California School for the Deaf, Riverside, in 1992, she attended community college for one year before enrolling at Gallaudet University. She majored in English with a concentration in Journalism and minored in Business Management.

    Loving her life in Hurricane, Utah with husband Lee and two boys, 8 and 10, Elise spends her spare time with her family, reading books, and traveling.

    Pitch in for the development and expansion of Eventida: Fundable, Eventida




  • More Praise for Tommie Copper

    tommie copper logo

    Early this morning, while flipping through the cable channels at a hotel, I came across the Tommie Copper segment and thought back to the first time I came across the company in the early spring:

    Discovering Tommie Copper

    To have my knee pain disappear completely after all those weeks of taping my knee over in therapy– priceless!

    I had another opportunity to experience the miracle of these copper sleeves over the summer.  During one of my slalom practices while barefooting, I pulled a muscle in my forearm.  I had trouble gripping the handle for three weeks and the pain just would not go away.  I skied the Regionals and the Nationals and kept icing the same spot.

    It was time to test out a Tommie Copper arm sleeve to see if I could get the same relief I received from their knee sleeve.  The company sent me an arm sleeve to try.

    Sure enough, within 48 hours of wearing the copper-infused compression sleeve, the pain was cut in half.  After two weeks of wearing it, the pain had disappeared completely.  So now that I’ve experienced two of their products and gained relief with both, I’m even more of a fan of this company.  I’ve been recommending the products to everyone I know who has experienced pain of any kind.

    Tommie Copper Arm Sleeve

    Next week, I’ll be heading out to the World Barefoot Center for a week of barefooting.  As always, by the third day, my body will start screaming.  I think if I order every single Tommie Copper product, I would be covered from neck to toe.  That should work!

     

  • New Book: The Parenting Journey, Raising Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

    It’s here, a brand-new book for parents of deaf and hard of hearing children:

    The Parenting Journey, Raising Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children (Kindle and paperback).

    I actually started writing this book three years ago, but I didn’t get more than a few pages completed here and there. Thanks to my kick-in-the-pants neighbor and business coach, Jean Kuhn and Dan Miller’s two words of advice at his Coaching with Excellence workshop (Take action!), I finally applied some gazelle intense focus over the summer and completed the project.

    The Parenting Journey, Raising Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children captures the lessons I’ve learned on the journey of raising three deaf and hard of hearing kids who are now teens. I also share my insights from the professional perspective of working in early intervention and as a person who is deaf.

    Yesterday, it captured a top spot for the hearing category on Amazon:

    And Lee Woodruff kindly gave it a tweet:

    Speaking of Lee, she has a new book out: Those We Love The Most. Lee is an amazing writer. On Friday night, I shared an excerpt from her other book, Perfectly Imperfect, at the Iowa Symposium on Hearing Loss. Lee has a chapter titled, “A Different Ability,” where she shares her journey as a mom of a deaf daughter.

    Grab a copy of The Parenting Journey, Raising Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and discover the two questions that every deaf and hard of hearing kid wants the answers to.

     

     

     

     

  • The New Stem Cell Research for Hearing Loss

    Back in January, 2012, I talked to the research team at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Houston about the first human trials using stem cells to improve hearing. What follows is an article published in the Communicator:

    In my family, there are five generations of relatives who are deaf and hard of hearing. Every now and then, a discussion would come up among us—what if there was a non-surgical solution to restoring hearing?   I recently came across an article sent to me via my blog, about the first stem cell clinical trials being done in Houston, Texas.  I also came across an article opposing the research.

    I got in touch with the research team to find out more about using stem cells to restore hearing.  The idea of using stem cells to improve hearing first came about from a casual conversation between Linda Baumgartner and her husband, neurosurgeon Dr. James Baumgartner.  “Jim did a few other studies with stem cells for other issues and I asked him, ‘Is this something we can do for babies with hearing loss?’’ said Linda.  Jim was working on a trial using bone marrow for patients with traumatic brain injuries and he was intrigued with Linda’s idea so he did some research and talked to several researchers.

    Dr. Baumgartner came across previous research done in Italy which showed successful results using mice.  “The study used infant mice and exposed them to noise, antibiotics, or both– to create hearing loss,” he said.  “All of the mice were injected with human stem cells through the abdomen.  The damaged hair cells grew again—the nerves reconnected.  The cells from the human cord blood triggered the mice’s own hair cells to grow again.”

    The FDA approved a license for the first human trials on ten patients, ages six months to eighteen months.  Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas and Cord Blood Registry(r) (CBR) identified two babies to receive the treatment.  The first baby, whose hearing loss resulted from CMV exposure, received the first stem cell infusion on January 23, 2012.

    I asked Dr. Baumgartner about the side effects from stem cell treatments and he assured me that the procedure had a strong safety record.   “Safety is our goal.  People  are often scared of stem cell research—they freak out,” he explained.  “Autologous blood, giving people back their own blood products, is safe.”

    Once the trial shows results with at least five infants, the team can request FDA approval for the second phase which will allow an increase dosage of stem cells.  The third phase would include double-blind random trials.   “I feel my hypothesis is strong and I’m hopeful we will get good results,” said Dr. Baumgartner.

    In a discussion with a friend, she revealed that she was scared about the potential success of the stem cell trials.  “It scares me to think that we would lose the beauty of deaf and hard of hearing people in the world.  The world would be so bland without that diversity,” she said.  “Think of how the world would be without the contributions of Beethoven… or Edison… or Vint Cerf—the father of the internet.  They are all deaf and hard of hearing and they contributed something valuable to the world.”

    My own feelings were very mixed on this.  I spent the last twenty six years getting really comfortable with myself after going from hard of hearing to deaf.  In sharp contrast to the teen who hid every sign of hearing loss, the teen who became deaf at nineteen learned to embrace a whole new world that included American Sign Language.  My world truly opened up after becoming deaf and I saw the change as a blessing.  I learned to embrace the gift I was given.

    I asked Dr. Baumgartner about research on families like mine—five generations due to a mitochondrial gene. My daughter will pass this gene on to her children.  He explained that bone marrow trials may be promising.  “Your own bone marrow won’t work. If you use a different person’s blood, one without the genetic cause, another person’s bone marrow would allow the organ of corti to repair itself,” he said.

    Talking to Dr. Baumgartner on the phone using an interpreter and learning about the possibility of growing new hair cells—like I said, this brought on mixed feelings. On one hand, there was the excitement at the possibility of progress, of being able to restore hearing.  I thought of my siblings—I know each and every one of them would jump at the chance of being able to hear again.

    I asked my daughter how she felt.  “I want deaf kids,” she said. “It makes me kind of sad to think of the world without deaf and hard of hearing people in it.”

    Yes, deep inside of me, there was a bit of sadness.  I believe the world is a more vibrant, colorful place with the tapestry of deaf and hard of hearing people who have crossed my path over the years.  I cannot imagine a world without them.

    Karen Putz is a mom of three deaf and hard of hearing teens.  She blogs at www.deafmomworld.com and www.deafhhcareer.com.

    Families who are interested in participating in the clinical trial can obtain more information at:
    http://www.cordblood.com/hearingloss

  • Financial Peace University with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Folks

    Last night, Joe and I discovered something new about each other.

    I’m the “Free Spirit.” He’s the “Nerd.”

    I’m the “Spender.” He’s the “Saver.”

    And it was time to learn some Financial Peace about it all.  Six years ago, we had no debt other than our mortgage and a car payment. Then we moved two blocks down into a bigger house. Then we lost our entire investment in a flower shop. The property taxes nearly doubled and our savings account dwindled.Then one kid left home for college.

    Sounds like a bad country song, doesn’t it?

    Then… instead of taking up knitting or some sensible leisure activity, I rediscovered my passion for a very expensive sport and started flinging twenty-dollar bills at every driver who would pull me barefooting.

    Uh oh.

    We signed up for Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University at our church along with several other deaf and hard of hearing folks. Meghan Vozzolo generously provided the interpreting:

    Over in Minnesota, Adan and Emily Burke are leading a Deaf Financial Peace University class:

    And over in Minnesota, they’re starting them at a young age:

    If you’re deaf/hard of hearing and interested in joining a Financial Peace University class:

    Adan Burke (Minnesota): adan(at)burkeconnect.com

    Karen Putz (Naperville, IL): karen(at)karenputz.com

    It’s time to live like no one else, so you can live like no one else.

  • Skiing in the 2012 Barefoot Nationals

    The 2012 Barefoot Nationals were held in the same place as last year at the Barefoot Ski Ranch in Waco, Texas. Even the heat was the same as last year, hitting 108 on one of the days.

    Since the doctor was adamant about waiting the full nine months after ACL surgery, I took it really easy over the summer and didn’t do anything new. I was pretty much happy to be able to stand up and make it down the lake.  I stood up a little too fast on my trick run, but the nice crew granted me a re-ride. My brace flew off, so we headed back to the dock to tape it. It didn’t matter– the darn thing flew off twice on both falls, leaving me with bruises on my left leg and a black eye.  Slalom wasn’t much better– the first run was okay, but I fell on the second run.

    Back to the drawing board to learn how to barefoot all over again for next year.

    But the best part of the tournaments is not the skiing, it’s the people. I’ve met so many people who inspire me and push me to new heights. They’re accomplishing amazing things with their lives.  I took a moment to grab a photo with Jim Boyette, the world’s oldest barefoot competitor:

    Jim is amazing– he’s been to every single Nationals since the first one in 1978. You can read more about him here:

    World’s Oldest Competitive Barefooter

    Jim Boyette, Still Competing

    Keith St. Onge and I were interviewed by KWTX TV Channel Ten and we had the chance to talk about his upcoming book, “Gliding Soles,” which will be released in September.  Keith and I spent the last two years writing this book together and we uncovered some amazing stories from his life journey and the lessons he learned along the way.

    The print version of the interview is here (the video portion was removed):

    Deaf Skier Overcomes Adversity

    A big thank you goes out to Phonak and HearingLikeMe, the company who made it possible to compete in tournaments. Another thank you goes out to Anytime Fitness Naperville, Badger Balm (they supplied the sunscreen and lip balm) and Tommie Copper.

    Next up is Women’s Week at the World Barefoot Center, where I’m hoping to accomplish a back-to-front instead of a back-to-splat:

  • Mary Clark, Missing Her Smile

    a href=”/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120825-082817.jpg”>20120825-082817.jpg

    The first thing I noticed when I met Mary Clark 23 years ago was her smile. We were in one of those dull, never-ending meetings which involved advocacy of some sort for our jobs, but after exchanging introductions, I knew there was something special about this gal. She was a quiet, gentle soul who had a way of speaking up which made everyone take notice.

    We bonded over our journey of becoming deaf as adults and we got involved with many different organizations. Our paths often crossed at meetings. Mary helped birth the Association of Late-Deafened Adults (ALDA) and I lead the West Suburban Association of the Deaf.

    We ended up pregnant at the same time. I gave birth to my first; she to her third daughter. As we watched our babies playing on the floor of her house and I sat there in exhaustion, asking her how she kept it all together when I was falling apart with just one kid. She threw her head back and laughed. “There are some days I just take it minute by minute.”

    When her middle child became hard of hearing, we bonded yet again; this time, we worked together to start a parent organization, Illinois Hands & Voices. She wrote the first grant which gave us funds to run our first Mom’s Night Inn. She spoke at the event, sharing her journey with straightforward candor and openness.

    I always looked forward to our lunches together. She was the kind of friend I could pour out my deepest thoughts and I’d get back a perspective I hadn’t considered previously or she’d dish out some practical advice.

    Last October, we met for lunch and had one of our most profound conversations about life… and the shortness of it all. “I’ve been happy, I’ve been sad, I’m ok with it all,” she said.

    Mary’s way-too-short life ended yesterday at 11:30 pm. I’m sad. Actually, I’m heartbroken. I know many others are too. She touched a lot of lives.

    Her smile will remain forever in my mind.

    There’s a tradition at the ALDA-Con where we stand in a circle, arm-in-arm during the last song of the night.

    Did I ever tell you you’re my hero?
    And everything I would like to be
    I can fly higher than an eagle
    Because you are the wind beneath my wings.

    This year, there will be a gap in the circle. We will miss you, Mary. You’re the wind beneath our wings.

    Wake:
    Thursday Aug 30th from 4:00pm until 8:00pm
    Service at 7:00pm
    Dreschler, Brown and Williams Funeral Home
    203 S. Marion
    Oak Park, Il

  • Would You Trade Passion for Hearing?

    “I don’t know what it’s like to be deaf, but I do know what it’s like when something is important to a person,” a new friend wrote. “I have a question for you, if God or man came up with a solution to restore your hearing, and in exchange you had to give up barefooting, which would you take? I’d bet the farm that you’d take the deal.”

    To this new friend’s surprise, I’d take the barefooting over restored hearing.

    You see, I’ve been deaf so many years now it is just a part of me. I’ve long moved past the stage of grief and into living. That doesn’t mean I still go through periods of time when I get down about the communication difficulties and wish for hearing. I had a lot of moments like that yesterday when I struggled to understand the conversations flowing around me at the barefoot tournament.  But to give up a passion? No can do. Now if I could have both, that’d be a different story…

    This week’s guest post over at Lipreading Mom explores the topic of why going deaf became a blessing for me:

    Why Going Deaf Was a Blessing for Me

    Special thanks to Shanna Groves for sharing my story.

    How about you– would you give up your passion if it meant being able to hear?